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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. :P
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!
