GIMP Tutorials!

Hi, I'm Onyx! You may remember me from such presentations as "My Life in Extended WIP" and "NO TRISTEN I WILL NOT MAKE YOU FREE GRAPHICS". Today, I'm going to introduce you to one of the most basic elements of GIMP: the dockable dialogues.

"What's a dialogue?" I hear you ask. In GIMP terms, a dialogue is simply a window that does a certain thing. There's a dialogue for paintbrushes, for colours, for text and for GIMP history, but I'll cover all this as we go along. (:

When I open GIMP, it looks like this:

This is because (unlike Cass, that messy hooligan) I have arranged my dialogues into an order that is easy and efficient for me to navigate. This is the most important thing when choosing which dialogues you want to keep open all the time, and where you want to put them on your screen. I'm left-handed, which means that I like to keep my tools on the left of the canvas, where I would usually keep a pencil. On the other hand no pun intended, I feel more comfortable with my Layers, Gradients and other tools on the right, so that I don't have everything all crammed onto one side. In the same way that you wouldn't pile up all your notes, files and stationery in one place on your desk, you should always spread out your dialogues in a way that works for you.

Opening a new dialogue:


In the bar at the top of the canvas window, click on "Windows"


Move your mouse down to dockable dialogues, and wait for the menu to open

Here is a list of all the dialogues you can have open on GIMP. However, unless you want to graphic in the Times Square of GIMP, and it to work at Onyx posting speed, you should only choose the dialogues which are most useful, particularly if you are just staring out with GIMP.

So, without further ado, I present to you a list of Onyx's favourite dialogues!

The Layers Dialogue

This is an example of my plot graphic for The Magpie Family, which is a simple graphic with three layers: Text, the image of the magpie, and the torn paper effect at the bottom.

ADVANTAGES

• Ability to move one section of the image without moving the rest
  
• Quick and easy recolouring, rescaling and removing of different features of your image
  
• You can change the opacity of different layers to make certain parts of the image more or less prominent
  
• Snazzy colour and visibility effects which are just super duper
  
• Allows you to make gifs and moving images
  
• If you want to focus on one layer only, you can easily make the other layers temporarily invisible
  
• Basically if you don't understand how great using different layers is then can u leve pls

DISADVANTAGES

• Relatively difficult to make different parts of the same photo on separate layers without messing it up
  
• If you forget to put something on a different layer, it can ruin the whole image
  
• Having lots of layers can get fairly confusing
  
• You'll find yourself quoting that line from Shrek about layers every time you add a new one

Basically, layers are great for everything. If you want to add pretty brush effects to your graphic, put them on a new layer. If you want to make a header snazzy with gradient text, put it on a new layer. If you have any doubts about whether something will look ok, or you're just experimenting, or anything at all. for the love of Ripred, put it on a new layer! Got it? Great<3

The Gradients Dialogue

ADVANTAGES

• Very simple to make new gradients with a practically infinite number of colours
  
• Gradients are arranged in alphabetical order, so it's hard to lose one
  
• The gradient tool in the toolbox is easy to use, and new gradients you make appear automatically in the tool options
  
• Pretty rainbow gradients are generated automatically from your foreground and background colours in the toolbox

DISADVANTAGES

• At first, it can be quite tricky to get the hang of (Cass or I may make a gradient tutorial in the future!)
  
• If it doesn't work the first time, the whole bloody thing can suddenly stop working
  
• You have to check that the opacity of the gradient tool is turned right up, and the selection covers your text (again, this will be covered in another tutorial)
  
• If you're lazy like me, this can get ridiculously tedious

The Brushes Dialogue

It's a bit like Marmite, in that you either love it or you hate it, really

AVANTAGES

• It makes everything prettier. Much, much prettier. Always.
  
• If you can navigate DeviantArt or a similar resource site, finding fabulous brush packs is fun and easy
  
• You don't need to close and reopen GIMP for them to appear, like you have to with new fonts, you just simply press the refresh button on the dialogues
  
• Brushes can be manipulated to be a range of colours, sizes and transformations, so you can pretty much do anything with them
  
• You can make your own! (Tutorial on this may or may not come, depending on whether people actually need to know)

DISADVANTAGES

• They require lots of new layers (but this isn't really a disadvantage because we love layers, right?
  
• If you can't navigate DeviantArt or a similar resource site, finding fabulous brush packs is no fun at all and extremely difficult
  
• Zip files, which brush packs tend to come in, can be very risky when it comes to viruses and organisation
  
• Brushes pixelate if they aren't good quality, or if you make them too large or too small
  
• They don't always look the way you want them to, so choosing the right brush packs can be difficult, and tedious

I should probably stop now before this gets any longer because Cass is going to shout at me

I hope this has been a useful introduction! PM or Skype Cass or me if you have any problems with any either of the features we've talked about so far.

Peace out sponsor Elodie sponsor Elodie sponsor Elodie <3

Ok, this tutorial will show you how to make new gradients to pretty up your text and keep track of your characters' palettes! (The accompanying tutorial about how to put gradients on text will come soon xD)

First thing's first - you should head to ColourLovers.com and either create an account to make your own palettes, or choose the palette you'd like to base your gradient on. For this tutorial, I'm going to use this palette self promotion I know.

When you choose a palette, there are a few questions you have to ask yourself. How many colours do I want it to have? How well do the colours blend together? How spaced are they on the palette? Do I like that spacing, or do I want to change it? These questions are key in changing certain features of your gradient later on.

Next, you're going to head over to GIMP and open up the Gradient Dialogue (although you should already have it open because it's a very useful dialogue that should always be docked)




Click on the little piece of paper at the bottom, and you can start to make your new gradient.

On clicking the New Gradient button, a window should open that looks like this:



The first thing you want to do is right click on the black > white gradient and his replicate segment, opening this window:



By dragging the slider to the right, you can change the number of times you replicate this gradient. THE NUMBER ON THE SLIDER SHOULD BE ONE LESS THAN THE NUMBER OF COLOURS YOU ARE USING. This is VERY IMPORTANT. I'm using a palette with five colours, so I drag the slider to four and press the Replicate button.



Does this look intimidating? Don't worry, it's very easy to magically transform this into a winning gradient.

But first, the complicated bit.

You see the blue bar at the bottom of the gradient? Good. Double click on the first white arrow. Now only the first segment should be highlighted. Got it? Great.

Right click on the gradient, and in the drop down menu click on Left Endpoint's Colour



A colouring window should appear the same as it does for text colour and brush colour. In the text box, enter the hex code of the first colour of your gradient, which can be copied from the ColourLovers palette page. Press ok, then repeat the process, except this time click Right Endpoint's Colour, and enter the hex of the second colour of your palette.

You should end up with something like this:



Beautiful, huh? Ok, the next part is important.

Double click on the white arrow of the second segment. This will select it and not screw up everything. Repeat the above process, but this time use the SECOND AND THIRD COLOURS OF THE PALETTE. It is important that the Left Endpoint has the second colour, not the first or third, because this means that both segments flow together nicely.

Repeat this whole step for each of the other segments, advancing one colour of the palette each time. If you've done it right, which I have every faith you will, it should look like this, but with your colours:



You'll notice I've renamed the gradient at the top, so I can remember which palette it comes from and easily find the hex codes on ColourLovers. It will appear automatically in your gradients dialogue.



I hope this has been helpful!
If you have any queries or problems, just ask (:

Peace out! :3