Tutorial: Creating a Photographic Logo in GIMP

You might have noticed that OpenArtBox now has its own logo. Here's how you can quickly and easily create your own photographic logo in GIMP, no drawing ability required.

Opening a RAW File in GIMP

1. In GIMP, go to File>>Open. Find the photograph that you would like to use for your logo. When working with RAW image files, you will need the  UFRaw plugin for GIMP (you can find and download the plugin using Ubuntu Software Center). Clicking the gray box in the upper right hand corner of the Open Image dialog box will generate a preview of your image, and clicking Open will open your file in GIMP.

2. When you load a RAW image file with the UFRaw plugin installed, you can adjust settings such as white balance and color saturation. Use the drop down box to set the white balance to Manual WB, and use the Temperature and Green  channel sliders below for custom white balance settings. Then click the okay button in the bottom right side of the screen.

 
Creating an Image with a Transparent Background

1. Use the lasso tool to select the part of the image that you want to keep.

2. To create a new layer, right click in the layers and click “Create New Layer.” When the New Layer dialog box appears, make sure that “Transparency” is selected under Layer Fill Type. Click OK.

3. With the background layer selected, right click the area of your image that you have already selected with the lasso tool and select “copy.”

4. With your new layer selected, right click the image and select “paste.”

5. Delete the original background layer. You should now have an image with a transparent background.

Creating a Composite Image

1. Go to File>>Open, and open a second image file in GIMP.  Drag the background layer into your first image, and it will appear as a new layer in that image.

2. With the new layer selected, you can click and drag the second image to position it within the first image. Go to Layer>>Transform>>Arbitrary Rotation to rotate the image and Layer>>Scale Layer to resize the image.

Adding Finishing Touches and Saving

1. Select the layer that you would like to add a filter to. Go to Filters>>Artistic, and try out some of the filters and their settings until you find something you like.

2. If you would like to add text to your logo, select the text tool and click in the image to create a text box. You can set the font, font size, and color of the text in the panel in the left side of the screen.
 
3. Go to Image>>Scale Image. Scale your image down to the size you need your logo to be.
 
4. Go to File>>Save As, and save the image with a .png extension.

References

UFRaw User Guide. SourceForge. Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Guide.html

(September 8, 2008). Making Images with Transparent Backgrounds Using GIMP. CafeSuccess. Retrieved December 2, 2011,  from  http://cafesuccess.blogspot.com/2006/09/making-images-with-transparent.html

Interview with Demented, Part II

This is a continuation of OpenArtBox's interview with Demented. Demented is an active member of the GimpTalk forums, and is known as DementedSnake on Deviant Art (http://dementedsnake.deviantart.com/). 

(Continued from Part I)

 

OpenArtBox: Which open source art/design software packages do you
use? What, in particular, do you do with them?

Demented: I use (hold on, let me check...) MyPaint, GIMP, Inkscape, recordMyDesktop, OpenShot, Audacity, and MakeHuman; in that order, from most frequently used to least. Plus there are a few other things not directly used for art, but which help, like Firefox, or the Wacom drivers. I don't use them professionally, although I've thought about if I ever could (Wishful thinking, I know). For example, I see great artists like David Revoy, Ramon Miranda, and our very own Griatch the Scandinavian Tyrant, who all make use of libre software to create amazing works of art. Open source has come a long way in the short time I've known it. I see no reason why it shouldn't be professional grade, besides a shortage of free time or developers. But with the explosion of open source recently, both are increasing exponentially. Shouldn't be long now.

OpenArtBox: What do you like about the open source software that you use? Which features do you find particularly useful?

Demented: It's free, Free, and freedom. I can download as much as my bandwidth will allow, rip out the guts, throw my own version together and turn around and hand out copies. That's the whole point, and the greatest strength of FOSS. It cannot be tamed, confined, restricted, or killed off. It's the best kind of virus. A meme of grand ideals, if you like. I'll put up with the occasional silly bug for that kind of freedom. Plus, being able to read and write to almost any format imaginable has it's perks. My iPod cries if I try to put anything other than MP3s on it. Just sayin'.

