ESPN-like Game Promo Graphic

ESPN-like Game Promo Graphic

Stencil on Wood Background

Stencil on Wood

Reveal the Color of a Selected Object in an Image

Reveal the Color of a Selected Object in an Image

Carve the Text

In this quick, fairly simple GIMP project, you will create the effect of text having been carved into a textured surface using layers.

Some techniques you will use in this project:

Layers

Text layers

Merging layers

Selection by color

Alpha channels

Noise generator

Gaussian blur

Open a texture image as the Background layer. I used a marble texture that I downloaded from Image*Afterhere. Select the Text Tool and create a text layer with your desired text and center it. Use a bigger, bolder font. I chose Futura Ultra-Bold Condensed, 196 pt.

Create a new empty layer, Layer > New Layer…, name it Gray. Use the Bucket Fill Tool to fill it with a medium grayish-pink color. Drag it under the Background layer in the Layers pallet.

With the Text layer active, make a selection of the text. Use the Select by Color Tool and click on the text.

Hide the Text layer by unchecking its ‘eye’ icon in the Layers pallet. Select the Background layer and add transparency to it, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Clear the selection, Edit > Clear. The Gray layer should now be showing through the text.

Add a new layer, named Black. Invert the selection, Edit > Invert Selection. Reset the color swatches to their defaults, and fill the Black layer with black, Edit > Fill with FG Color.

Duplicate the Black layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer. Name the copy White. Fill the White layer with default white, Edit > Fill with BG Color.

Deselect all, Select > None.
With the White layer selected, choose the Move Tool, slide the White layer up slightly, one or two pixels.
Do the same with the Black layer, except move it straight down. (Note: I have exaggerated this a bit for clarity.)
Select whichever of the Black layer or the White layer is on top, then merge them together into one layer, Layer > Merge Down. Name the merged layer Shadow.

Apply a slight Gaussian blur with a radius of about 3.5 pixels to the Shadow layer, Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur… . Drag the Shadow layer between the Background layer and the Gray layer.

Finally, add a little texture to the carved surface within the letters.
Select the Gray layer. Add some noise, Filters > Noise > Noise Generator. In the  dialog, click the Poisson tab, 1 Photon, Luminance noise only is checked, Gamma correction is not checked.

Apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 2 pixels.

To extend the project, you might like to use the original textured background instead of the Gray layer. Make some slight brightness adjustments and apply a little blur.

Happy Holidays!!! A Text Project

In this GIMP project, you will use layers, strokes, and several other techniques to create a festive holiday text effect.

 

 

Resources you can download:

Background texture | Text fill texture | Bow

 

Open the background texture image as the Background layer.

 

 

Select the Text Tool and create a Text layer using a big, bold font. I used Futura Ultra-Bold Condensed, 196 point. Set the size of the Text layer to the size of the image, Layer > Layer to Image Size.

 

 

With the Rectangle Select Tool, make a selection on a vertical section of a letter.

 

 

Create a new layer, Ribbon. Select the Blend Tool and fill the rectangular selection with the preset Golden gradient.

 

 

Create another new layer, Ribbon edge. Apply a 1 pixel stroke to this selection, Edit > Stroke Selection…, Stroke line, Solid color. Deselect, Select > None. 

 

 

Select the upper of the two ribbon layers and merge them together, Layer > Merge Down.

 

Make the Text layer active and select the text by clicking anywhere on the black text with the Select by Color Tool. Invert the selection, Select > Invert. Now, with the Ribbon layer active, clear the part of the ribbon that lies outside the text, Edit > Clear.

 

 

You can now hide the Text layer by clicking the 'eye' icon in the Layers pallet.

Open the red damask image as a new layer, File > Open as Layers..., name it Damask. In the Layers pallet, drag the Damask layer between the Text and Ribbon layers. Add transparency to the Damask layer, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Clear the selection to remove the part of the Damask layer outside the text.

 

 

Invert the selection again so that you can paint a thin border around the text. Create a new layer, Text edge. Use the Color Picker Tool to choose a color from the middle of the gold ribbon (the Ribbon layer must be active). Select the Text edge layer, and from the Edit menu, choose Stroke Selection…, Stroke line, Solid color.  The width should be about 3 pixels. Deselect.

 

 

Open the gold bow image as a new layer and place it on top of all the others. Name it Bow.

 

 

You now need to shrink the bow down a lot. Choose the Scale Tool, grab a corner handle of the bounding box, and appropriately size the bow. Expand the Bow layer to the image size, Layer > Layer to Image Size. 

 

Make a selection from the Bow layer. With the Fuzzy Select Tool, click outside the bow, then invert the selection. You might want to zoom in to do this more easily.

 

Create a new layer, Bow shadow. Set the color swatches back to default colors and fill the selection on the Bow shadow layer with default black. Deselect. Apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of 2 pixels, Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur… .

 

 

With the Move Tool, slide the Bow shadow layer a bit down and right. Drag the Bow shadow layer under the Bow layer. Merge the Bow layer down onto the Bow shadow layer.

 

 

Duplicate the Bow shadow layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer, and position the bows where you like.

 

 

You might want to add a horizontal ribbon, use bows of various colors, or different textures. Happy holidays!

Ghost in the Forest

By following the steps in this GIMP project you will see how to use layer blending modes and a variety of tools to create the effect of a ghost appearing in the forest.

Some of the concepts used in this project:

• Adding an alpha channel
• Desaturating an image
• Cropping to a fixed aspect ratio
• Using the Fuzzy select tool
• Opening an image as a new layer
• Using Layer masks
• Using Layer modes
• Selecting using transparency (Alpha to selection)
• Stroking a selection

I used this image of a lady from stock.xchng as the basis for the ghost. The first step is to eliminate all the white background around the lady and replace it with transparency. Begin by using the Crop Tool to eliminate most of the background area.

