Hello. This is my first tut. so it may be a little bad.

Today we will be making something like the following...



(Note: This tut. does not include GAP at all. Many of you may think it will take a while but it won't.)
(Another Note: Please read the whole step first and then do the step. You won't get confused :w:)
(Final Note: This tut. has been fairly detailed so that beginners can understand it a bit, so intermediates and experts should have no problems with it, and try only doing this with a picture with a height not over 200 pixels, the bigger the height, the longer it will take)

Ok, let's get started :l:

1. If you are putting the snow effect behind the render in the picture then don't flatten or save your sig, avatar, or whatever you are putting the effect on. If you are going to put the snow effect in front of everything in the picture, then you may flatten and save your picture.

2. Now open up the picture for those of you who are putting the snow effect in front of everything in the picture. I'm going to be using this one...



(Note: My snow will go behind the render so I have my sig. open with all the layers.)

3. Make a new transparent layer and place it behind the render layer or for people who just opened up the whole flattened image put it above the flattened image you opened up.

4. Set your FG color to white and get out your biggest circle fuzzy brush which is called "Circle Fuzzy (19) (19 x 19)" (it comes with GIMP). Start clicking(don't hold) and try spreading out the brushes all in the picture. Don't overdo it though, or it will look too crowded and less realistic. It should be something like this...



5. Make a new folder on your desktop or anywhere easy to find. Name it "Snow Effect" or anything you want to really. Now save your image as .png, don't flatten the image in the image window though. If it asks you that .png can't handle layers and needs to be flattened when you save it, then you can click yes and flatten it. This way the image is saved flattened and the image we are working on it not so we can still work :w: Save the image in the folder you just created, name it "1"(as a .png file)

6. Now get out your move tool. Move the layer 5 pixels down...



7. Save the image as .png saving it the same way described in step 5. This time name it "2".

8. Repeat step 6 and 7 while saving it as a number going up each time you save it. Once you save it and get to naming it "5", save it and stop. It should look like this...



9. Now, duplicate the layer of snow and move that layer all the way up so that in the little white box under the image and between "cancel" and the "How much you are zoomed in box" it says "Move: 0, -*The height of your picture here*". For example, the height of my picture is 100 pixels, therefore the white box would say "Move: 0, -100". Now save it and name it "6"(continueing the save numbers). Now it should look like this(you can see the layer at the top of it)...



10. You should have two layers with snow. Now continue moving down 5 pixels and then save it, except move both layers with snow(then save it). This way the snow should go equally down at the same rate everytime you save it. Now here's a little bit of math for ya :w: Divide the height of the picture by 5. Once you get to saving one that is named that number stop. For instance, the height of my picture is 100, 100 divided by 5 is 20. Now when I have saved the picture with snow named "20", I stop. Note: This last picture you save should have the duplicated layer almost all the way at the bottom of the picture and the bottom of that layer should be 5 pixels apart from the bottom of the picture. Also note that if we had done an extra one and saved one more with the layers moved 5 pixels down, that picture would look exactly like "1" :w: It should look like this now...



11. Ok, almost done. In the main GIMP window, open up "1". Now in the image window, go to file-open as layer, and open "2". This should make it so you have "1" as your bottom layer, and "2" as the layer above it. Repeat this and keep going to file-open as layer and opening the next number. Once you open your last number in the folder(for me it would be 20) Now you are ready to get the animation. In the image window. Go to filters-animation-playback. Watch and be amazed at the animation you have created. If it looks like this then you are ready for the next step...



12. Ok, now for the saving. First, just to be safe. We save it shall save it as an .xcf so if we have to edit it we can. Save it in a folder where you keep .xcf files(I have my own folder that has all my .xcf's). Now go to filters-animation-optimize (for GIF). Now a new window should pop-up. In that window, go to file-save as... Save it as a .gif anywhere you like. When a window comes which says "Export File" at the top. Click Save as Animation and then click "Export". Now a pop-up will come saying "Save as GIF at the top. Do not change any settings, click "Ok". There you have it, go to where you saved the animation and preview it(with a program that can preview animations[Windows Picture and Fax Viewer]), if it looks correct, then you have successfiully completed the tut.

Thank you, please post your result, here is the result once again...



And just like the result said, HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE! :l:

Wow an animated snowfall that I actually like.

Gets to work.

Good tutorial, although, I had a problem. The height of my image was 150px, do I divided by 5 and got 30. I did so, and got the end to be a little off.

hmmm, it seems you mest up when i said the duplicate the snow layer part. All you do is duplicate the snow layer, and move that new layer up so that(for you) only 30 pixels of it is showing. You don't move the other layer. So now it looks like some more snow is falling from the top. That's all. I made this tutorial all on brainpower and creativity. So don't be afraid to use your head if you think something is wrong in the tut.

EDIT: Also, i will add this to the tut. But when you brush on your snow layer, don't brush too much toward the bottom, if you do, when you duplicate the snow layer and move that layer up, it will just look like some random snow came in the animation and it doesn't look good.

Nice tutorial, I really like the results.

wow nice tut awesome job man thanks for sharing

Thnx! Please post some results :l:

Just tried and got well a very bad result but I moved the background instead of the snow layer... so that's where i went wrong, I'll try again later... though the idea of snow is highly nice since it's boiling hot here, so i will stop being creative with snow and just hope for rain! W!

Thank you so much for this tutorial! I had a couple problems figuring out what you meant but the end result is exactly what I've been looking for. The only thing I did differently was use a snowflake brush. Turned out very cool I think.

Here's what I made--

OMG, Twilight! <3

I will try this tomorrow or so..

I made that for someone and thought the snow might look good with it.

hahaha omg twilight, my girlfriend and sister keep talking about that book Nice tutorial though! I think it's a great thing to share with people. Though I won't read it because I want to figure it out on my own, makes me feel good LOL

I've never read the books but know that people are bonkers for them! LOL

it does look good =]

And I really like Twilight, and I want to see the movie..

Thanks.

My daughter hasn't read the books but wants to see the movie.