Bama's GIMP Tutorial! WARNING 56K!

[Bama]

Hey guys- I know I promised this would be a long time ago, but I got busy and notepad was being a shithead. Anyway, here's a quick tutorial on how to make sigs with the GIMP. This tutorial assumes you know how to install fonts (Copy font file to C:WindowsFonts and restart gimp) Brushes (Copy .gbr files to C:Program FilesGIMP-2.0sharegimp2.0brushes), and somewhat competant with computers. Hopefully, while this tutorial won't teach you how to make the best sigs, it will help famliarize you with some of the tools used to make sigs.

Anyway, let me just start off by saying I have never taken steroids period.

Ok then, first off, you'll need a few resources. You'll need some good brushes. For this tutorial, we'll use Metal-CX's Heat Brushes for GIMP (Converted by fence-post). The link is HERE

STEP 1 - MAKING THE IMAGE

Open up the GIMP. Click File>New. Make an image with a width of 475 pixels and a height of 175 pixels. Under advanced options, make sure the resolution is 72pixels/inch, the colorspace is RGB, and the image is filled with white. Click OK.

STEP 2 - GETTING THE FOREGROUND (PLAYER) IMAGE

Let's get a player image. Because the player's not going to cover the whole signature, the width doesn't really matter. The height of the sig, however, is 125, so we want our cutout of the player to be that or bigger for best results. BIGGER PICTURES ARE BETTER! Pictures look worse when you resize them bigger, but look the same when you make them smaller. It's often tough to find hi-res images. Google Image Search and Flickr are good places to look, along with the MLB.com Player Photo Galleries. I like CBS Sportsline, however. And here's a trick (works most of the times)...if a picture's got the word 'lower' in the address, you can usually change the word 'lower' in the URL to '1024x768' to get a hi-res image.

For this tutorial, we're going to make a Jake Peavy sig with the following picture available HERE and HERE (NOTE, first is original hi-res image from signonsandiego.com. Second is a lower res (yet still hi-res) redirect to my photobucket)

Save that image to a place you will remember. We are about to cut it out.

STEP 3 - CUTTING OUT THE FOREGROUND IMAGE, RESIZING, AND ADDING

Most people I know try making sigs and quit when they can't get a good cutout. But the cutout is THE EASIEST PART. SERIOUSLY. So, let's get started. In the GIMP, open up the image of Peavy you just saved to your computer. Now, select the iScissors (intellegent Scissors) tool. The iScissors will ask you for a rough outline of what you want to cutout, and then match them up with major color changes to perfect your basic outline. So where are the iScissors? They're circled in blue on the top row on the right:

NOTE: HERE'S a more-detailed tutorial on this step.

For the scissors' cutting mode, select the second square from the left for 'Add to the current selection'. Select Anti-Aliasing and Feather Edges with a radius of 10.0. These will prevent your cutout from looking jagged. (Note, these can be found at the bottom of the tool kit panel...the one with all the tools on it)

Now let's take them to the Jake Peavy image.

First, pick an intersection that you will remember...I'm going to pick the intersection right under his left armpit (glove side). Click to add a new anchor point. Remember, click as close to the intersection as you can, and click outside of the section you want to add to your sig [do not hold down the button] (ie outside of Peavy). Now, click another point around Peavy. The more points you add, the better the cutout, but don't do too many, especially around parts where the line will be pretty straight. I'm going to add 4 more points, this is what I have so far:

Do you see the lines that the GIMP created between anchor points? Now what if the GIMP drew a line that isn't good? Easy. Just click that part of the line, and drag it to where it should be. Anyway, lets finish outlining it. When I get to the end of the outline, I am going to click the first anchor point i created (under the armpit) to tell the GIMP, i'm done. (You should see an arrow, and then a four-headed arrow when you pass over that first anchor point) This is what I got:

Now, what if your cutout sucks? Really badly and you want to start over? Just deselect the scissors. In your tool box, just select another tool and then reselect the scissors and then start over.

But anyways, now with your image surrounded, (meaning you clicked on that first anchor point again to signify you were done), click inside the cutout. The circles with solid lines should now change to what we'll call "Dancing Ants" (or "Ants Marching" for all you DMB fans). That means that what we want is now selected. But what if I wanna take a good look at what's selected before I copy it? Use the quickmask. In the bottom left hand corner of the window, there's a button to apply a quick mask. This tool will make it easy to see if you have a good cutout or not:

I'm not gonna lie. That is a great cutout. (NOTE the little red box in the bottom left hand corner, that button (though it may not have the little red box) is the quickmask button)

Anyway, now you can do 2 things with your picture. You can either save it to use next time (so you won't have to do the cutting again, or you can add it directly to your sig.

