NOTE: THIS TUTORIAL IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS. IT HAS GAP USE, AND REQUIRES A FAIRLY COMFORTABLE
KNOWLEDGE OF FILTERS AND LAYERS IN GIMP.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to make a neat animated sig like this:



This tutorial differs from most "video sig" tutorials in that it does not contain an actual

video persay. instead, it makes a static image look like it is being viewed through a crappy

ten year old CRT monitor.

anyhow, the first step is to get an image that would look good seen through a crappy monitor.

don't just pick a random image! it's got to fit the theme of being seen through a monitor!

so...that means stuff like: a picture of space or the earth (a pic of teh Hubble would be

1337!)

also, you might want to try a scene that looks like it was shot by a security camera.

perhaps a waiting room or something like that.

even wildlife scenes can look good. the key thing is, you want your picture to NOT have

motion in it. ideally, your picture should show a non-moving subject. after all, it's those

people at rest that don't know they're being watched, eh? go ahead and use that photo of

that guy drinking coffee and obliviously reading the paper. :3

i started out with a sig i made that has a rather spacey feel. perhaps floating in the

vacuum...



now, the first thing to do is make it look more like a monitor. so i went and added

scanlines to it. the horizontal ones have the best effect.


now, i went to select > ALL, then Select > rounded rectangle. i adjusted it to about 35.

then i saved that selection to a Path. then i inverted the selection and cut it to remove

the corners.

after that, i went to paths, found the rounded rectangle one, and ran a 2-3 pixel stroke on

it for a border.

i ended up with this:



so, i flatten that image, and save it as Basic BG.xcf

then, i save it again as background pic_000001.xcf

now it's ready to be opened in GAP.

make a new folder wherever you want, name it "video animation scanline effects". move the
background pic_000001.xcf to that folder. now, open a new image, the same size as your BG.

delete the default layer, and make a new transparent layer. drag a straight path across the

top of the layer. stroke it with white at 2-3 pixels, and then give it a slight guassian

blur. set it on Grain Merge. you won't see any effect, but it's for later. save
this picture as "line.xcf" in the same "video animation scanline effects" folder.

now, open background pic_000001.xcf

go to Video > Duplicate Frames. set it to 20.



now open "line.xcf".

go back to background pic_000001.xcf

go to Video > Move path

make sure your settings look like this:



we'll be doing a very simple translate animation.

so, follow the direction in the picture below:



now, click OK. go back to background pic_000001.xcf, and go to Video > Frames to Image. a

dialog window will pop up. leave all of the settings alone and click OK. a new image will

appear, with 20 or so layers. save this image as "basis.xcf"

it will serve as the foundation for the rest of your animation.

that was the "hard" part of the tutorial. the rest should be fairly elementary.

now, remember that file, "Basic BG.xcf"

open it up. (you can close background pic_000001.xcf and line.xcf)

copy the image, and paste it into a new layer in your basis.xcf file.

duplicate it about 10 times.

move half the layers to the top of the stack, and the rest to the bottom, so your file

should be like this:

5 layers
20 layers of line movement
5 layers

so, starting from the bottom, go to the second layer in the layers window. right click and

choose Alpha to selection. then run a gaussian blur on it at about 10.



leaving the selection in place, move to the fourth layer, and run a motion blur on it at 90

degrees vertical, intensity about 6.



that's pretty good for now. move to the top layer, and working from the first layer that

doesn't have the moving line in it, run a black to transparent radial gradient on the layer.
remember to keep your Alpha to selection, or you'll fill the rounded corners!



do it again, on the layer above it. but this time, make sure that the visible spot in the

middle is smaller.



now, switch to the third-from-top layer, and change the gradient from radial to linear. do

two gradients, leaving a small horizontal part visible.



now, while that looks good, it could be more realistic. so on each layer that you just

worked on, use the Iwarp shrink tool to shrink the center of each layer.





now, use the Iwarp Move tool on the small circular layer and move the four corners out like

this:



nearly done! select the second to top layer, and fill it completely with black. remember

to keep your Alpha to selection, or you'll fill the rounded corners!

make a new layer. fill it with black. run a noise > Scatter RGB on it, and then Layers >

Colors > Desaturate. repeat four times.



on the top layer, which should be unmodified, run a guassian blur at about 7.



now you've got all your layers!

it's time to adjust their timing. to do that, right-click on the layer in question and

choose "edit layer attributes". then type in the time in millisecond that the layer should

last for. (2000ms) = 2 seconds

starting from the bottom:

layers 1-4 should be at (100ms), which is the default layer duration.

the fifth layer should be around (4000ms).

now move to the top of the layers

the layers with concentric black moving in should be (40ms) each. the fully black layer can

stay for (100ms), but each of the noise layers should be (50ms).

the last layer can be at the default duration.


congrats! you've finished the sig! save it, optimize it, convert it to indexed, and then

save it as a gif.

i can't wait to see your results!

Wow, this looks awesome, im going to have to install GAP and give it a try!

Sweet tut man ,, i try it but i dont got gap and it looks to complicated for me lol :w:

SWEET!!! Im soo going to get GAP and try this thanks man

Very nice tutorial, chb! Looks well written and straightforward. I'll give this a try when I get the opportunity.

Art

this tut is so cool.

thanx man!! :w:

heres my result

Here is my outcome thanks Curly

buket, yours looks fantabulous!

great choice of picture!

do you mind if i post your results of this tut on another forum? it'd make a great example, and i'd credit you, of course.

Wow...just wow. Curly, if you arent a GIMP master, I dont know who is.

well, if any moderator wants to move this into the Official tutorials area, feel free to do so. :w:

^^^^ ya it definetly should

feel free

I have to make a banner for a challenge on another forum, so I can't do this yet. But I'm definitely going to try it out! I'll post my result when I make it. :w:

Loved it so much here is another feel free to post as another outcome

I have an idea :h:. I'm going to try and make it move around as if someone was holding the camera. I'll try it in a couple days, too lazy now and won't be on computer tomorrow.

In that second one I wanted to put blood on the screen as the bar came down

i'm glad you all like the tutorial!

buket, another great sig. :h:

Where can I install Gap at? I can't seem to find it.

here.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=167927

the windows GAP DL.

Neat tutorial man.

I love your tutorials Curly! Here's my outcome (just used a cropped image I had lying around)

For some reason most of the images are not loading for me... I see the very first ones at the top but everything from "go to Video > Duplicate Frames. set it to 20." down doesn't show for me... hmmm

Majorly pissed. I spent forever doing this only to realize at the end that the scanning line thingy didn't work. So damn pissed ugh!!!!!

really good tut man, i would have my result by now but im too lazy to do any tut's that are not in a whole pic form. but i will try. i will have my reuslt tommarow

did you double check the 20 layer visability? for some reason mine were all invisable...you're one of the resident gimp masters so doubt thats it...but doesnt hurt to look :l: