GIMP Tutorial #9 - How to Create a Cool Wave Effect
As you already know GIMP is an outstanding free image editor that offers a wide variety of features and tools which can only be pared in quality and quantity with other expensive commercial applications like Adobe's Photoshop. With GIMP you can do whatever you want regarding photo retouching, image edition and of course image creation, In today's tutorial I'm going to guide you through the process of creating a really nice wave effect you can later apply to your image creation/edition projects.
By now you may also know that you can get your free and full version of GIMP by clicking the “Download” button above. The whole process of download and setup will only take a few minutes and it will be carried out by the InstallIQTM installation manager.
To start with, create a new image go to File → New...
For this example I created a 400 x 400 pixel image, you can make it any size but preferably square. Next go to Filters → Render → Clouds → Solid Noise... The Solid Noise dialog will appear, there you have to check the Randomize and Turbulent check-boxes and enter 4 in the Detail box. All other parameters should be left to default settings. Click OK.
Next go to Filters → Render → Clouds → Difference Clouds... and leave all parameters to default settings and click OK.
Now go to Color → Levels... and move the white slider on the right to 180 and the gray slider in the center to 1.80. This is done in order to enhance the brighter sections without remove black and gray areas completely.
After clicking OK to set the adjustments, go Filters → Blur → Motion Blur... here you'll incorporate a zoom blur, so, change the Blur Type to Zoom, and center the zoom with image's center finally enter 60 as the Blur Length.
Next step is to go to Filters → Distorts → Whirl and Pinch... and set the Whirl angle to 200, but feel free to play with this and the other parameters until you are satisfied.
Go to the Layers toolbox and duplicate the existing layer, see next screen capture for guidance.
Select the newly created and from the mode select Lighten only.
Now rightclick the layer and select Flatten Image.
For the coloring purposes go to Color → Curves... Select Green on the Channel and adjust the curve as seen on the next screen capture.
do the same for the Red and the Blue channels.
once you are done click OK and go to Colors → Brightness-Contrast... and set them to 89 and 96 if you want to get the exact effect of the picture, anyway you can play with those sliders till satisfied.
And voilà!!! you wave image is finished.
All you have to do now is to save it in the format you want.
Final Words
Once again GIMP shows us what a versatile and powerful image editing tool it is. Do not hesitate and give Gimp a try, download your free full copy by clicking the “Download Now” link below. It's free and tested to be virus, worms and all other malware free.
