Help
Warning: I don't go into very much detail, so you should have a basic knowledge of GIMP's interface.Beginner
Mute Colors
Spoiler
Get the image or layer you want.
Duplicate the image/layer.
Desaturate the lower layer.
Set the top layer to overlay or Soft Light.
OPTIONAL: Try duplicating the desaturated layer and overlaying that over the top of the colour layer and things like that. You might get something cool!
Congratulations! You have now made a crisp, slightly muted color sig!
Duplicate the image/layer.
Desaturate the lower layer.
Set the top layer to overlay or Soft Light.
OPTIONAL: Try duplicating the desaturated layer and overlaying that over the top of the colour layer and things like that. You might get something cool!
Congratulations! You have now made a crisp, slightly muted color sig!
Misty Effect
Spoiler
Get the image or layer you want to add the effect to.
Make a new layer.
Use one of the select tools and make the shape(s) you want.
Fill it/them with a bright, pure color.
Set the layer mode to Burn.
Duplicate if needed.
Congratulations! You now have a colored misty effect on your sig!
Make a new layer.
Use one of the select tools and make the shape(s) you want.
Fill it/them with a bright, pure color.
Set the layer mode to Burn.
Duplicate if needed.
Congratulations! You now have a colored misty effect on your sig!
Simple Outline
Spoiler
I used to use outlines with my sigs, but not anymore. This is the way I made outlines.
Get an already finished sig.
Image -> Flatten Image, if you haven't already.
Make sure your foreground color is black and your background color is white.
Make a new layer.
Select -> Select All.
Edit -> Stroke Selection at 9.5 px.
Set your FG color to white.
Edit -> Stroke Selection at 7.5 px.
Set your FG color back to black.
Edit -> Stroke Selection at 5.0 px.
Set your layer to Overlay.
Duplicate your layer until it looks good.
Image -> Flatten Image again.
Congratulations! You now have a border, and it doesn't look too nooby!
Get an already finished sig.
Image -> Flatten Image, if you haven't already.
Make sure your foreground color is black and your background color is white.
Make a new layer.
Select -> Select All.
Edit -> Stroke Selection at 9.5 px.
Set your FG color to white.
Edit -> Stroke Selection at 7.5 px.
Set your FG color back to black.
Edit -> Stroke Selection at 5.0 px.
Set your layer to Overlay.
Duplicate your layer until it looks good.
Image -> Flatten Image again.
Congratulations! You now have a border, and it doesn't look too nooby!
Guides
Spoiler
Result: 
Guides are lines that help you find where the center of an image is, make layers you're moving snap to parts of your image, and much more. This is my Beginner's Guide to Guides, heh. Guide to Guides.
To make a guide, click Image -> Guides -> then one of the choices.
Personally, I prefer this way of doing it. It gives you the center, and the lines to it so you can line everything up. With my style you can also snap things to the edge of the image. Here is how to do it.
Select all.
Image -> Guides -> New Guides From Selection.
Image -> Guides -> New Guide (By Percent)...
Set the settings: Horizontal and 50%
Image -> Guides -> New Guide (By Percent)...
Set the settings: Vertical and 50%
Congratulations! You have now made lining images up properly much easier!
Of course, there is much more you can do with guides, but this is just a simple beginners guide to them. Thank you.
Guides are lines that help you find where the center of an image is, make layers you're moving snap to parts of your image, and much more. This is my Beginner's Guide to Guides, heh. Guide to Guides.
To make a guide, click Image -> Guides -> then one of the choices.
Personally, I prefer this way of doing it. It gives you the center, and the lines to it so you can line everything up. With my style you can also snap things to the edge of the image. Here is how to do it.
Select all.
Image -> Guides -> New Guides From Selection.
Image -> Guides -> New Guide (By Percent)...
Set the settings: Horizontal and 50%
Image -> Guides -> New Guide (By Percent)...
Set the settings: Vertical and 50%
Congratulations! You have now made lining images up properly much easier!
Of course, there is much more you can do with guides, but this is just a simple beginners guide to them. Thank you.
