Graalians - View Single Post - GIMP Basics Guide

Hello creative corner of Graalians. I wish to share some knowledge I have acquired using Gimp. Many people say it is hard to use, but after practice and learning the basics, it becomes a great tool for art work.
Get Gimp

I. The Color Map

Spoiler

How to open color map
~ Do this by going to the windows tab, scroll down to dockable dialogs, then click color map.

Spoiler

This tool allows you to see all the colors you are using in your picture. It also allows you to change colors easily.

My color map shows no colors?
~ The reason your color map may be blank is because you have not indexed your image. Indexing your image means that GIMP will take your picture, gather all the information about every single shade and color you used and it will STOP you from adding any other colors than the ones used
~ To index your image, go to image, mode, indexed.

Spoiler

~ This will add all colors you have used to your color map.

Uses of the color map
~ By utilizing the color map you will be able to do many things. A few of these things are re-coloring and limiting your image to a certain palate.
~ To recolor, double click a color on the color map, it gives you the option to change ANY and ALL pixels of that shade to another. Take a look at the example below. Let’s say I want Pikachu to have green eyes rather than brown. I just double click each shade of brown used in the eyes and change them to green and it re-colors all of it for me.

Spoiler

~ By indexing your image, you limit yourself by not adding any new shades. This can be useful if you wish to challenge yourself to using only a set number of colors/shades or have a palate made already.

How to get out of Indexed
~ To get out of indexed and to allow you to use any shade of color again, follow the same steps to get in indexed except this time click RGB instead of indexed.

II. Transparencies and Cropping

Spoiler

Transparency
~ Go to the tab layers, scroll down to transparency then click add alpha channel
~ Click the fuzzy select tool (looks like a wand in your toolbox window) and click the white background, finally hut control + x

Spoiler

This will get rid of a background + colors that is not a part of your art

Cropping
~ Go to image window the click auto crop image

Spoiler

this gets rid of the additional spacing of the background and shows your works true size

III. Resizing

Spoiler

How to resize without adding more colors
~ First you need to index your image. As explained before, this prevents new colors from being added to your image. Even as you distort or use tools on it
~ Then, go to image, scale image. This will open up the resize tab in which you can resize your image to any size you wish

Spoiler

Things to note - this tool keeps your image in proportion, meaning that if you want to change the width of a 500 image to 250, it will also cut the height in half to keep the image proportional

IV. Layers

Spoiler

Uses
~ Layers are important for many things. Maybe you want to change only a certain piece of your art without messing with the rest. It becomes useful working in layers if you want to test a style without knowing if it will work well or not. With layers, you can quickly delete any mistakes you have made or even combine many images together in a certain fashion in which one image is in front of another.

How To
~ To open the layers window, go to windows, dockable dialogs, layers
~ To add a new layer, click the little white page on the bottom left of the window
~ You can move layers up and down by clicking and dragging each layer. The one highest up appears at the top of the image, working its way down to where the bottom is the image at the very bottom of your overall image

Spoiler

V. Gifs and Animations

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Basics
~ In order to make a gif image, you need to utilize layers. Read the Layers how to to get ready
~ If you double click a layer you get the option to rename them. In order to make a gif image you must include (#### ms) at the end of the name
~ Replace #### with any number. MS mean milliseconds, and this is the only time frame GIMP will recognize
~ When you put your number make sure you close parenthesis and also hit ENTER! Just clicking out will not save your changes so you must hit enter for it to take effect

Spoiler

Animate
~ Now that you know how to set times for layers, make sure to do it for every layer and keep in mind these times are how long that layer will show up for as the current image
~ To animate, make a new layer and follow the same process, this time however you must include (replace) at the very end of the layer name
~ What (replace) does is it erases the previous layer and shows the next. If you do not include this, your animation will just overlap the layers which could turn out to be messy
~ If you are doing simple animations such as making a head blink, you do not need to use replace because the image of the head is the same. When they overlap all that will change are the eyes. If the outline of your image changes, use (replace)

Spoiler

Previewing
~ Go to filters, animation and playback. This will allow you to view your gif as it would appear if you saved it

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Saving
~ Go to File, save as, and add the extension .gif to your file name
~ Be sure to click "Save as animation" or else your animation will not work

Spoiler

Hope this helps people with some basic issues with GIMP. It is so far, my favorite tool to use for graphics work. Might add more to this guide per request.

