GIMP DISCUSSIONS

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Horus
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

Glad you found it OK to follow Grandad, it is a difficult subject to get across and that is why I am slicing it up into chunks, so please remember that I cannot cover all the aspects of Layers in one go as it is to much to grasp. Unfortunately it will often leave you all with a few more questions than when we started, but hopefully it will all build up to one big picture of understanding as we go along.

However for the impatient ones amongst you, ;) for now the easiest way is for you to make your selection using any of the two methods we have discussed previously and then go to your MAIN MENU BAR and select EDIT, now choose either the CUT or CLEAR options from the drop down menu and that will remove your selection. Don’t forget to de-select the area afterwards and if you are replacing a sky, to have your replacement sky picture at the bottom of the stack.


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Kiya
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Kiya »

Horus I have printed off the last Tutorial " About Layers " have to say this is not one of my strongest subjects to be working with & very rarely I use layers.

I remember from past excercises from you, when we have a few layers to work with to have the layer your working on highlighted & you can hide other ones with the little eye by switching it on/off, merging all the photos tog when finished. I sure there's lots more to remember but for now I'll do as you suggest to think about it for a while & wait for an excercise with instructions from you, after this I usually try to do it from memory ;)
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

You seem to have remembered it quite well Kiya, :up as you have said the 'active' layer (the one you are working on) should always be highlighted and sometimes you need to switch between layers to carry out a certain task, or even move them around or switch the visibility of certain layer off or on. When we are happy with the results we will 'merge' all of the layers we want into a single picture, often this will mean that some layers get disgarded because we do not need them in our finished picture, I will deal with this in more detail at a later date.
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Kiya »

I have tried it but with being a new program to me ( Gimp ) I'm still trying to find my way around that & got stuck more or less at the beginning :?

I've had a good look at the Layer's menu with all the little icons & trying to remember which is which & shall wait for further instruction, till then I am stuck :oops:
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Horus
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

I have just posted a printable list that explains all the various Gimp tools and what they are used for.
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Kiya »

Printed out the list now :)

A very handy/guide as to what each tool does.

Thanks again for your effort & time :)
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

In addition to the TOOLS explanation list I posted earlier, I have just added another practice exercise for using Layers.
EXERCISE 2 ADDING AND USING ANOTHER LAYER
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Kiya »

Here is my attempt with sky, I wasn't sure if we had to merge the two tog but I saved it without merging . The picture was very small to work with.
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

:lol: :lol: :lol: Sorry to laugh Kiya, but that has made my day thinking about how you must have struggled with this exercise. :D
So for shear dedication I am awarding you a GOLD STAR with MERIT :up

But ........................ next time try clicking on the thumbnail image BEFORE you make a copy of it, because all you copied was a very small thumbnail, no wonder you were struggling. ;)

On the merge thing, if you think that you may want to work on it again then save it without merging the layers, if not then you can merge them.
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Kiya
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Kiya »

Oh deary me!!!! how could I be so stupid :lol: Ok back I go to the drawing board & to find your pic again.
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

No problems Kiya, I bet that's one mistake you won't make again though. :D
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Kiya »

Your right wont forget that mistake in a hurry :oops:

Here goes with 2nd attempt
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I tried to do it with my own photo & sky but some of the chequered background was showing, not sure why it happened or perhaps the pics were of different sizes :?
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

That looks a lot better Kiya :up far easier with a bigger image eh? :lol:
And yes it is more than likely your images were different sizes.
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I'm dragging up the end of the class but I'm getting there. Just started reading the "Magic Wand" and FYI here there isn't a "Magic Wand" (possibly as local vernacular colour and inuendo has it as a rather naughty piece of male anatomy) on my GIMP. Instead I have a "Fuzzy Select Tool"! Honest - there are NO "Magic Wands" on GIMP here only "Fuzzy Select Tools!"
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

WAIT - hmmmmmmm H - now that I've read your explanation of all the different tools AND after I've now clicked and opened every single thing I have in GIMP - I can't find the Magic Wand (and here I was thinking something else - OMG where IS my mind these days :?: :!: :?: but I really don't think I have a Magic Wand.......???

It is a stick with a yellow dot on the end? Fourth over from the left (cause that is the Fuzzy Wand)........

Great explanation of Layers - need to get my brain about them.......

And lastly - I have a laptop, sit in a chair and do NOT have a mouse. Have a touch screen (which I find makes it difficult for me to be very accurate) Is everybody else using a mouse and does using a mouse make for better and easier accuracy? I know I have a hard time sometimes hold this and clicking that. It is do-able but not easy. Does a mouse make it easier?
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

OK I have to hold my hands up and say it is my fault for confusing you, I was using the generally used term amongst us photo editing types to refer to the tool that 'looks' like a magic wand. It is of course called the Fuzzy Wand in Gimp software, but may be called something else in another program, so the general term for this tool is 'The magic wand', sorry for any confusion.

Maybe I should also explain another term I will use quite often and that is "marching ants", it is a way of describing the alternate blinking of the dotted line around any selection that you make. Once you actually click to accept the selection the dotted line starts to 'blink' and looks similar to a line of ants marching along, hence marching ants.

As to the use of a mouse, let me just say that I personally can never use mouse touchpads on laptops and the first thing I do is to plug in a normal mouse when I use one. I help several neighbours and friends with their PC's and they always smile when I whip out a tiny little mouse with a retractable cable that I keep in my pocket (that sounds rude :lol: ) and plug it in (that sounds even worse :lol: :lol: ) So for me I would always use a mouse for this sort of work and you can pick one up for a few pounds or dollars.
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Grandad »

Have copied and printed the Layer exercise Horus, not had chance to work through it yet but will do soon. Thanks in advance again for all your efforts. :up
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Kiya »

Just been doing a little practice replacing sky, before it was only white & boring the orange colour off centre to the right is a field in the distance

I found using the " Move " tool I could find the best part from sky photo to fit my pic :)

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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Horus »

Great job Kiya and good to see that you are finding a few things out as you go, yes using the move tool to re-locate your sky into the best position is what you should always do, remember when I was explaining to Grandad about why your center work area in Gimp remains the same so that you can move different layers around. You can also re-size the sky layer to stretch it to be a better fit. Another thing worth mentioning at this point is, do you remember me telling LLL a week or so ago to save a picture of that nice tree bark she had posted to a textures folder? well I always save different textures that I see on my travels such as tree bark, pebbles, brickwork, in fact anything with an interesting texture I take a shot of it and then save it in a folder. I also do the same thing with interesting skies that I see and put them in a sky folder, so when I am working on a picture with a poor sky I can always select something that will match it quite well, its worth doing. ;)
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Re: GIMP DISCUSSIONS

Post by Grandad »

Like you Horus I too have a 'Skies' folder. I also have a 'Landscape Backgrounds' folder. These are decent landscape images rather bland but often suitable for adding people or features.

Hoping to work through the Layers exercise later. Been doing a bit of work in the bathroom....anything to keep 'er indoors happy. :lol: :lol:
:gg:
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