here is a quick and easy tutorial on how to colour-grade your sims image (or professional photography picture? it's up to you what you use it for)
I'm using gimp cause its freeeeeee but this works in all photo editing programs, they're all the same.
you're probably familiar with using pre-made filters in programs like snapchat and instagram, but did you know you can make your own filters in your editing program??? for your sims??? for fun??? and the best part is, it's not even difficult.
In this really quick tutorial I will show you how to take your sims pic from a zero to like...better looking. ok.
So let's start with this picture I took of Cartier (my sim) using just some lights and a backdrop.
The picture is ok, but i want to lighten it up, make it look more vibrant and maybe add some glowy effects to give it a memory/daydream kind of look. (this part is optional, i always take things too far😂)
Step 1: open your program and add your picture. Easy right? you're winning at this.
Step 2: First we need to brighten the picture so it doesn't look so dull. go to the top of your program, find the label [colours] and go down to [curves.] shift the dot in the middle of the curves menu slightly diagonally upwards. see picture for understanding
(in the curves menu, "up" is diagonally-upward-left, and "down" is diagonally-downwards-right. because its a grid that controls both brightness and contrast at the same time.)
You don't want it too bright, as you will wash the tan out of your character (unless that's what you want of course. go ahead) you can already see from the image above that the picture is brighter and not so dull. Press ok, and you're done with that :)
Step 3: go to your menu and go back into [colours] and click on [colour balance.] It should bring up a menu like this:
To give you a quick run down. This tool adjusts the shadows, midtones and highlights of your picture. I've adjusted the picture below to extreme levels to show you what it does. I pulled the shadows toward "Cyan" , the midtones toward "Red" and the highlights toward "Yellow".
The shadows will be the darkest parts of your image, the midtones will almost always be your sims skin plus any midtones in the background, and the highlights will be the brightest parts of the picture, usually any direct lighting on your sim, and in my picture it's also the sky since it's bright.
Now for the actual colour-grading.
Shadows: I usually add a little bit of blue and red to my shadows, this is because I'm addicted to purple shadows for some reason. (I'm not kidding, look at all my edits. you will see.) I added a little bit of green to balance out the blue, since Cartier is meant to be standing in the sun.
Midtones: For the midtones, I focused on the skin, and specifically on Cartiers face since that's where people will be looking. I wanted to add back the natural tan that came out when we brightened the image. I added a little bit of red and a little bit of yellow.
Highlights: for the highlights I focused on the sky. I wanted it to have a beautiful bright bluey-cyan colouring to it, but I wanted it to be more blue than cyan. So, I added some cyan, and then a bit more blue.
click ok and you're done. You have now colour-graded your sims pic.
All in all, this usually takes me less than five minutes to do. it's quicker than loading reshade.
Here is the result:
compared to the original below:
It's brighter, more vibrant and prettier.
I also want to show you the difference between colour-grading (or filtering) and simply just adjusting brightness and contrast.
If you want to make your pic slightly more daydreamy, continue on. if not, you can just export your picture here :)
Step four: at the top of your screen, find [filters] and go down to [light and shadow] then click on [bloom].
It will show your picture extremely bloomed out, but don't worry we can adjust it.
Take the radius down (roughly half, if you want to be specific, but this is art, pick whatever number you want.) then take the strength down as well. you do not need to worry about softness or threshold in this picture.
Click ok and you're done. Here is the result:
and to finish how we began, here's how they look in contrast to each other:
I hope this inspires you to make some pretty sims pictures.
Alternative title: how to use SVGs as paths in GIMP ▬ by Joy from @creativexspirit
Though I recently created a template for text messages, I didn't like how versatile it wasn't so, here's a little tutorial on how to create your own text messages for Gimp. This tutorial is meant to explore the Path tool a little.
This tutorial is made with Gimp 2.10.38. It uses a SVG I created just for that tutorial: [LINK]
Like or reblog if you download. Please don’t request as your own, respect my work. Don’t hesitate to tag me if you follow the tutorial! I would love to see your edits. If you have any question, my askbox is open.
Quick disclaimer: the following images are for a French Gimp version.
STEP 01.
Create or open the XCF project you want the text message in. You will now import the SVG as a path.
If you don't already, have the path window open. You can find it in Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Paths. On my Gimp, as I am in single-window mode, the Paths dialog window is automatically docked to the Layers-Undo dock as a tab.
On the Paths dialog tab, open the Paths menu and import the SVG by selection "Import a path".
If you've done everything correctly, you should see a new path named "Text Message" in your Paths tab!
STEP 02.
Now, you can modify the path with different tools according to your needs: transform, scale, rotate, flip... Just make sure you always choose the Path to be transformed!
You can select whether to transform a layer, a selection or a path on the tool options.
STEP 03.
After transform, it's now time to actually have a text message. You'll start by creating a new layer that will have the background color on it. I called mine "Text Message BG".
You will now go back to the Paths tab and create a selection from the path, by selecting the Text Message path and then choose in the Path options "Path to Selection". There is also a shortcut button at the bottom of the Paths tab.
Now, you will see the selection is only a border. You will need to add the inside rectangle to the selection.
You can do so by selecting the Rectangle option and putting it in "Add to Selection" mode. (You can also be in "Add to Selection" mode by pressing Shift while doing the rectangle.)
Now, you can fill your selection with a color! (Don't forget to change your foreground color with the one you want to fill prior to doing the fill!)
You know have a background for your text message!
STEP 04.
We will now add text. You might be wondering why in this SVG file there is an inner rectangle. It is actually meant to serve as a guide for your textbox and still have some padding.
To use the inner rectangle of the path as a guide, you have to toggle Paths as a guide. To do so, check the box in Display > Align on active path.
Now you can select the Text tool and create your textbox while following the inner rectangle. You should be able to feel that the textbox will naturally clip to the edges of the path.
Now customize your text as you want and you're finished!
Layer Masking is a method for fine-tuning transparency in an image layer. This article and video discusses how to use Layer Masking in GIMP.
Transparency can help you fade layers of images together for wonderful effects. In the case of Synaptergy, I use some harder layer masking for the top and bottom of the landscape image, I use it for the neurons at the top of the page, but I also use it subtlety to fade the bottom of the character into the fog covering the landscape. The accompanying video to this article has a lot more helpful information. The article part will just give a few tips about masking and how to use it in GIMP.
Read the Article and Watch the Video:
https://writingdoneright.net/videos/tutorials/layer-masking-in-gimp
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