OpenArtBox: What proprietary (non-open source) software packages have you used for art/design, and how do they compare to the open source packages you have used?

Demented: I've tried out Photoshop. It's nice, but I'm not crazy about it. It seems too heavy and bloated for my needs. In MyPaint, I can spin my canvas around like a top and not lose a bit of speed. I tried that in Photoshop, but had to enable some video card options first. Then it was just too sluggish to use and lagged when I tried to rotate the canvas. I'm not saying Photoshop is [an inferior product], but if it were open source, that problem would have had five developers giving six resolutions each within a week. FOSS is flexible, man. It's great. But this isn't "hate on commercial software" day. The official Wacom driver package is much nicer than the current open source one. The latter is good, but still a bit rough and unsure of itself. Plus, it doesn't have per-application support or built-in OLED functions yet. Go with what works. For me, that's mostly open source.

Interview with Demented, Part I

Demented is an active member of the GimpTalk forums, and is known as DementedSnake on Deviant Art (http://dementedsnake.deviantart.com/). You can find links to Demented's GIMP tutorials here.

OpenArtBox:  If you could, please give a little background information about yourself.

Demented: I'm just a lowly artist wannabe working my way up to an art hobbyist. No professional training or anything. So far I've been self-taught, though I'm looking into taking some classes to round out my pitiful knowledge. I live in the US, lower east coast. I love open source. If nothing else, the concept of thousands of people working to create free software to benefit the whole of humanity is an appealing thing.

OpenArtBox: What operating system do you use? If you use Linux, which distribution? In what ways do you feel that your operating system/Linux distribution of choice meets your needs as an artist/designer especially well?

Demented: I run Linux. I keep Windows 7 around for a few things like games and Netflix, but I spend most of my time in Linux Mint. I used Windows for a long time, and slowly started accumulating lots of FOSS like Firefox, GIMP, MyPaint, Audacity, etc.. One day I realized that most of the software I used was this weird thing called "open source". I looked into it and discovered that there was an entire open source operating system. I dabbed a bit with Debian on an old clunker and was hooked. It would be a year or so before I tried out Linux on my main computer (a Dell Latitude C600), but the moment I got to Debian's desktop, I knew it was something I just wanted to have. It was a GNOME 2 desktop.

Like I said, my programs were all already open source, so I was happy to find that everything I was used to was already on Linux. All of my needs were met before I even knew about it. I have a new machine now, and have only been using Linux full-time for a couple of years. It's a Gateway ZX4800 and came with Windows 7. The reason I mention this is that Windows 7 refused to let me use my tablet's drivers without forcing its own crappy driver instead. So I got a slow response time, buggy cursor issues, and random breakage where the tablet wouldn't work at all. I had to go around and start disabling Windows services in order to get my tablet working. But by doing that, I couldn't use my touchscreen. I was very pissed that I was being forced to choose what hardware I could use due to what I considered to be a greedy and unnaturally enforced monoculture. It was either use Window's broken software, or trash one of my devices. I think that's part of what drove me to take the plunge into Linux after years of dabbling. So far, it's been a bit bumpy, but a much...I don't know..."cleaner" experience, I guess.
 
(Continued in Part II)

Guest Blog from Chris Moezzi of Moezzination.blogspot.com

Chris Moezzi is a student at the University of Texas at Dallas. Moezzination.blogspot.com is a blog for those who would like to learn the Autodesk Maya MEL language. Also make sure to check out OpenArtBox's guest blog, OpenArtBox's Tips for Maya Users, on Moezzination.

Open Source Philosophy

The free and open-source nature of the Linux platform not only allows for a large degree of customization and utility that its original developers couldn’t have anticipated, it also helps build a community where people work on a collaborative effort. 

Proprietary Meets Open Source?

