Artwork for All - challenges, graphics, tutorials

[ladygris]

Love the Carson art, lg

Thank you.

Okay, I'm back with another entry for the tutorial challenge. I used this tut by jasminaGo to make a banner for a challenge. The challenge was to make art for our favorite shippy fanfic, and at least one of them had to be Ronon/Keller. So, this actually fits two challenges.

[Rocket_Scientist]

I have a Gimp tutorial I'd like to share. It's not mine, but it's one I really like for creating a nice oilpainting style. Personally, I think it looks much nicer than the "Oilify..." filter built into Gimp. This link will take you directly to the tutorial, but I've compiled my own version of the tutorial (mostly copied word for word, but including notes for clarification and screenshots that are in English ) below that you can look at if you so desire.
NOTE: This is a great tutorial for beginners as well because it is very detailed.

How to go from this:


to this:


Spoilered for size.

Spoiler:

1. To get a usable size to apply on the tools used, I am going to use a factor “x”. x can easily be calculated on an image with a 4:3 aspect by just taking 1% of the longer side of the image. E.g. if your image has a size of 800*600 pixels, x would have a value of 8.
NOTE: I think I skipped this step…you can decide for yourself if you want a new size to work with

2. First, we are going to slightly adjust brightness and contrast by 10%
“Colors” ? “Brightness / Contrast”
Brightness: +10%
Contrast: + 10%



3. Now let’s make the colors a bit more intense
“Filter” ? “Enhance” ? “Unsharp Mask”
Radius: 1x
Amount: 1
Threshhold: 0
NOTE: The “x” used in this and the following steps corresponds to the “x” you calculated in step 1.

It should now look like this.

4. In order to get the best possible effect on the image, we’re going to reduce the amount of colors
“Colors” ? “Posterize”
Colors: 12



5. If the name of the layer in the “Layer”-Dialogue should be printed in
bold, do
“Layer” ? “Transparency” ? “Add Alpha Channel”
NOTE: I actually just right clicked on the layer and then clicked “Add Alpha Channel”

6. Now go back to the “Layer”-Dialogue, duplicate the layer by right-clicking on the active layer and choosing “duplicate Layer”. Then hide the upper of the two layers by clicking on the “eye”-symbol on the left. Before proceeding, make sure the lower layer is active again!
NOTE: Or just click the button directly below the layers that looks like two stacked photos

7. Use the Blur-filter to make the colors merge at the edges.
“Filter” ? “Blur” ? “Gaussian Blur”:
Radius: 1x
Method: RLE

It should now look like this.

8. Next choose
“Filter” ? “Artistic” ? “Gimpressionist”
and use the following settings:
Presets
? Feathers
Paper
? Scale: 1x
Orientation
? Directions: 6
? Start Angle: 0
? Angle Span: 120
? Orientation: Adaptive
Size
? Sizes: 4
? Minimum Size: 3x
? Maximum Size: 8x
? Size: Adaptive
Placement
? Placement: Randomly
? Stroke Density: 36

It should now look like this.

9. The contours of the strokes are a bit hard, so reduce them by doing “Colors” ? “Color to Alpha”: Color: #bababa



10. In the “Layer”-Dialogue, add a new layer and choose “White” for “Layer Fill Type.” Next move the newly created layer to the very bottom.



11. Now unhide the hidden layer in the “Layer”-Dialogue.

12. Now draw the outlines of the shape by doing
“Filter” ? “Edge-detect” ? “Neon”
Radius: 0.5x
Intensity: 0%
NOTE: Be sure the top layer (the previously hidden layer) is selected now.

It should now look like this.

13. We don’t want any colored lines, so choose
“Colors” ? “Desaturate”: “Average” to remove the colors.



14. Next, we invert the colors in order to make the white lines become black “Colors” ? “Invert”

It should now look like this.

15. We don’t want any gray tones, but black and white ones, so do “Colors” ? “Levels”: Move the handle about in the center of the color-bar or wherever you think the shape is clearly drawn by the lines or just leave the default
settings.



16. Next we are going to make the lines “pencil-like”.
“Filter” ? “Artistic” ? “Van Gogh (LIC)”
leave any settings at the default values



17. Remove the white background-color “Color” ? “Color to Alpha”: Color: #ffffff



18. Now use the eraser-tool to remove unwanted black spots. Just keep the “pretty” lines.

19. Finish the painting by choosing “Overlay” for the active layer in the “Layer”-Dialogue.

[RodneyIsGodney]

WHOA!!! Great tut and artwork Rocket!

@ladygris: Lovely sig!

Thanks for the link RiG

Y'welcome.

Great job on the MW sig RiG! And your tut is nicely done

Thank you!

I'm hopeless at following the directions of a tut. Maybe one that is *super* simple!

Sorry, I know mine wasn't "super simple". I've found that the best tuts are video tuts, not only do they tell you what to do, the show you what to do. You can actually see what they're doing, what they're clicking and everything. I'm always YouTubing Gimp tuts, there's so many out there. PS tuts as well!

[Rocket_Scientist]

WHOA!!! Great tut and artwork Rocket!

Heh, thanks. Too bad the only credit I can take is for being good at Googling things. And the screenshots. lol

And I concur with RiG, gorgeous sig lg!

[ladygris]

@ladygris: Lovely sig!

And I concur with RiG, gorgeous sig lg!

Thank you! I think that's the first sig to ever take me 3-4 hours to complete!

[maneth]

Lovely sig lg!

[ladygris]

Thanks, Mane.

[syfyfan]

M, lg, Rocket lovely arts and thanks for the tut.

[Jumble]

I know. I thought I wood play with Martin for a change. Hope that's alright.

You don't need my permission

One tut, coming up!

Never written one before so pardon my crappy attempt...