Either way, you're going to have to copy it. Use Ctrl+C or Edit>Copy to do this (make sure the ants are surrounding the image (quickmask must be off, use the same button to turn it off)).

NOTE: CUTOUT IS LOCATED HERE IF YOU WANT IT

IF...

...You plan on using this again, click File>New. The image size should randomly generate. In advanced Options, make sure fill with white is changed to fill with transparency. Click OK. You should have a canvas with black and grey checkers. That signifies a transparent layer. The checkerboard will change to whatever it is placed on. Now paste the image on there (Ctrl+V or Edit>Paste). This will paste your image as a new floating layer (more about that later). For now, just click Layer>Anchor Layer. Now save your image (as a .png preferrably).

...You just want to use this for your signature...

Select the 475x125 canvas of white and paste it on there (Ctrl+V or Edit>Paste) This is what you should see:

Take a look at the layers toolbox, especially the layers (circled in yellow) (NOTE: If you do not see this, make sure you have the layers tab selected, if its not, on that panel, click the small arrow pointing left, then select Add Tab, and finally the Layers Tab). Note that whenever you paste something, it adds it as a floating layer. We want to make this its own layer, so in the image window, with this floating layer selected, we'll select Layer>New Layer. This will fill the rest of the Peavy cutout layer with transparency.

[!]A NOTE ON WHY WE USE LAYERS[!]

Layers make images overlap. They allow for easier editing, especially major edits. ALWAYS make new layers. For example, what If i had Petco Field as a background, and then put some white patterns on it, but decided I didn't like it? If i didn't use layers, I would have to manually clone over every white pattern. But, If i used a layer, all I would have to do is delete the layer. I can't stress this enough IF IT'S A MAJOR CHANGE, USE A NEW LAYER.

Let's give the Peavy layer an appropriate name. Double click where it says 'Pasted Layer' and change it to 'Peavy Cutout' or something that you'll remember.

Now, let's scale the layer. Select the scale tool (Circled in lime-green on the picture with the toolkit above, 3rd row, second from left). With the Peavy Cutout layer selected, click on the cutout itself. This dialog box should pop up:

Let's change the layer size. We care about the width more than the height here. So change the width to something like...375 pixels. The height should automatically change, along with the picture on screen. Now click scale. This is what you should get:

We can move the layer around by dragging it with the Move tool. (4-Headed Arrow, circled in light blue, second from right on the second row)

STEP 4 - COLORING THE BACKGROUND

In the layers pallette, select the Background. We are going to make a Navy Blue background that fades to black at the left of the page.. So after selecting the layers, let's select colors. The foreground color and background color indicators are circled in red in the above picture of the toolkit. The black is good, but let's change the white to navy. Double click the white. This dialog box should pop up:

You can drag around all the sliders and stuff to find the navy blue or color you like. Or, you can enter a color's code into the HTML notation box. I am using 12155f. If you want to use that, type it into the HTML box, otherwise, select your color and click ok.

Finally, we are going to apply the gradient. With the background layer selected, select the gradient tool (5th row, 2nd column, circled in ugly brownish green thing...) Select FG to BG (RGB) [the box with the colors temselves at the bottom of the toolbox], Dithering, no repeats, a linear shape, normal mode, and 0.0 offset. Now, on your image, drag a line any which way you like until you think you have it perfect. (Left to right for me) This is what I got:

STEP 5 - BRUSHES, BACKGROUND, TEXT, AND BORDER

Now let's do some brushing. I brush in almost exclusively white. So change one of the selected colors to white. Make it the foreground color (use the arrows next to it if you have to switch them). Now let's make a new layer for brushing. Click Layer>New Layer and set it up like this:

Now select the paintbrush tool in the toolkit (4th row, 4th column, circled in yellow). Now, on the bottom of the toolkit, select the brush you want to use. For simplicity, I am going to use only 1 brush on this layer, MetalCXHEAT-8. Click all over your image to brush on it. Use Edit>Undo (Ctrl+Z) to undo a brush stroke. If you can't access where you want to brush on, maximize the image and you will be able to. This is what mine looked like:

Now lower the layer opacity (use the slider over the layers toolbox) to about 70.0. This will make the image a bit more transparent.

But I want the background to be darker, that way the new layer of Brushing and Peavy will stick out more...So first, create a new layer (Layer>New Layer, name it Black 1) now, select Black as the foreground color. Click the paint bucket tool and now dump the black on the image. If you have it right, you should see Peavy on top of only black. Now, all you have to do is go to the layers toolbox and set the mode to Overlay. This is what I got:

Just a few things left to do. First, I'm going to add the Padres word mark, then add some brushing. Then, I'm going to addsome text and then a border.