With the growing popularity of the open source philosophy and the implications it brings - such as a dedicated fan/user base - it seems that developers of proprietary software have taken notice.

Take Maya, the 3D package from Autodesk, for instance.

Price

Autodesk once charged the exorbitant amount of $16,000 to purchase a license for Maya. But last year, Autodesk started offering its software to students for free. Curiously, Autodesk doesn’t require proof of attendance, so anyone can actually get access to Maya, now.

Other expensive 3D packages that are now offered for free include:

• 3DS Max
• SoftImage
• Mudbox

Customization

Like Linux, Maya allows users to fully customize the interface, tools, and other functionalities through its embedded scripting language, called MEL. In fact, the entire UI can be replaced with an entirely new and customizable one - if the user is able to build one - through MEL scripts and simply use Maya for its 3D engine.

Portability and Sharing

What’s most important striking, however, is the fact that MEL scripts can be saved, exported, and imported – allowing the ability to share a MEL Script from one user to another. There are a number of forums where Maya users can share, trade, and sell MEL Scripts and Maya assets. Here are some of the most prominent ones:

• CG Society
• The Area
• Creative Cow
• Tutorialized
• Creative Crash

The Beginning or the End? Are Proprietary Companies Waking Up? 
 

They should be.  After all, there are more reasons to be open source than not. It will be interesting to see how art, technology, business, and the internet will shape each other in the years to come. However, if proprietary companies are following an altered version of the open-source philosophy, how does that affect developers who follow the true open-source philosophy? Time will only tell. For now, though, it only seems that Blender has a run for its money in the 3D domain of free / open source software.

Where to Find Help

One of the most important things to know about any piece of software is where to find help using it. Virtually everyone who uses a piece of software will need help with it at some point, whether it’s help getting started, help with some soft of technical problem , or help using the software’s advanced features. While the online documentation or help files that came with your software might be a good place to look for help, you may have a question that is not covered in the documentation, or you might need more help than the documentation provides.

Search Engines

Search engines are one way to find help, and are especially useful when you have a specific problem with your software (for example, if the software begins crashing whenever you try to save your file). Usually, just typing your problem into Google will find blog posts, forum threads, YouTube videos and even Ask.com pages in which someone else has already asked your question. It is rare that you will find a problem with a computer program that someone else hasn’t already encountered.

Tip: If you don't know what else to type in Google's search bar, feel free to use Google as if it were a high tech magic 8 ball.Typing your question in the form of a question certainly isn't necessary (or particularly useful), but since it doesn't hurt anything, many people do it anyway. The results of a search for “Where can I find the eraser tool in GIMP?” are almost if not completely identical to a search for “eraser tool GIMP.”

Software Specific Forums

One of the most useful places to look for help with a specific piece of software is on a forum that has been created just for users of that software. Here are forums for just a few of the most popular open source art and design software packages:

• GimpTalk (www.GimpTalk.com): The GimpTalk forums are a great place to discuss GIMP with other GIMP users from all over the world. There is also a thread just for tutorials written by GIMP users, including many tutorials written by Griatch, one of GimpTalk's administrators (read OpenArtBox's interview with Griatch here).
  
  
• InkScapeForum (www.InkScapeForum.com) : InkScapeForum is a place where InkScape users can discuss InkScape with one another, as well as show off their work completed in InkScape and promote their own InkScape related websites.
  
  
• BlenderArtists (www.BlenderArtists.org): The forums on Blender.org are actually for Blender developers, so if you want to discuss Blender with other users, you'll need to sign up for the BlenderArtists forums.
  
  
• Ubuntu (www.UbuntuForums.org): Ubuntu's forums include a community thread just for Art & Design. This is a good place to ask general questions about art and design software in Ubuntu Linux, especially if you need to to do a particular task, but you're not sure which program to use. For example, if you needed to view RAW image files in Ubuntu, you might post a question asking which programs will allow you to read and view RAW images.
  
  

Tip: Before posting, check out OpenArtBox's blog about “How to Ask a Question on a Forum.”