...this is how I made the Martin sig with Gimp...

Spoiler:

warning: this may be lame and stupid

A. Open a new image - 700x200 (your standard sig size)

B. Add text, doesn't matter what color it is - I always go with black - the font I used is called akaDylan Plain

C. Open the images you want place within the text - I wanted mine big enough to fit the letters - then minimze them so that they don't clutter your work space.

D. Open one image and, using the Elipse tool, cut out the part of your image that you wish to use. Crop is another way to say it.

E. Paste the image. Add a new layer for the image then add some contrast and brightness to the it- I don't remember the exact levels I went with so you can play around with it until you find what suits your fancy.

F. Then in the layer dialogue box go to Mode > Screen so that the image appears within the letters only.

G. Resize and reposition each layer as you like. You know best what size and where you want your images to be.

H. Next, merge all layers. I did this by starting with the lowest most layer and worked my way up, going the other way didn't work. Merging must be done before adding a border on the text!

I. This is easy: right click text layer > Alpha to Selection > Select > Grow...I went with 2px...> add new layer. I fill the layer before switching them around contrary to Maneth's tut. Then Select > None.

J. To remove the background...select background layer > delete layer. (or you could open the new (sig size) image with a transparent background - something I hadn't thought of until just now)

K. For "Martin": select the layer that you merged all the images too and add the text.

L. Add the border to that the same way as in I.

M. Then save as .png (not .jpg) otherwise you'll have a white background instead of transparent.

Okay, I hope my directions aren't too horrible. If there are any questions feel free to ask!

Thanks It'll be interesting to see if I can figure it out in PS

Bailey, that's a beautiful wp! And an amazing first attempt at one

Hmm, Tutorial Week. Fabulous idea guys! Never actually written a tut, but I can give it a shot I guess...

Yes, do give it a shot - you may surprise yourself

I'm hopeless at following the directions of a tut. Maybe one that is *super* simple!

Ah, you need a Nad tut - even if you don't manage to make anything from it you'll have a good giggle along the way

Thank you.

Okay, I'm back with another entry for the tutorial challenge. I used this tut by jasminaGo to make a banner for a challenge. The challenge was to make art for our favorite shippy fanfic, and at least one of them had to be Ronon/Keller. So, this actually fits two challenges.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/...tionBanner.jpg

Very nice! And @ fitting it into two challenges - good one

[DutchIndeed]

Ah, you need a Nad tut - even if you don't manage to make anything from it you'll have a good giggle along the way :

I *do* lurk here, you know...

[Jumble]

I *do* lurk here, you know...

I know you do

'Bout time you stopped lurking and started posting some of your Awesome artwork

[josiane]

^What she said

Lovely work everyone, we're getting a good choice of tutorials shared already

[Oma-1]

Tried something I've been wanting to do for a long time...

http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/...eous/wood2.png

...I think it came out okay. ...and I strayed from Supernatural.


(I have no idea how many KB's it is sorry.)

It came out fab The reason it's so big though is because it's a png file The way around the transparent background is to match the background colour to the colour of background post. I know I have the colour code around here somewhere........*runz off to PS*.......I think its #f1f1f1


Great tut Rocket, Gimp has obviously had some upgrades since I used it last, the menus all look completely different There are a few Gimp things that I miss, colour to alpha being one of them! Anyone know if there's an equivalent in PS? Colour to Alpha works by changing the selected colour to transparent.

Ah, you need a Nad tut - even if you don't manage to make anything from it you'll have a good giggle along the way

That's exactly what I was thinking

I know you do

'Bout time you stopped lurking and started posting some of your Awesome artwork

Yep, that too

*looks under the bus*

[DutchIndeed]

I know you do

'Bout time you stopped lurking and started posting some of your Awesome artwork

Hmpf.
Not if you guys keep making my tuts sound as if they're not serious. I put time and effort in them, you know. It's not my fault that no one gets me and my boobling arty ways. I do *think* about what I do. I have feelings too. Every step, every 'must do' in the tutorials are little steps of love. Yes, my tuts are about making love.
*blinks*
Uh...



Awesome artwork everyone!
It's always inspiring to see people who sort of know what they're doing bundled up in one place.

[Oma-1]

Here's a sig and tut I made for the challenge this week, it's very simple! Falling Skies is my new scifi obsession (Funny how all of a sudden Colin Cunningham has started to appeal now he has the grungy look going on - must make a sig with him very soon )

Couldn't decide which way I liked it best though


This tut is for Photoshop, but it should translate fairly easily into Gimp or PSP using contrast settings instead of curves.

Pic:

Textures: 1. 2. 3.


1. Open your sig with a black background.

2. Open texture 2, desaturate (shortcut ctrl+shift+u), resize and place where you like it, lower opacity to 35%.

3. Open texture 1, desaturate, resize and place just off centre, set to lighten at 40%.

4. Open the pic, desaurate, set to lighten 100%.

5. Duplicate the pic 3 times, set the first duplicated layer to overlay 100%, second to overlay 100%, third to screen 100%. (You could probably just use a curves adjustment layer instead of all the duplicates, but old habits die hard for me )

6. Use a feathered eraser brush to erase the smoke layer underneath the face of your pic.

7. Open texture 3, resize and place where desired, set to lighten at 23%. (Don't desaturate this one, it's where that subtle colouring comes from).

8. I wanted the pic to stand out a little more, so make a stamp of all your pic layers and set it on top, screen at 50%. I used a curves adjustment layer to give this layer a little more contrast, settings (70,5) and (170,200).

That's the first version. For the second darker version....

9. Finally add a curves layer settings (70,30), (150,85), (190,160).


Text is nyala.




I found a tut I want to have a go at to make that Colin Cunningham sig I'll post the results when I get chance to make it!