This tutorial will show you how to create a graphic like the one below.



The tribal style stuff I posted in the gallery was done with Inkscape and Sean-Michael asked me to do a tutorial. I wasn't sure how well an Inkscape tutorial would go over on a Gimp forum. However, I got to thinking about it and wondered how doing "tribal" style artwork would work with the paths in Gimp.

The answer? Not bad! Especially if you want to make your design appear to "weave" the different elements together. In this respect, Gimp appears to be superior to Inkscape, despite what I feel is it's slightly cumbersome user interface with regard to paths. The only way I can see to do boolean functions on paths is to first convert them to selections and then back to paths.

Anyway, enough rambling... on to the tutorial.

This uses a 600 x 600 image size. Begin with a blank white image and add a transparent layer. Select your paths tool and draw a shape like the following image:



Once you have that, do path to selection and bucket fill with the color of your choice, tribal is usually black or sometimes red, but hey, we ain't doing a tattoo here, so you can do whatever you want!

Next step. Duplicate the layer three times. Then, use Layer>Transparency>Alpha to Selection. Then Select>Float. Move each duplicate around on its own individual layer until you get something that looks like this:



Now we are going to cut each individual element so that they appear to weave over and under the other two. To do this, select the layer that has the element labeled "1" and do Layer>Transparency>Alpha to Selection. Then do Select>Grow and grow it by 2 or three pixels. If you are planning to bump map the design with a blurred mask, I would suggest growing by maybe 5 pixels, since bump mapping with a blurred mask will tend to make things "run together".

The element numbered "1" is going to pass over element #2 below it, and under element #3. So now, with our grown selection, select the layer that has element #2 and do edit>cut. You will get something like this:



Now select the layer with element #3 and repeat the steps to select the object and grow the selection. Only this time, when we do our cut, it will be on the layer with element #1, to get this:



Now for the final step. Repeat the steps to select and grow the selection for element #2. Then select the layer with element #3 and cut. You should get this:



And that's all there is to it! Well, there is a cautionary note. Be careful as the antialiasing can sometimes mess up your selections when you are copying the original element. When doing this tute, I had one layer that had a sort of "shadow" outline from when I moved one of the elements into position. So you may want to check and make sure you don't have anything like that before you start doing your cuts.

This technique could be used to do more complex designs, it would just be a matter of breaking it up into more manageable chunks. I am not conversant enough with Gimp paths to tell you how to do this, but if it is possible to duplicate a path...and I think it is, then you could maybe design your object as "unwoven" then duplicate your paths and then edit a different version of each path for each layer. I shall have to experiment further to see how feasable this idea is.

Edit on 8-20-06:

When I wrote this tutorial, I wasn't all that familiar with the path tool. It would actually probably be better to make your path, then just duplicate it and move each path into position, then convert them to selections and follow the rest of the tutoral. You'd avoid the whole "black line around the selection" issue mentioned.

Too much ffort involved.
Very nice detailed tutorial. I have just added it to official tutorials becuase of its quality and level of ease.

Thanks ClayOgre for your contribution.

regards

Thankyou for sharing, this is a really good tutorial! My mind is allready spinin' :l:

Why, that's ingenious! Thanx for sharing!

The issue with getting a shadow when you move a filled selection happens when you fill a selection and move it immediately. You can get around this issue by getting rid of your selection after doing the fill and then moving the whole layer or part of the layer that you want to move.

Nice tutorial by the way. I'll have to try this techniqe out as I've never done similar things on more than two paths at the same time. I guess as you say you just have to keep your wits about yourself more as you add more components.

edit :: had a go with a curled little path shape. Will have to try the circular joining with a joined set like you have to make it even more complex looking....

Very cool now I can make my own design for my next Tatoo :l:

my outcomes for my first try




dont know why the things got choppy though ;-;

try applying just a touch of gaussian blur to your base object...1-2 pixels mebbe...

Eep....gaussian blur.

@Kytayle: It looks like the shapes you made with the path tool were right some times (the middle couple). Just make sure you use exactly the same procedure to make the rest and you won't get jaggies. You shouldn't get jaggies if all your selections come directly from paths and are filled straight away.

I figured out why it was choppy. when i did it, i kinda did it on a white BG, so i had to Color Pick it out, which made it choppy x.x

my try ^^ nice tut

edit..
another one..

Here is mine

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/daoo5/GIMP/Woven2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/daoo5/GIMP/Woven1.jpg

Great tutorial!

heh . . .

I have been doing this on paper for a while; now I can do them on the gimp!

Thanks clayogre for the nice tut!

wow cool!


thanks!!

Thanks for the tutorial! What a super-cool and easy idea!!!

Here's what I came up with

Wow!!
Cutting with selections!
Growing them first!
These are things new to me and so much fun, so easy!
Thanks a million for the tut!
Evacorges

Its really nice i'll try it!

looks good, but couldn't you also get a similar effect by using "stroke path" with a two or three pixel white stripe?
It might take many layers, but I think that could also work well for smaller art pieces.

This certainly helps with a GIMP vs Photoshop battle I'm particpating in. Thanks.

It takes quite a while, but the outcome is well worth it.

Stroke path...yes, but how do you make your path go over one element and under another? Ahh...I think I see..stroke the path on a different layer. Yes, that would work, might give you more control, too. I don't work with the path tool much in Gimp. Usually if I have to do a path, I use Inkscape, which I find easer to use for that purpose.

Stroke path would work, but only with a single colored background, or whatever color you stroke your path with. If you want to go against a multicolored background, I am thinking that my method is the way to go, but I could be wrong.

Ive been having issues with this, after I do the step layer>transparency>alpha to selection then select>float, the individual layers do not have transparent backgrounds and block each other.

Edit: i figured my problem out, ive been doing the path on the background layer instead of the transparent.

I'm not sure if this will work or not, but on the very bottom layer, try right-clicking and choosing "Add Alpha Channel" before you float the layer. If that's not available, I don't have any other suggestions at this point. Don't have access to GIMP at the moment.

Art