01-12-2013	1
Jester Lapse zzz Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: WA USA Posts: 9,232	GIMP Basics Guide Hello creative corner of Graalians. I wish to share some knowledge I have acquired using Gimp. Many people say it is hard to use, but after practice and learning the basics, it becomes a great tool for art work. Get Gimp I. The Color Map Spoiler How to open color map ~ Do this by going to the windows tab, scroll down to dockable dialogs, then click color map. Spoiler This tool allows you to see all the colors you are using in your picture. It also allows you to change colors easily. My color map shows no colors? ~ The reason your color map may be blank is because you have not indexed your image. Indexing your image means that GIMP will take your picture, gather all the information about every single shade and color you used and it will STOP you from adding any other colors than the ones used ~ To index your image, go to image, mode, indexed. Spoiler ~ This will add all colors you have used to your color map. Uses of the color map ~ By utilizing the color map you will be able to do many things. A few of these things are re-coloring and limiting your image to a certain palate. ~ To recolor, double click a color on the color map, it gives you the option to change ANY and ALL pixels of that shade to another. Take a look at the example below. Let’s say I want Pikachu to have green eyes rather than brown. I just double click each shade of brown used in the eyes and change them to green and it re-colors all of it for me. Spoiler ~ By indexing your image, you limit yourself by not adding any new shades. This can be useful if you wish to challenge yourself to using only a set number of colors/shades or have a palate made already. How to get out of Indexed ~ To get out of indexed and to allow you to use any shade of color again, follow the same steps to get in indexed except this time click RGB instead of indexed. II. Transparencies and Cropping Spoiler Transparency ~ Go to the tab layers, scroll down to transparency then click add alpha channel ~ Click the fuzzy select tool (looks like a wand in your toolbox window) and click the white background, finally hut control + x Spoiler This will get rid of a background + colors that is not a part of your art Cropping ~ Go to image window the click auto crop image Spoiler this gets rid of the additional spacing of the background and shows your works true size III. Resizing Spoiler How to resize without adding more colors ~ First you need to index your image. As explained before, this prevents new colors from being added to your image. Even as you distort or use tools on it ~ Then, go to image, scale image. This will open up the resize tab in which you can resize your image to any size you wish Spoiler Things to note - this tool keeps your image in proportion, meaning that if you want to change the width of a 500 image to 250, it will also cut the height in half to keep the image proportional IV. Layers Spoiler Uses ~ Layers are important for many things. Maybe you want to change only a certain piece of your art without messing with the rest. It becomes useful working in layers if you want to test a style without knowing if it will work well or not. With layers, you can quickly delete any mistakes you have made or even combine many images together in a certain fashion in which one image is in front of another. How To ~ To open the layers window, go to windows, dockable dialogs, layers ~ To add a new layer, click the little white page on the bottom left of the window ~ You can move layers up and down by clicking and dragging each layer. The one highest up appears at the top of the image, working its way down to where the bottom is the image at the very bottom of your overall image Spoiler V. Gifs and Animations Spoiler Basics ~ In order to make a gif image, you need to utilize layers. Read the Layers how to to get ready ~ If you double click a layer you get the option to rename them. In order to make a gif image you must include (#### ms) at the end of the name ~ Replace #### with any number. MS mean milliseconds, and this is the only time frame GIMP will recognize ~ When you put your number make sure you close parenthesis and also hit ENTER! Just clicking out will not save your changes so you must hit enter for it to take effect Spoiler Animate ~ Now that you know how to set times for layers, make sure to do it for every layer and keep in mind these times are how long that layer will show up for as the current image ~ To animate, make a new layer and follow the same process, this time however you must include (replace) at the very end of the layer name ~ What (replace) does is it erases the previous layer and shows the next. If you do not include this, your animation will just overlap the layers which could turn out to be messy ~ If you are doing simple animations such as making a head blink, you do not need to use replace because the image of the head is the same. When they overlap all that will change are the eyes. If the outline of your image changes, use (replace) Spoiler Previewing ~ Go to filters, animation and playback. This will allow you to view your gif as it would appear if you saved it Spoiler Saving ~ Go to File, save as, and add the extension .gif to your file name ~ Be sure to click "Save as animation" or else your animation will not work Spoiler Hope this helps people with some basic issues with GIMP. It is so far, my favorite tool to use for graphics work. Might add more to this guide per request.