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Getting started with GIMP
http://arwen-undomiel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=10843		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Kess [ September 3rd, 2006, 1:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Getting started with GIMP
Quite a few people have been enquiring into this, so I thought I'd sort it out. Its a wee bit broken, I only started GIMP about a week ago, so I don't know everything, but this tutorial'll show you how to download, the basics, some cool effects and a little bit of animating. However you are warned, it is very long!! I've split it into 3 lessons on serparate posts, one is dowloading, one is a basic banner tutorial, the third is animating.
Downloading
Start of by going to http://www.gimp.org/, which will open the GIMP site. Downloading this program is completely free and legal, so don’t worry about it. Down the side there is a menu, click the one appropriate to your computer (in the black box with the pointy arrow :p )
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On is page click automated installer (near the top of the page). Then click download. A page will come up with a list of GIMP installers. Go down to GTK +2 Runtime installer and click “Select download mirror". You need this program to download the GIMP. Choose the download mirror appropriate to where you live and click the download button next to it. Make sure your computer is allowing popups, and one will appear. Choose save.
Now you need to open your documents. Search for the zipped file shown on the little print screen here and open it up.
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There will be one file in there, which you need to double click and select run. A load of stuff about downloading will come up, just agree to everything. Now, go back to the download page and select The GIMP for (insert your computer type here) Do exactly the same as you did last time, (I can’t be bothered to type it out again) but instead open the new file you’ve downloaded. And voila! Hopefully, the GIMP should be downloaded on to your computer!
(Phew.)
Author:  Elven Archer [ September 3rd, 2006, 1:22 pm ]
Post subject: 
Does it cost anything to download?

EDIT:Nevermind! :bounce:
Author:  Kess [ September 3rd, 2006, 2:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Basic banner making
A few basic stuff to get ready
This is how to make a banner like this:
While teaching you the very basics, applying textures, text and using the layer blending options.
Open up The GIMP, which will give you a little toolbar thingy by the side. Click
File>> New and set your image size to 700 by 150. A blank thingy will come up which is your blank canvas for making stuff.
You also need to open another layer by going to Dialouges>> Layers, which brings up this window.
Now you need to basic picture for your banner, I got a screencap from http://www.leavemethewhite.com/nioochti ... =15&pos=38 , pasted it onto my banner and rearranged it. Then you need to go back to the Layers window and click the wee anchor at the bottom, which will make you have one pic on the layers screen instead of two. I now have a background for my banner looking like this:
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Because the pic wasn’t very clear, I went to Layers>> Colours>> Brigtness and contrast, and mucked around a bit until it looked a bit better:
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Pics with higer contrast are a wee bit easier to work wih, otherwise they just kind of fade into the texture.
Now to jazz it up a little!
I went to Layers>> New, pressed OK, then pasted in this texture:
http://memento.im-pulse.org/images/text ... xture2.jpg.
On the layers screen click on the wee anchor again. (you have to do this everytime you paste something in, sucks doesn't it?) Now to make your banner look very cool. On the layers screen there is a drop down list which says "Normal" on it. I set it at "Soft light ", making my banner look like this:
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Pretty funky effect huh? You can fiddle about with the effects all you like, this is just an example. You can also muck about with the opacity, wihch will make the efect look less drastic. Burn is my favourite :P I did the same with this texture:
http://hybrid-genesis.net/free_textures ... acbg13.jpg
but put it to grain merge. I decided it didn't look right, so used the arrows at tghe bottom of the layers screen to put i behind mypretty rainbpw texture, giving me this:
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I do love glitter. But not too much of it, so I dulled it a bit with this texture:
http://hybrid-genesis.net/free_textures ... ure_46.jpg on soft light.
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Now, if theres one thing I like as much as glitter, it's butterflies. So I took this picture:
http://www.photo.net/general-comments/a ... -Brush.jpg
shrunk it a little (shift + T) and rotated it (shift + R). I also gave mr butterfly a smaller friend, cos he looked lonley, and stuck it on the city set to Burn. The problem with burn is it will not work well on somthing white or black.
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Finnaly I added some text, by click the T on the tool box, then where I wanted the text to be. I set the text to multiply:
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Finishing a very bad banner! But it gets the basics across. Theres no need to follow it exactly, it just shows you some cool effects I've discovered so far. Have fun!
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