GIMP squeee!!!!!!!

[deinonychus_1]

I hope no one was expecting any fic from me for the next few days, because I appear to have a shiny new excuse for procrastination hobby. I finally downloaded GIMP this morning (thanks very much to reggietate for helping me with that), and it has eaten the entire rest of the day once I started playing with it.



My main reason for wanting it was I've been trying to make myself a few icons recently, and I've discovered that, especially when text is involved, they tend to look a bit blurred (I was previously using Microsoft Picture Manager, and Paint, so pretty basic stuff, really).

Admittedly graphics aren't really my strong point, and I'm sure I've only scratched the surface of what GIMP can do, but I thought I'd share the fruits of my first day's work, as I'm surprisingly pleased with them.

Here's the first attempt. I decided it looked a pale and washed out, though.

So I played around with the colour and contrast a bit. Better, but I still wasn't happy about that band of white at the top of the picture, no matter how much I smudged it.


This is the final version. I finally worked out how to do a big block of colour as similar as possible to the background colour, and then smudged it to blend with the real background. It's not perfect, and I think I missed a teeny bit of white around the edges, and the blend isn't great, but I didn't think it was bad for a first day.

Here's the second set of icons I made today. This one was fun, it involved layers! Three of them, no less! (yeah, I know, the GIMP veterans are rolling their eyes at this point, but humour me, I'm excited about this :-))



The third one doesn't really work because the text is too small, and I possibly need to sharpen the second and third ones a bit more. Also, I was aiming for a dark red smokey background but it's come out more pink than I expected. But apart from that, I was reasonbly pleased.

The main thing is, I've now figured out a lot of the basics to be able to do what I want to do with images. I suppose now it's just a matter of practice, and working out quicker/easier ways of doing it, and applying other functions to get better results.

Yey! *iz happy*

Comments

[mysteriousaliwz.livejournal.com]

Looking good!

[nietie.livejournal.com]

These look fabulous!
I downloaded GIMP ages ago, but I can't seem to "get the hang of it". You managed to do this all in one day!

[fredbassett]

Blimey, you've got on better with it than I did to start with!

These are great first efforts. *g* And you do realise we'll now be expecting you to take part in the icon challenges.

GIMP is fun, and very addictive.

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was quite pleased I managed to get so far in the first day.

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

I made a lot of use of the basic guide that clea2011 sent me, and also lsellersfic's tutorials. I would probably still be trying to open my first file if it wasn't for those!

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have got anywhere near this far without lsellersfic's tutorials, especially for the stuff involving multiple layers. I was faffing around for ages with that until I found her first two tutorials.

And you do realise we'll now be expecting you to take part in the icon challenges.


Meep! I'll see if I can have go. :-)

I know, it's ridiculously addictive! I had been intending to try to get some writing done today, but once this was installed that was it for the day!

[clea2011]

YAY! Nice job! It's really, REALLY addictive though, it just eats up your time!

I love GIMP! :-)

[kristen-mara.livejournal.com]

Well done - you picked a lovely first subject and served him well *G*

[cordeliadelayne]

Looking very good!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

They're definitely better than my first attempts...

[reggietate.livejournal.com]

Great start! :-)

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

It's really scarily addictive! I think I was at it from about 2.30 yesterday afternoon until about 9.30 at night! And I suspect a large part of today is going to go the same way...

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

thanks. The world needs more angsty Becker icons!

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

thanks! :-)

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

I thought it was going to take me ages to get the hang of it, but the tutorials really helped. There's still loads of stuff that I have no idea what it even does, though!

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I suspect today is going to involve a lot of experimenting with things that I didn't use yesterday, just to see what they do!

[fififolle]

Brilliant!
This makes me LOL a lot. I remember showing you GIMP many years ago, and thinking at the time you just weren't ready. I'm glad you've finally taken the plunge!
Have a play with 'Curves' in 'Colours' as well.

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

I remember that, and some of what you told me must have stuck, because I remembered about smudging stuff and trying to blend colours into the background, and sharpening the image.

Oooh, what does that do? I think my plan for today is to experiment a bit more with splicing pics together, and working out the different ways to merge/blur the edges together.

[fififolle]

Hee! Awesome.

I find curves the easiest way to make a pic lighter or darker, you just click on the line on the graph that pops up and drag it about until you like the look. Really brightens things up easily. You can progress to brightness and contrast in more detail later when you're more familiar with GIMP.

Yeah, splicing and smudging things are really what icons are all about for me! Have fun!!!!

Maybe you'll be able to enter the header contest!! *squeals loudly*

[clea2011]

Oooh! I'd never found the graph thing! Now I LOVE it!! \o/ \o/

[deinonychus-1.livejournal.com]

I just tried that thing with the curves! Cool! :-)

[fififolle]

Hahahah! Brilliant. Glad to help :)

[fififolle]

Nice one :) I love it. To be fair, there's probably only about ten things I can go with GIMP, lol.