Add transparency to the image, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Pick the Fuzzy Select Tool and click and drag forward in the background. This will select most of the white background without selecting anything within the lady herself. (You might want to use Quick Mask mode to be certain that no part of the lady is selected and to clean up your selection if necessary.)
Feather the selection about 5 pixels, Select > Feather... . Clear the selection, Edit > Clear.

Deselect, Select > None. Zoom in on the lady and use the Eraser Tool to manually clean up any remains of the white background around the edges of the lady.

Convert the lady to a black-and-white image, Colors > Desaturate... with Luminosity selected in the dialog. Select Brightness-Contrast... in the Colors menu. Slide the Brightness down to about -50 and the Saturation up to about 30 to give the image a darker appearance.

Now, fade out the lower part of her body. Add a white layer mask, Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask... . With the Blend Tool, drag a FG-to-BG gradient (default colors) vertically from the bottom of the image to about the level of her waist.

Finally, scale the image to a height of about 850 pixels, Image > Scale Image... . Save and close the image of the lady.

Moving on to the forest image. As the source for the forest, I used this image, also from stock.xchng. The first step is to crop out a portion of the image with the Crop Tool, in the Tool Options, select Fixed Aspect Ratio of 5:8.
Resize the resulting image to a height of 1200 pixels, Image > Scale Image... .  

Open the previously saved image of the ghost lady as a new layer in the forest image, File > Open as Layers... .  Make sure the image and not the mask is active in the ghost lady layer. Use the Move Tool to position the lady where you like. Set the Layer Mode to Overlay in the Layers pallet. Reduce the Opacity to about 60%.

Duplicate the ghost lady layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer. Set the Layer Mode to Grain Merge and reduce the Opacity to about 25%. Apply a Gaussian blur with a Radius of 10 to the ghost lady copy layer, Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur....

Add a soft glow around the ghost. Again, open the saved image of the ghost lady as a new layer. Rename this layer as glow. Delete the layer mask, Layer > Mask > Delete Layer Mask. Temporarily hide all the other layers by clicking the “eye” icon for each.

Now, to paint a white border around the lady. Select the image of the lady, Layer > Transparency > Alpha to Selection. Swap the default colors. Now stroke the selection, Edit > Stroke Selection..., Line width: 10 px. Clear the selection. Deselect.

Apply a Gaussian blur of 20 px. Unhide the other layers and use the Move Tool to position the glow layer around the ghost.

Swap the default colors back to black FG and white BG. Add a mask to this layer and fade it exactly as you did to the ghost lady layer earlier.

Experiment with various settings as you try out this lesson. Changing just a few things can dramatically affect the results you get. I hope you have fun playing around with this project.

Reflections

In this GIMP tutorial you will learn how to place a reflected scene in the mirrored lenses of a girl's sunglasses. This method can be adapted to inset any picture within another picture.

Some of the things you will do in this lesson:

• Duplicate a layer
• Flip an image
• Use the Fuzzy Select tool
• Add an alpha channel
• Scale a layer
• Use a layer mask

You'll need two source images, one of someone wearing sunglasses (best if the subject is looking directly at the camera) and another of the scene you want to reflect in the lenses. Use images of your own or download the ones I used:

Girl in sunglasses by Tanel Teemusk | London bus by Paulo Oliveira Santos

• Begin by opening and preparing the picture of the bus.

Crop the image to include only the essential parts of the picture which you want to appear in the reflection. The proportions of the cropped image should approximate those of the sunglasses' lenses. I cropped to a fixed aspect ratio of 1:1. Because the picture is going to be a reflection, you will need to flip the image horizontally, Image > Transform > Flip Horizontally.

• Now open and prepare the girl in the sunglasses.

Duplicate the Background layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer. Create a new layer, Black, filled with the foreground color, black, and drag it directly under the Background copy layer.

Working on the Background copy layer, you will now select the lens area of the glasses with the Fuzzy Select Tool in "Add to the current selection" mode.

See this in a video

Use Quick Mask (press Shift+Q to toggle Quick Mask) and a soft brush to clean up the selection if necessary.

Feather the selection by about 10 pixels, Select > Feather… . Add transparency to the layer, Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Delete the selection, Edit > Clear. Deselect. The lenses should now appear to be filled with solid black, though what you are actually seeing is the Black layer showing through.

• The next task is to fill each lens with the bus picture.

Select all the bus image, Select > All, and then copy it, Edit > Copy. Make the picture of the girl active and paste the copied bus picture as a new layer, Edit > Paste as > New Layer. It will appear as a new layer in the Layers pallet, name it Bus right.

Scale the picture of the bus, Layer > Scale Layer…, to be a little larger than one lens of the sunglasses. In my example, I scaled to 165x165 pixels. With the Move Tool position the bus over the right lens. Now, in the Layers pallet, drag the Bus right layer under the Background copy layer. Adjust the position of the Bus right layer to fill the right lens of the glasses.

Duplicate the Bus right layer, Layer > Duplicate Layer, name it Bus left. Position this layer under the Background copy layer so it fills the left lens of the glasses.

• Now to add a bit of shadow at the bottoms of the lenses.

Select the Bus left layer and add a layer mask to it, Layer > Mask > Add Layer Mask…, initialized to White.

Choose the Blend Tool with a black-to-white gradient selected in the Tool options pallet. Drag a gradient up from the bottom of the Bus left layer to about 1/5 of the lens to add a bit of dark shading to the lower part of the lens. Repeat this for the right lens of the sunglasses.

That's it! You might extend the project by brightening the tops of the lenses in a manner similar to that used to darken the bottoms.