Tutorial 9: Preparing Custom Header and mastering the Blend Tool.
Level: Easy
Learn The GIMP basics first by visiting the online manual
Step 1:
I have opened a file that will be used as a header, it is an early morning shot of the Moon taken with a Sony DSCv with a x 10 Carl Zeiss Zoom lens.
You can download this file
here.
Step 2:
Select the Crop Tool from the Toolbox:
Select the area of the Image as I have below then press the Enter button on your Keyboard.
Step 3:
Next select the Blend Tool from the main menu and use the settings I have below.
I have the foreground color set at black and the background set as white. You can change the color by double clicking on the Foreground or Background Squares and selecting the color from the Pop up menu.
Note: It is imortant to set the Mode to 'Screen' this will allow us th fade off a selected part on the Image.
Step 4:
With the Blend Tool selected click the left mouse button in the centre of the Image as I have done on the right and then hold it and drag down to the bottom of the Image and let go of the mouse button. Your Image should now look like the Image below.
Step 5:
Next I would like you to change the Blend Tool settings to those on the Left. Change the Mode to Burn and the Opacity to a value of 50.
Select the Blend Tool and drag from the top of the Image to the bottom as I have done above.
Your Image should look like the Image above.
Step 6:
From the main menu choose File > Create > Logos > Cool Metal.
In the Cool Metal Dialog box change the settings as I did above. I clicked on the Font button and selected the Font Accent. You may not have this font so choose a Bold font that will do the job. I clicked on the gradient button and chose the gradient called 'Metal Something". I chose a font size of 300 and typed in the Text Morning Moon.
Click the OK button and your image should look like the one on the left.
Step 7:
With the Text Image selected go to the Layers Docker . If you don't already have it active choose Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Layers
Click on the First Layer called Morning Moon and from the main menu choose Layer > Merge Down.
The top Layer will now be called Shadow, click on it and choose
Layer > Merge Down again.
You will now be left with two layers as below.
Click on the Reflection Layer and choose Edit > Copy from the main menu.
Step 8:
Click on the Image panel of the Moon to make it active and bring it to the front. From the main menu choose Edit > Paste As > New Layer. The text Layer should paste onto the Image as below.
Choose the Move Tool from the Toolbox and drag the new Layer to the bottom of the Image as on the right.
Step 9:
Next we will enhance the color in the text. From the main menu choose Colors > Hue and Saturation to bring up the dialog on the Left.
Move the Saturation slider all the way to 100 and click the OK button.
Then from the main menu choose Colors > Brightness and Contrast to bring up the menu below. Choose the settings I have with a Brightness of 8 and a Contrast of 31 and then click the OK button.
Your artwork should now look like the one on the Right.
From the main menu Choose Image > Flatten Image to combine the Layers together. You can now save the file in a high quality format for use in an offset brochure. You can do this by repeating the steps learnt in Tutorial 5 if you wish to save the file as a high quality CMYK tiff file.
In this tutorial we will explore the different uses of the blend tool starting with a basic Image, cropping, using blend effects and then adding Text using Script Fu.
