# Simple GIMP Tutorial



## Marcel (Jun 8, 2010)

Hi Jan (and for all others interested),

Here a small tutorial making a simple sig from your Lightning pictures. We're going to make the lightning fly through a hole in a paper. I once did this with Paintshop for my former siggy and this is the simple version with GIMP.
GIMP is a freeware Picture editor, comparable to Photoshop and Paintshop. It is actually better thain Paintshop and almost as powerfull as Photoshop. You can download it here.

Note: I use a Dutch version of Linux and thus a Dutch version of GIMP. The names of the menu's etc. might be different than my poor translation.:

1. Find a nice picture of a hole in a paper, preferably as big as possible and open it in GIMP. I found one here: (Note that I found one which was already transparent in the middle)






2. resize (Scale the picture, so it is as high as the picture of the Lightning (in this case 425 pixels hight





3. Now match the width of the Lightning (optional) by enlarging the Canvas





4. Open the picture of the Lightning in GIMP, and copy it (select copy in the menu or pres ctrl+c). Then paste it as a layer in the first picture. In the layer window, drag the layer with the plane below the one with the hole. You could make the hole transparent, in my case it already was, so you can see through the hole.





5. Now we have to make the front of the aircraft point through the hole. We can do this by using the 'mask' technique. But first make the top layer (with hole) a little transparant by setting the opacy lower. Now you can see what you're doing.





To be continued....


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## Marcel (Jun 8, 2010)

6. Now select the top layer and add a mask to it (In layers->Mask). There doesn't seem to happen anything. The mask must be 'white' which means that the connecting layer is non-transparent. The fun part is that the layer will become transparent were-ever you paint the mask black. Be sure you select the mask first before painting black, or else you would paint the real layer black and you dont want to do that  So what you do now is select the mask (right to the top-layer), use the pen-tool, set the foreground-color to black and paint every part that has to be in front of the paper black. Here I use the magic-selection tool to help me stay within lines.




And finished the mask painting:





7. Time for your name. Select the letter 'A' in the toolbox, select a font you like and click anywhere in the picture (you can drag it elsewhere later). Type the text you want (Luck13)





8. Add a little shadow with the shadow-filter:





9. Crop the picture to get rid of unnecessary free space around the picture.





And......


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## Marcel (Jun 8, 2010)

Almost done. First resize it to Forum's regulations (200 pixels high and safe it as a jpg-file.
You're done:





Ah well, it's a little small perhaps. Maybe you could do better?

Well Jan, now you can't say you cannot make a siggy yourself .


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## mudpuppy (Jun 8, 2010)

Very good tutorial....I think.  Step 6 in your post #2 looks like it may be the most complicated. I'm a total noob at this so it ought to be fun.
Thanks
Derek


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## Wurger (Jun 8, 2010)

Well done Marcel.


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## Lucky13 (Jun 10, 2010)

Nice work mate, cheers! Will try again this weekend....


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## Thorlifter (Jun 10, 2010)

Nice work with Gimp Marcel. I really like that program, but since I have free access to Photoshop, I use it more.


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## Marcel (Jun 10, 2010)

Thorlifter said:


> Nice work with Gimp Marcel. I really like that program, but since I have free access to Photoshop, I use it more.



Thanks, I use Linux instead of Windows since a year or so. So I had to move to GIMP. I was surprised how powerful it was. Definately better then Correl Paintshop Pro, which costs around 70 euros. And this is free, unbelievable.


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## Thorlifter (Jun 10, 2010)

yeah, that's the amazing part.....being open source and free.

Just FYI, but there is an open source version of MicroSoft Office that is free.

OpenOffice Download


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## Marcel (Jun 11, 2010)

I know, it usually comes standard with most Linux versions (at least mine). It's even compatible with MS, apart from VBA macro's. That's the nice part of Linux. It's not only an OS, but comes standard with all the software you'll need.


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## Lucky13 (Aug 8, 2010)

Need to see if I can get this to work, thanks again Marcel.....


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## vikingBerserker (Aug 8, 2010)

Wow, wished I had noticed this several months ago. Thanks Marcel!


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## Marcel (Aug 9, 2010)

My pleasure. I'm planning on a 3D tutorial with GIMP like in my older siggy below. Stay tuned...


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## Lucky13 (Aug 9, 2010)

Pain in the neck finding suitable framing for the siggy...!


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## Marcel (Aug 9, 2010)

If you need help, Jan, just ask, always willing to help. Best in your own thread, so as not to hijack this thread.


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## Lucky13 (Aug 9, 2010)

Of course Marcel, don't you worry about that.  Just trying to find suitable 'framing' to work from....

