#gimp tips

[sims2tutorials]

Quick Tips for GIMP

"These tips are for GIMP, but I have been learning from tutorials for PS as well, and have been applying them in GIMP. I found these two programs to be quite interchangeable, which makes sense, because GIMP was made as a free alternative for PS."

[felidae-sims]

Quick Tips for GIMP

That should translate to PS (colour actions what?)

It doesn’t fit in a Tumblr post, so head THIS WAY:

@sims2tutorials I think it counts as a tutorial #2?

[dtnave]

GIMP - How To Make Images Brighter

A short tutorial showcasing how to make your images a bit brighter using GIMP, a free photo editing software.

[neopronouns]

hey im sorry if you’ve answered this before but what do you use to make flags? and like... how do you even do it?? I wanna make some but i don’t know how 🥺

i use gimp! in my opinion, it’s not hard to get the hang of it, but i did have experience with some other editing programs beforehand. if you’re wanting to make flags with basic vertical or horizontal stripes, you don’t have to learn many functions, which is great!

i’ve made a rather basic tutorial under the cut, so if you’re curious about anything else, you can send another ask (or message me).

so when you open gimp, you can click ‘file’>’new’ or ctrl+n to make a new image. your standard flag size is 1000x600px (or those numbers scaled up, such as 5000x3000px), so you’ll type those numbers to get started!

i also recommend clicking that ‘advanced options’ button and changing 'fill with’ to ‘transparent’. this ensures that you’re making a png image, which will be saved as a higher quality than the default.

and now you have the base for your flag!

for simple flags, all you have to do is work out the number of stripes you want, then divide 600 by that number (or 1000, if you want vertical stripes). this won’t work with every number of stripes, but we’ll get to that later.

there’s two ways i make my stripes - one is more basic, so i use it more often, but the other allows you to easily move your stripes instead of having to change the stripe colors when you want to rearrange them. they both use the layers functions, which can be accessed from the top bar or the layers menu at the right:

to make a new layer, you can:

click ‘layer’>’new layer’

type shift+ctrl+n. 

right-click on the layers menu (right) and click ‘new layer’ or type ‘n’

for the first method, you’ll change the height (or width, for vertical stripes) of the new layer to be shorter than the image itself. divide your number of stripes by 600 and subtract that number each time you make a new layer - for example, a 5-stripe flag will have stripes of height 120, so your layers will be these sizes:

for the second method, you’ll utilize the offset function while making your layers:

for that 5-stripe flag, since each stripe is 120px tall, you can instead make 5 layers that are all of height 120 offset by multiples of 120. the top stripe will be offset by 0, the second offset by 120, so on. like this:

after that, just use the bucket fill tool to change each stripe to the correct color and you’re good to go!

if your number isn’t divisible by 600, you’ll have to make a differently sized base image, then resize it when you’re done. i’ll use a 7-stripe flag as an example.

when you make your image, instead make it 1000x700. use the same process to make your stripes, then either:

click ‘layer’>’new from visible’

right-click in the layers menu and click ‘new from visible’

this will give you a new layer comprised of everything visible on your image, like this:

doing this ensures that when you resize your image, your stripes remain the correct size.

click ‘image’>’scale image’. in the menu that pops up, click the little chain symbol so it’s ‘unlocked’:

then, change the height to 600 and click ‘scale’ now you have a properly sized flag!

again, these are just basics, so if you’re wondering about how to do more complex things, feel free to ask!

[the-savior-and-the-pirate]

Hi I'm just curious how you make your gifs? I unfortunately don't have photoshop. If you know of any other ways I would appreciate it so much!! Thank you!!!

I’d thought I’d post some tips under the cut in case others were interested, as well.

What programs do you have? I use GIMP. It’s a free alternative to photoshop. It’s not quite as good, but it gets the job done.

I recently downloaded animstack for the first time a couple days ago, which I’ve found made gif making much quicker, however I made gifs without it, too.

I figured out how to make basic gifs through google, youtube, and livejournal tutorials a couple years ago, but I’ve now found a couple of gimp tumblr blogs that give good tutorials that have helped me a lot. The best tutorials I’ve found for gif-making are: http://absolute-gimp.tumblr.com/post/50376331595/tutorial-90-gifs, http://gimpedia.tumblr.com/post/24873634363, http://hellyeahgimp.tumblr.com/post/26021145171/how-to-make-a-simple-gif-without-gap-2-8.

ALSO, if you are using a MAC, you can just use iMovie to get the screencaps. But, if you are using Windows, you have to downloaod KMPlayer (I have both a mac and windows, and I’ve found both are very easy to use).

If you have a MAC, you can use quicktime media player to screen record the video, but if you have a Windows, you have to actually download the video from youtube. The website I use is keepvid.com, but other programs work as well. Another thing to remember is to search for HQ videos through the filters tab.

The final thing to remember is that you NEED to make the mode indexed at the end — otherwise it will end up looking grainy. I’ve only done this on my past few gif sets, so I’m still in the testing stage, but I’ve been pleased so far.

If you have any other questions, let me know! Like I said, .I’m new to making high-quality gifs, but I’ll give it a try!

If you do make any gifs, send me the link so I can see what you made!