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Donec elit nulla, pulvinar nec porta sed, hendrerit eget metus. Suspendisse porttitor ligula non felis volutpat pretium? Praesent laoreet nisl a eros ultricies in lacinia All right guys and gals, today is Monday which among others things means that it's time for my wallpaper tutorial here. I've been wondering what wallpaper should I use for today's tutorial and I made my mind like 5 mins ago, but I promise you you won't be disappointed.
So it's time to present you the wallpaper that you'll have after you've completed the tutorial. So I wanna hear loud claps for this vivid "Cosmos" wallpaper:
Looks stunning, right? (if you are dumb enough to say "NO", you shall be blood-eagled :D). Anyway, it's time I start with the tutorial already.
Step 1.
Download this .PNG file and open it with GIMP:
Step 2.
Create a new layer and fill it with solid black. Now click on Filters -> Noise -> HSV noise. Choose the following settings for the noise and click OK:
Now set the layer mode to "Screen" and Opacity to 50%
Step 3.
Create a new layer. Now choose the "Blend" tool and set gradient to "Full saturation spectrum CW". Now make a gradient like this:
Now set the layer mode to "Overlay" and you should see a nice effect:
Step 4.
Download this brush and put the .gbr file in ~/.gimp-2.6/brushes Save the file as .xcf and than exit GIMP. Now open the .xcf file. Create a new layer and using the "Rectangle select" tool make a selection that is as high as the height of the and about 1/3 as wide. Now select the brush "rectangle long" in the "Paintbrush" tool and select the following settings for it: Size -> 0.50 , Brush Dynamic -> Random (just don't touch Hardness setting here) , Apply Jitter -> 1.0 , Use colour from gradient (standart).
Now simply brush horizontally about 6 times:
Now click "Filters -> Blur -> Montion Blur". Select the following settings for it and click OK:
Now you should have something like this:
Now select the "Scale" tool (Shift+T) and scale the layer to 1600x3000.
Now choose the "Rotate" tool (Shift+R) and rotate the layer to 45 degrees.
Now using the "Move" tool position the layer where you want it to be.
If done correctly you should have something that looks more or less this way:
Step 5.
Create a new layer. Now select the "Blend" tool and set gradient to "Full saturation spectrum CCW". Now stroke across the grey streams:
Set the layer mode to "Overlay" and you should see a nice effect like this:
Step 6.
The wallpaper is beginning to take shape, isn't it? Now it's time to make is bit more shiny by adding some layer mask.
First thing you need to do is set your foreground colour to black and the choose the "Blend" tool with gradient "Foreground to transparency".
Return the layer mode of the gradient for the streams to "Normal". Right click on that layer name and select Add Layer Mask. Select "White (full opacity) Now using the gradient tool make to gradient above the big red areas around the streams. This will remove the red parts. Again set the layer mode to "Overlay". Your image should now look like this:
Now we will the streams less dense. Click on the "Blend" tool and set the "Shape" to "radial". Right click on the name of the streams layer and again choose Add Layer Mask, select White (full opacity) Now using the gradient tool make some areas less visible. Just make a gradient somewhere and that layer will be less visible. For example I've made my streams look like this:
Step 7.
Now it's time for adding background mask. Create new layer and fill it with solid black. Now click "Filters -> Render -> Clouds -> Difference Clouds". There choose the following settings and click OK:
Now set that layer mode to "Grain merge". This will add some nice light and shadow effects:
Time for our second mask, so create a new layer and fill it with solid black. Again click "Filters -> Render -> Clouds -> Difference Clouds", but this time in the settings click "Turbulent" too and set detail to 1. Set the layer mode of that to "Overlay":
And time for the third and last mask. Needless to say create a new layer and fill it with solid layer and again click on "Filters -> Render -> Clouds -> Difference Clouds", so I am just gonna give you the settings for this third Clouds layer:
Now make another new solid black layer above the third cloud layer and set it's layer mode to "Overlay". Then right click on on and click "Merge Down", this will merge it with the third Cloud layer. Set the layer mode of the new layer to "Overlay" and Opacity to 25%. This will add even more darkness to the wallpaper:
Step 8.
All right, enough darkness, time to light things up a bit. Create yet another new layer and set white as your foreground colour. Now select the "Blend" tool and set the "Gradient" to "Foreground to transparency" and "Shape" to "Radial". Now paint white blobs where you think the wallpaper is too dark. For example here are my blobs:
Set that layer mode to "Overlay". This should add some lightness to the wallpaper:
If you think it's too dark, you can try duplicating the layer or instead of setting it to "Overlay" just lowering it's transparency.
Step 9.
That step is extremely easy. Create a new layer and fill it with solid black. Now click "Filters -> Light and Shadow -> Drop Shadow" and make a flare like this one:
Set this layer mode to "Screen"
Step 10.
Create a new layer. Now make sure your foreground colour is solid black. Select the "Blend" tool with "Gradient" to "Foreground to transparency" and "Shape" to "Radial" Make a black blob just above the light (upper) part of the lens flare, just like this:
Now set the layer mode to "Overlay" and you're done:
For those of you who will be interested here's my 2560x1600 .PNG file:
And my .XCF:
Categories:
art,
gimp,
how to gimp,
linux,
Ubuntu how to's
I know it was 11 years ago that you published this (which is basically infinity in internet time), but the piece is awesome and kind of exactly what I'm looking for in a wallpaper. Do you still have the 2560x1600 version? Unfortunately Picasa's long gone...