....and thanks, I'm gonna need all the help I can get!


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## vikingBerserker (Aug 9, 2010)

Nice Marcel! I love the Fokker T.5!


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## Marcel (Aug 10, 2010)

vikingBerserker said:


> Nice Marcel! I love the Fokker T.5!



Thanks, it was one of my earlier siggies.


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## Njaco (Aug 10, 2010)

Marcel, do you mind if I add to this? Such as resizing pics and another way of working with layers, fonts, etc?


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## Marcel (Aug 11, 2010)

Njaco said:


> Marcel, do you mind if I add to this? Such as resizing pics and another way of working with layers, fonts, etc?



Please do. The more info, the better.


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## Njaco (Aug 11, 2010)

Great. You will be the expert and I'll just do the idiots guide to GIMP! 

First, a simple way to re-size pics, probably the most requested use of GIMP here on the forum.


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## Njaco (Aug 11, 2010)

This is how I usually start to make a siggy with GIMP. Again, remember, this may not be the correct, professional way to do things but this is easy for me. I have no clue about layers. I have no clue about masks. I just go with the flow!


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## Njaco (Aug 11, 2010)

.


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## B-17engineer (Aug 11, 2010)

Appreciate it Chris, very helpful!


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## Marcel (Aug 12, 2010)

Okay, so here's the deal with layers and masks. To enhance Njaco's idea, we'll make a sopwich pup chase the Fokker Dr.1 in the same siggy.
- First, create a new image like NJACO did in post #22. But this time make it bigger, to be able to play a little (say 1400x812)
- open both files of the pup and the DR.1:





- Copy and paste both pictures as layers in the new pic, like NJACO described in post #22





- Make sure the Dr1 is in the front, after all it's bigger than the pic of the pub. If they are the wrong way around, you can change this in the layer window by dragging the layer with the dr.1 up, leaving it above the pup





- Now change the transparency of the DR.1 a little bit by selecting the layer and using the slider in the layer-window.





- You can now change the position of the pup by selecting the drag-tool in the toolbox. Select the layer with the pub and drag it where you like it. You can see the transparency comes in handy. The drag-tool looks like this:


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## Marcel (Aug 12, 2010)

- extend both layers to the size of the pic. You can do that in the meny layers. First select the DR.1-layer. Then select in the menu layers->Layer to image size. Do the same with the pup. Fil the parts in the DR.1-layer not covered by the photo blue, like NJACO did previously.

- now add a mask-layer to the DR.1: select the layer with the Dr.1. Select in the menu layers->mask->add mask-layer. You get a new window and select the upper option (white).





-Select the mask-layer. You can do that in the layer-window. It's located next to the layer with the DR.1.





- The most difficult part: Make the DR.1 100% transparent (slider totally left). Now select the layer with pup. Select the magic want. Keep on clicking on the air until you have selected it all. It requires a little practice. You can play with the threshold Higher settings will select more colours (less selective). You'll have to do it to understand. You can use the add icon and the distract icon of the magic want to add or remove selections. Keep on going until all air and no pup is selected: 





- Now inverse the selection in the selection-menu. Select the DR.1 and set the transparantie off. Select the mask-layer of the DR.1. Use the bucket tool tool and paint the whole selection black. You now have a pup in front of the DR.1.





-no de-select all in the selection menu.

- now try to select the sky in the DR.1 layer, like you did in the pup. Make sure you have selected the real DR.1 layer, not the mask!. When finished, inverse the selection like you did before with the pup. Select the mask-layer again and Use the pen-tool en paint the selection black.
Now you have a DR.1 with a pub on his six 





Note that I used the crop-tool to remove the unwanted borders of the picture. This was quickly done, so the Fokker is a little rough around the edges, but you get the idea 
I guess you can make your own siggy from it by looking at Njaco's tutorial.


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## KevinK. (Nov 18, 2010)

Nice, I've got GIMP, but not played with it much yet. Thanks Marcel! I can always use more tutorials!


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## Marcel (Nov 22, 2010)

No problem, just ask.


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## Marcel (Nov 26, 2015)

The GIMP is 20 years old today. If you want to make a siggy or edit your photos while not paying too much $$$ on Adobe and still stay legal, this is the program you need. It's a direct competitor to Adobe Photoshop while being Open Source and free (as in both 'beer' and freedom). Most professionals will tell you that it's not up to the job and Photoshop is much better, but they are only trying to convince themselves that those hundreds of dollars were not in vain. GIMP almost has the same functionality as Photoshop and is usually good enough even for (semi)professionals.
Well, here is to GIMP an to hopefully many years more

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