YouTube

You can find just about any kind of video tutorial on YouTube. From playing a guitar to cutting your own hair, if there are people who know how to do it, it's likely that at least one of those people will make a video tutorial about it. Video tutorials about how to use the different features of open source art and design software are no exception. YouTube is a great place to find tutorials about using certain tools in programs like GIMP and InkScape, as well as video tutorials for beginners who are using these programs for the first time.

References

1. Google. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.google.com 
2. GimpTalk. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.gimptalk.com
3. InkScapeForum. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.inkscapeforum.com
4. BlenderArtists. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.blenderartists.org
5. Ubuntu. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.ubuntuforums.org 
6. YouTube. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com

How to Ask a Question on a Forum

If you want to illicit the most useful responses, the way you ask a question matters. Avoid the following:

• TYPING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS AND OR WRITING WITHOUT PUNCTUATION
• Mispeling evr othr word (misspelling every other word) or writing in txtspk (textspeak)
• Posting your question in a text color or font that is difficult to read

In addition to simply making your question readable, make sure you give enough information about your problem. For example, if all you say is “My computer crashes when I try to save my file,” or “I can’t get GIMP's eraser tool to work,” the people reading your question probably aren’t going to have enough information to respond. Generally, you should try to give enough information about the problem that another user of the software could replicate the problem that you’re having on their computer.

In some cases (like when you’re encountering a technical problem with the software) you might also want to give information about the hardware you’re running the software on, such as the type of processor you are using, the size of your hard drive, or how much RAM your computer has. If you’re running software that can be run on multiple operating systems (which is the case with most free and open source software), specifying the operating system you’re running the software on is also likely to be helpful.

Interview with Griatch, Part II

This is a continuation of OpenArtBox’s interview with GimpTalk forum administrator Griatch. Griatch’s DeviantArt gallery can be found at http://www.griatch-art.deviantart.com/.

(Which open source art/design software packages do you
use? What, in particular, do you do with them? Response continued from Part I)

Griatch:  For hobby/art purposes, here's a selection:

 My main painting tool is MyPaint, it's a specialized procedural brush generator which is very powerful for creating brush strokes. It is intentionally limited in scope and meant to be used in conjunction with GIMP.

GIMP is what I use for post-processing and detailing of an image. It has all the features you need to modify and tweak colours, but also some very useful functions for painting. Before finding MyPaint, I did all my painting, from beginning to end, in GIMP without any trouble. MyPaint has better brushes, but GIMP has all the rest you need to create a finalized image.

Inkscape is a vector drawing program which is very good. I use it primarily for lettering comics and doing instructive diagrams and the like.

I keep wanting to really get into Blender, the 3D modeling software, but at this point I've done little more than fiddled with it. I also use Xfig (another vector program) and a bunch of others. Krita is another painter program which is coming strongly (focusing on natural media simulation), but which I've not yet really gotten into. 

OpenArtBox: What do you like about the open source software that you use? Which features do you find particularly useful?

Griatch: Apart from the features outlined above, I enjoy the fact that I can have a potential influence on their development. To take MyPaint as an example: There was a feature I liked to have - it was a simple tweak, so I simply added it to my copy of the code to use. Showing what I did to developers caused it to eventually go into the main MyPaint distribution. But even if the devs had decided against it, I could have kept using my private tweaked version working just the way I liked it. You cannot do things like this with a proprietary system.

OpenArtBox: What proprietary (non-open source) software packages have you used for art/design, and how do they compare to the open source packages you have used?

Griatch: Oh, I've tried a few. The only one I use semi-regularly is Google SketchUp, which runs fine under Wine emulation. It has probably the easiest-to-use UI of any 3D package I've seen. It's very useful to quickly testing out complex shapes from different angles. I have tried some demo versions of Photoshop and Painter and I'm sure they are great, but the lack of Linux support mean they aren't viable options for me even if I was willing to pay their hefty pricing schemes. Open-source software does all I need it to do.