Background Tutorials
Equalizer Style Background
I NEED SOMEONE TO HELP ME, I CAN'T REMEMBER HOW I DID THIS *embarassed*
Spoiler
Result: 
Spoiler
Make a single coloured background either black or white.
Make a new layer, this will be for the line base. Make the background layer invisible (the eye next to it)
Draw a single pixel, black horizontal line across the bottom or top of the new layer. (Depends which way you want it to face)
Colorize the line to the colour you want.
Duplicate the line layer 9 times, so you have 10 versions of the same layer. (I suggest putting them into a Layer Group)
Select the tenth layer.
Filters -> Distorts -> Shift
Shift each layer vertically by the number of layer it is. (eg. layer 10 shift vertically by 10, layer 9 shift by 9, etc)
When done, if there is a copy of what you've made on the other side of the image, erase it.
Filters -> Motion Blur - (to the duplicate) Make the Blur Type Linear, the Length 100 and the Angle 90 (if you have a layer group you might have to motion blur each layer individually)
Make a new layer, this will be for the line base. Make the background layer invisible (the eye next to it)
Draw a single pixel, black horizontal line across the bottom or top of the new layer. (Depends which way you want it to face)
Colorize the line to the colour you want.
Duplicate the line layer 9 times, so you have 10 versions of the same layer. (I suggest putting them into a Layer Group)
Select the tenth layer.
Filters -> Distorts -> Shift
Shift each layer vertically by the number of layer it is. (eg. layer 10 shift vertically by 10, layer 9 shift by 9, etc)
When done, if there is a copy of what you've made on the other side of the image, erase it.
Filters -> Motion Blur - (to the duplicate) Make the Blur Type Linear, the Length 100 and the Angle 90 (if you have a layer group you might have to motion blur each layer individually)
Full Sig Tutorials
Graffiti on Stone Effect (using GIMPressionist)
Spoiler
Result: 
Make a completely black image.
Go to Filters -> Artistic -> GIMPressionist.
Look for the Painted_Rock effect.
Click apply, then OK.
You now have a nice stone texture background! Now for the graffiti part.
Get a graffiti-like text. I used el&font Gothic. (it's spelt El&font Gohtic on Dafont
)
Put it on your canvas, in white.
Make a new layer, and put it under your text layer. MAKE SURE THE LAYER IS BLACK.
Go back to your text layer and use the colour select tool to select everything other than the text.
Select -> Invert Selection
The selection should now be around your text.
Go to Select -> Grow and set the size to however thick you want the outline of your text to be.
Set your foreground color to what color you want the text outline to be (Note: dark colors do not work very well. You should have a pure red or blue or green or whatever color you want)
Edit -> Fill with FG Color.
You should now have a layer with a black background and a red/green/blue etc silhouette of your text on it.
Click Ctrl-F to redo the Painted_Rock effect again.
Go to your text layer, set it to overlay and duplicate it until it looks good.
Congratulations! You now have a cool graffiti sig! It works with other backgrounds too, but you can't use GIMPressionist for that.
Make a completely black image.
Go to Filters -> Artistic -> GIMPressionist.
Look for the Painted_Rock effect.
Click apply, then OK.
You now have a nice stone texture background! Now for the graffiti part.
Get a graffiti-like text. I used el&font Gothic. (it's spelt El&font Gohtic on Dafont
)Put it on your canvas, in white.
Make a new layer, and put it under your text layer. MAKE SURE THE LAYER IS BLACK.
Go back to your text layer and use the colour select tool to select everything other than the text.
Select -> Invert Selection
The selection should now be around your text.
Go to Select -> Grow and set the size to however thick you want the outline of your text to be.
Set your foreground color to what color you want the text outline to be (Note: dark colors do not work very well. You should have a pure red or blue or green or whatever color you want)
Edit -> Fill with FG Color.
You should now have a layer with a black background and a red/green/blue etc silhouette of your text on it.
Click Ctrl-F to redo the Painted_Rock effect again.
Go to your text layer, set it to overlay and duplicate it until it looks good.
Congratulations! You now have a cool graffiti sig! It works with other backgrounds too, but you can't use GIMPressionist for that.
Will add more soon.
This post has been edited by Jeremifier: 12 August 2012 - 10:27 AM
