Render links and absences........

Well I have not updated in a while, I have no excuse, and this is my apology. If it makes you feel any better I was not having fun during that period, it was filled with work and such, but why should I bore you with that? Oh yes because it is my blog. I have been using GIMP a lot and I have learned so much, I have lots of new techniques and you can expect a tutorial up in a few days (probably the weekend).

Now what else was I about to say *paces around the room* oh yes! Of course that's it. I wanted to have a full site re-design by now *looks around* and well, it seems I haven't got around to it yet, it really isn't good enough, on the other hand the design is okay for now, I would just like to have designed the whole thing myself.

Right, one more thing. Render links, well they are hosted at another place. My host got a new server or something, and I have not updated the name servers,because I lost my account username and password. I'll sort it out soon, I think.

That's it oh and actually I will post some of my work I have done, for your viewing pleasure (or not?)

Click here for a photobucket slide show of recent sigs.....

Enjoy your friday,
George

Knights Of the Old Republic Renders

I shall add some more later but for now i only have cut out a few of these.

Kotor1:

Kotor2:
Visa render
(quality is a little off i shal sort it later)

Batman related renders

Batgirl render

Batman render

Just a few renders i cut a while back i posted them on GR but got no response.

Have not had a new update in a long time

So I thought it was time to share with you some new stuff. Just small bits of advice as I have no work to show you (or rather which I can show you). Actually that is not true but I shall come back to that later on. I am finding a lot of new ways to use the GIMP and finding new techniques, so I shall give you the best advice a GIMPer can give to another new GIMPer, experiment. Just play with filters layer modes anything most of the best results are the individual ones created by people.

I hope to get some renders for you good people to use later up. I am just trying to think of the best way to do this as blogger is very confining and of course will not allow me to create extra pages. But I think I have a system that shall work and will eventually build up a back catalog of work.


Here is an av I did a bit back I added the lightsabres and the lightning, this was before I learned how to do proper lightning I know now and I can do good force lightning.







Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

How to make a simple xbox 360 faceplate in the GIMP

This tutorial is mainly for the users of PlanetXbox360 where they like to have them in their sigs. To make a basic one is very easy, and this tutorial will give the beginners a basic understanding of how layers work.
First download the following file from Major Nelson's site
1. Open up the GIMP (if you have not already downloaded go do so it is free GIMP.org)
2. Click on file - open.





















3. Go through the list of files until you find the one you just downloaded, then click on it to open it.
Your screen should now look like this:















4. Go to image - image size





















5. Set the image size to width = 113 height = 4oo
6. Go to image - rotate canvas - 90 ccw*





















7. You will see now that it is the right size for a sig. Now take a look at the layers section there will be five layers, saying "outer" "light" "put below this layer" "example layer" and "put above this layer". Right click on the layer which says "example layer" and then go down to delete layer.





















8. You will now notice that it has lost the King Kong background that is good. Left click on the layer which says "put above this layer" then right click on this and select new layer, this layer will be placed above the "put above this" layer. Use the default setting, but make sure transparent background is selected.









































9. Left click on the new layer which should just be titled "New layer"
10. Go back and click on file - open (on the main GIMP window)
11. Select the picture you want to use on your faceplate.
12. If you want to re-adjust the size because the image will be to large for the faceplate do this now, I showed how this is done earlier in the tutorial.
13. Sow simply go on edit - copy















14. Now go back to the faceplate picture by clicking on the bar at the top oif it. Again make sure the layer titled "new layer" is selected then simply go edit - paste.
15. The image will now be on top of the faceplate but you shall see all the features of the console, like the light above it. Now you can move the picture so it is positioned well on the faceplate. Click on the icon that looks like a cross.



















16. Now just move the picture around, very simple. Once it is in a position you like then you can add text onto it, this is very simple just click on the text tool I shall not be covering this now.
17. Now you have a faceplate just save it go to file - save











18. It does not matter what you save it as, as long as you end it on .jpg so example.jpg or something. Choose where you want to save it. Then click save it will say that JPG cant handle transparency stick the quality to 100% and then click export.
19. You have a faceplate, any questions or comments? Don't feel afraid to ask.

-George

A new signature

Click the pic to get the full sized version :)
I have not customized this yet as i am not sure how to best do it. Also i did not blend the render in as i have worked on it. It was created by using a Gaussasion blur then duplicating the render layer three times setting there modes to darken - lighten - lighten. So the best advice i could ever give you is just play around.

Site slightly re-designed

Well I just sorted it out a bit, but it is by no means finished so hold on.
Here is a piece of my work:





I cut down the render to the shoulders as I could not be bothered to do more, I now wish I had the original file so I can blend the render in a different manner. I used a colour gradient and set its mode to overlay so it would blend in with the brushwork. The sig was meant to be tech but went a little wrong in the process. It is one of the best I have done, I believe.

"Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality."

- Jules de Gaultier

Well I thought that was amusing and, well it just sums me up nicely. Have a good weekend!

-George

An effect

This was just brilliant what can I really say it works everytime and it looks great.
Original: (background is see through, click the thumbnail to see the large version, feel free to use as a render)

New: (click for large version, you will not notice the difference until you do.)


Seen them both, good then you will have noticed the cartoony effects.

If you want to do this visit GIMPtalk, and why not join the forum while you are there? ;)

PS. Those pics were way too large to put up on the blogger server so they are hosted at IHOSTPHOTOS.

Welcome to this blog

I have been using the program GIMP for awhile. If you do not know what the GIMP is here is a very shorst summary.

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

This site is not so much a resource as a journal of my adventures using the program. If you want a resource site i advise you to go to GIMPtalk which is easily the best. I shall of course post more later this is a first post, i hoipe to re-design the site, so it does not look like evey other blog currently in existense.