Skip to main content

GIMP logo tutorial - Applying textures

This tutorial will be one of applying textures in the process of making the logo for game we are about to publish as a webplayer.  I will be using GIMP, a free download art interface.  GIMP is also pressure sensitive if you have a pen tablet, allowing a large range of detail.
First off, I have my canvas (600x450px) and my image is composed of at the moment a white background and a transparent layer with the picture.  I'd made it so that the brush size is sensitive to the pressure of my pen tablet, allowing sharp edges.  However, after the initial outline is completed, precise brushstrokes aren't necessary.

I then did a layer of one color (grey in this case) under the outline layer.  After the coloring was done I found a metal texture I liked.  I use bittbox for my textures because they have a wide variety of textures that are free and come in multiple sizes.  I used a rusted blue metal texture. It ended up looking like this:  

I set the texture layer to 88% opacity and a copy of my color layer over that at 62% opacity.


Applying textures to pictures isn't all that hard, and makes all the difference.

  • First you find a texture you like, whether you find it on the internet or you take a picture of something and scan it in, and save it to your computer.
  • Open the texture picture in GIMP, moving it above the layers you want it to affect
  • Set the layer to "Overlay" using the little arrow tab above the opacity options.
  • Adjust opacity of the texture until you get what you want, you can even apply multiple textures.
Basically what setting a layer to overlay does is add the impression of its design to any layers below that have chrome or hue on it (anything that is not completely transparent) without drastically changing the colors of the lower layers.

Or if you want to be complicated and mathematical : (The variable "M" is the mask and "I"is the image layer below the mask, and 255= the pixel color component, which must always be between 0 and 255)
E= I/255(I+2M/255(255-I))

(The image divided by 255 multiplied by the image plus twice the mask layer that is divided by 255 multiplied by 255 minus the image equals the effect you receive) 
 
But anyway, that is how you apply textures to make your picture look fancy and professional.  If you need a better explanation, feel free to email the blog.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How To Make a Hellish Looking Sky Box

I came across this problem while constructing my scene of Hell in a little project I've been working on, and could not find a reasonable sky box on the web for what I want. Maybe I was not looking hard enough, but I ended up making nice substitute. If you think the sky box looks familiar, then your right. The Sky box I'm using is already packaged with Unity3D! To import the sky boxes Unity has made for you,  simply go to Assets>Import Package>Skyboxes.  The sky boxes will appear in your projects tab under a folder named "Standard Assets". To make this sky box, first you must find the folder containing all the sky box materials and open it up. In it will be a list of sky boxes for your disposal. To get this skybox, I decided to tweak the "StarryNight Skybox" (But the "MoonShine Skybox" looks pretty cool also!).  Select the sky box and view it under the inspector tab. Underneath the properties there will be a tint color variable allowin

How To Make A Gun Shot Sound (SFX On Unity 3D)

When it comes to audio in Unity, there are four components: Audio Clip , Audio Source , Audio Listener , and Audio Re-verb Zone . Audio Clips are the actual audio file imported into your game. Unity supports file formats: .aif, .wav, .mp3, and .ogg. When imported, you can compress them greatly, with the price of loosing some quality. You can do this by first selecting the audio clip, view it in the inspector. Under the Audio Importer component, you can switch the audio format from Native to the audio clip, to a compressed format applied by Unity. You can change how compressed the file is by dragging the bar at the bottom, then hitting apply. You can get plenty of free good SFX from a site called  freesound.org . All you have to do is create an account for free , and download all the sounds you want. I found a nice gun shot sound here . Simply download and load into your Project. Audio Source actually plays the audio clip in your scene. They are an component, so it mu

Handling Music and Sound Effects In Your Games

Initiative  While developing Treva's Adventure I had to figure out a way to handle multiple music tracks and sound effects in a clean manner or suffer horribly.  What was going to help me achieve a simple solution was taking all the different sounds and centralizing them in a single class in order to black box them.   Any other code trying to play a sound wouldn't even know the sound file's name.   All code trying to play a music track would reference a enum that defines all the track names. Defining The Class Creating The Enum When I first started defining types in my enumeration,  I was naming the types to be exactly like the file name.  For a scary sound effect I had found a file named "ghost breath".  So around my code would be scattered lines like SoundManager.Play(SoundEffectType.GhostBreath);  This was fine until I found a sound that better fit the situation it was being used in,  and decided to use "ghost breath" for a different s