Storm Clouds/Lightning (GIMP)

This is a GIMP tutorial for making rain clouds and lightning that I made for mandya.  So here we go...

First, open the photo you want to edit. This is the photo I decided to start with (sorry it isn't modeling related, it's the only screenshot I had that would work for this tutorial). You may need to enlarge the photos to see the text better.

First we're going to start out with the clouds. Add a new layer by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the layers panel that looks like a piece of paper with the corner folded. Now, click on the paintbrush icon to open up the brushes section. Using white, use different cloud brushes to add clouds into the sky. The ones I used are from here

This is what my clouds look like.



Now add another new layer on top of that one. This one will be used to darken the landscape to make it look more stormy.



Fill in this layer with a grayish color. Mine is a medium-light gray. You could also use other dark colors like purple or blue if you want to add a hue to your photo.

Change the layer mode to "Multiply" so that it colors the image while still being able to see through it. I lowered the opacity down to about 75 so that the photo isn't super dark. Depending on the picture, sometimes you can use other modes like "Overlay" or "Soft Light".

Since I don't like the look of the white clouds even with the gray coloring it, I'm going to use the Brightness/Contrast (Colors>Brightness-Contrast) option to darken the clouds to look more like storm clouds instead of white, fluffy ones.

Darken it to your liking. In this case I brought the brightness all the way down. (Of course, if you want to skip this step, you are more than welcome to make the clouds dark to begin with :P) I ended up adding more clouds after this step because I felt that I didn't have enough so that's why the clouds look different in the next step.

Alright, now for the lightning. Create another new layer below the solid gray layer and above the clouds layer. Open up the brushes again and use the lighting brushes (found here) to add them to the sky. With brushes, I tend to do one per layer so I can move them around individually (that is not required though). As you can tell, they don't look extremely realistic because they have sharp edges on the end in the clouds.



To fix this, I am going to use a medium-sized soft round eraser and erase around the edges to make it look more like it is coming out of the clouds.



This is what it looks like afterwards. It looks much better now.

Next, add yet another new layer. This time add it just below the solid gray layer.

On this layer, we are going to use the gradient tool to add a black to white gradient to add a little depth to the photo. To apply the gradient, click and drag the cursor from the top to the bottom. It should turn out to have black at the top and gray/white on the bottom.

Now change the layer mode to "Burn" (other modes can be used as well but for this particular photo, that one turned out the best). Lower the opacity so it isn't so harsh. I lowered it to 57%. Your numbers may vary.

Now you're done with this tutorial. I decided to take it a step further and add some rain to make it more realistic looking using this tutorial

Before:

After:


 

As always, feel free to ask questions. I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

New tutorial

Hey guys, I finally got around to making the GIMP tutorial for drawing eye makeup. Take a look! Feedback is always appreciated ;)

Eye Makeup (GIMP)

This tutorial shows my way of "drawing" eye makeup. Here is the photo that I am starting out with.

Create a new layer by clicking on the icon that looks like a piece of paper located at the bottom of the layers panel. When the box pops up, press okay.

On the new layer, you are going to place the eyelashes for the eye on the right. I'm choosing an upper eyelash brush (which can be found here) and pasting it close to the eye. You can access the brushes by clicking on the brush icon in the toolbox. I'm leaving it at the default size for now since I'm going to resize it to fit the eye and put it into place in a minute.

 Use the scale tool to resize the eyelashes. When you use the scale tool, a box will pop up. You can change the size if you know the exact dimensions that you want. In this case, you don't so you're going to click on the eyelash. A box will appear around it with squares on the corners. To resize the eyelashes, click and drag a corner inward to reduce the size. Hold control down to keep the proportions.

After you have it resized, use the move tool to move the lashes into place.

Duplicate the layer. Now we have a copy of the eyelash layer. To make it fit the eye, it needs to be flipped horizontally. To do this, click on the flip tool icon (circled below). Make sure the "horizontal" option is checked, and click on the eyelashes to flip it.Move that layer with the move tool over to the other eye. If you don't feel like duplicating the layer and flipping it, you can use the brush made for the other eye and follow the steps like you did for the right eye.

This step is optional, but something I like to do to add a little realism. Add a new layer just above the bottom layer. Take a soft, round brush, black in color, and draw lines along the top of the eyeball. I circled where I drew the lines since they are difficult to see.

Now, go to the "Filters" menu on the top menu bar and choose Blur>Gaussian Blur. I set the blur level to 8 pixels for both the horizontal and vertical radii. Your settings may need to be different depending on the size of the photo. Click Ok.

This is what it looks like afterwards. This step makes it look like there is a shadow on the eye, and makes it look rounder and more realistic.

I went ahead and did the same thing with the bottom lids (adding lashes and shadow). This is the result.

Now, we're going to add eye shadow. There are several ways to do it, but this is an easy way to do it. Take a medium-sized, soft, round brush, any color and draw lines on the eye lids where the eyeshadow will go.

We are going to blur this like we did with the shadow, using the Gaussian blur. I had my settings at 20 pixels for both the vertical and horizontal radii. Again, your settings may vary. Click Ok.

Now change the blending mode to "Multiply" to make it look like it is covering the lids but not so much that it looks fake. You could use the "Overlay" mode if you prefer that instead.

Now, we're going to add a little black along the edge of the eyelid to give it a smoky look. Do the same thing you did with the eyeshadow but with a smaller brush and (probably) a smaller blur. I circled the area where you should put it.

This is the result.

And you're done. Feel free to erase some of the makeup to make it fit the eyelid better. I know mine is a bit off. As always, I'd be happy to answer any questions or help you guys out if you get stuck. :)

Before:

After:

 

Edge Smoothing (Photoshop)

This tutorial shows how to smooth rough edges in Photoshop. Please note, this only works on pictures cut from the background (in this case, Sims). Here is the photo that I am going to start with (please ignore the crappy cut-out of the sim).

For this tutorial, we are going to use a layer mask to smooth the edges. Shift-click your cut-out layer so that the sim is selected. Now, click the small icon at the bottom of the layers panel that looks like a white circle in a gray rectangle (circled below). Your layer mask will be added to that layer and it should look like silhouette of your sim on a black background.

With the layer mask selected, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the radius to around 3. Click okay.

Now your sim in the layer mask should be slightly blurry. With that layer mask still selected, go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Play around with the levels by moving the outer arrows towards the middle arrow until the edges on your sim look smoother. You can also move the middle arrow around to get the desired effect. My settings are shown below. The values for the arrows read 145, 0.53 and 227. Your photo will change while you adjust the levels so you can see the result before clicking Ok.

As you see from the photo below, the edge on my sim's shoulder is a lot smoother than it was before (I added a black background to it so I can see the result better).

This is just one method you can use to smooth rough edges. You could also use an eraser and carefully go over the edges. This technique is tedious and time-consuming and it helps to have a steady hand. Another method that could be used is to use the smudge tool and carefully run it over the edges (this works best for images not cut from the background).

So that is it. If you need more explaination or have any questions, feel free to ask.