So let's add the Padres wordmark now. Get it HERE

Save it and open it. Convert it to RGB Color by clicking Image>Mode>RGB. Now, in the toolbox, select the eraser tool (it looks like a pink eraser) and select a circle 07 brush. Erase the TM. Now, let's turn the white transparent. Click Layer>Transparency>Color to Alpha. Make the Alpha Color White. Click OK. This is what you should get:

Now, let's copy it into our Peavy sig. First, select it (Padres Logo) all by clicking Select>All. Then Copy it. Now, go to your Peavy Sig and Paste it in there. Create a New Layer to prevent the logo from floating. This is what you should get:

That looks stupid. The logo should be under Peavy. In the layers toolbox, drag it below the black layer (you should probably change its name too). Now, resize it to a width of 362. Use the move tool to line up the layer so it's a little under the Peavy cutout but so the words are visible. Now, change the layer mode to Grain Extract and the opacity to 80. This is what I got:

Time for more brushing. Make white your foreground color and create a new layer that's filled with transparency. Reorder this layer in the layers toolbox so that it is above the black layer but below the Peavy Layer.

Now, get out your paintbrush again, set the foreground color to white, and select MetalCXHEAT-8. Brush on your image and set the layer opacity to 50 when you're done. This is how my screen looks and what i got:

Now, let's add some text. Text is very hard, and good fonts are hard to find. I've got to do some homework, so I'm going to hurry through these last couple of steps. In the Layers Toolbox, select the 2nd bruhsing layer. In the toolbox, select the Text Tool (looks like a T). Select Arial Bold and a size of 16. Now type PEAVY. It should appear in white. Click OK when you're done and use the move tool to move it where you want. Set the layer opacity to 50%. Feel free to play around with the font alot to get it right. This is what I got:

Ok, let's finish this up. Select the top most layer. Create a New Layer (Layer>New Layer). Make this layer Transparent. Click OK. Now, change the foreground color to black. Click Select>All. Click Edit>Stroke Selection. Make the stroke a 3 point line. Click Ok, Congrats you're done!

LAST STEP - SAVING

If you plan on working on this image again, select File>Save As and save it as an .xcf. If you plan on displaying this, click Image>Flatten image. Now, save it as either a .GIF, .JPG, .JPEG, or .PNG <--recommended.

This is my final result:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial C & C is welcome and appreciated! Feel free to ask questions below. please let me know if this helped you at all. Thanks for reading!

[ChicagoCubs720]

this is great!!! are you thinking of making a clone tool tutorial? This would be very helpful for cyberface makers! If you do, you can use my Adam Wainwright face as an example.

[Bama]

Yea, i'm sorry I keep neglecting your request. When I get the time, it will be the first thing I do.

[ChicagoCubs720]

Yea, i'm sorry I keep neglecting your request. When I get the time, it will be the first thing I do.

no sweat, just take your time.

[GEOLINK]

thxs

[Dom2662]

Great tut Bama! It helped me with some stuff and it will help alot of others.

[abc006]

thanks alot for this great tut, it's really helped me on alot of stuff. However, I just have one question...

How do you "shrink" an image, so it's not as small? I have a sig, and i'm trying to get a logo on it, but it's way too big, so i'd like to shrink it. thanks for all help in advance!

[Dom2662]

Go here for smaller logos:

http://www.sportslogos.net/index.php

[Bama]

Go here for smaller logos

http//www.sportslogos.net/index.php

see the scaling section...it's around the top, there's a pic with the dialog box.

[Tigers94]

thanks Bama,I thoguht I would already know everything, but I was wrong!

[Bama]

thanks Bama,I thoguht I would already know everything, but I was wrong!

Thanks, there's always room to learn, for everyone...

Question, did this live up to your expectations? What do I need to improve?

[Dom2662]

Nothing. It looks great! Maybee though we could have a thread sticky of Tutorials for Gimp and Photoshop. If someone could ask Trues or Y4L about this it will be great!

[Tigers94]

Thanks, there's always room to learn, for everyone...

Question, did this live up to your expectations? What do I need to improve?

This was was better than my expectations. And everything's great!

[Tigers94]

This is my result, not the pic you used, and like for the part where you filled the bg black, I did red, but this tut rocks!

[Bama]

Just a heads up...i'll be posting some sort of a supplement to this tutorial soon (probably within a week or so, time permitting) if there's anyone still interested. Topics will probably include:

-Cutting out an image, part 2

-Playing with filters

-Cloning

-Smudging

-Colors

-Backgrounds

-Patterns

Like i said, let me know if you're interested.

[Campo09]

Great Job Bama, Very thorough, This is going to be very helpfull for me.

[Tigers94]

I am very interested in every one of those things!Thanks Bama!