Creating Hair Textures with highlights using The GIMP Most users out there use either Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, but have any of you ever actually heard of The GIMP? It is a free image editing software, that you can download. It isn t hard to use, it has the same kind of buttons as Photoshop has, and I would recommend it to anyone, this is what I use. With the help and permission from stephtheskinner from the simchic forums, I shall translate her hair texturing tutorial from Photoshop, to The GIMP, so that anyone can use it. Credit for the original tutorial should go to Steph s website, www.boutiquewrapsims.com All you will need is The GIMP, nothing else. So, let s begin shall we? Step 1. First of all, open your GIMP, and click File > New. A box should come up, asking what size image you would like. Make the image s width and height both 512 pixels, like so. Step 2. Now, in your colour palette on the GIMP sidebar, choose two colours. Make sure that both colours are similar, but one should be darker and the other lighter basically two different tones. Next, click on the Rectangular tool, and on the new image, create a small rectangle on the side, probably about a sixth of the size of the page, and then, on the main GIMP sidebar, select the Gradient tool. Page - 1 -
Step 3. Now, with the Gradient tool (make sure you have the same gradient as I have), drag the tool from one side of the rectangle to the other, to create a gradient. Do this bit over and over again (Rectangular tool, cut sixth of page, fill with gradient), until you come to the end of the page, it shouldn t take too long. Step 4. Next, you ll need to click Select at the top of the page, and click none, otherwise the next step we do will only work on the last bit of gradiented rectangle we just did. Step 5. Page - 2 -
Now, here s the next step. You need to click on Filters at the top of the screen, and go to Noise, and then Scatter RGB, like so: Your screen should have noise now, make sure that it isn t overfilled with Noise though. Step 6. Now, click on Layer, Colours and then Colourise Page - 3 -
Step 7. This next step will take some time to get the perfect colour back to how it was, but basically, move the sliders across until you reach an identical colour on to which you started off with. Now I tried to do this job without colourising, and let me tell you, it ends up in a big mess. All the colours change into multi coloured lines, they dont keep the colours the brown tones they should be, so, I strongly recommend you don t miss the colourising part. Now, after you have the browny colour you desired (or whatever hair colour you are doing), and are happy with it, this is the next step. Page - 4 -
Step 8. Head your mouse arrow over onto Filters > Blur > Motion Blur Step 9. Now, when the Blur window comes up, put length right up to the top, and make the angle to about 180; you ll see why in a second. Also make sure Linear is selected, and then press OK You will notice that after doing this, that at the left side on your image, lines have started appearing, going across. Now keep going to Filters > Blur > Motion Blur over and over again (you dont need to change any more settings now, just carry on motion blurring the picture, until you have something like this.) Page - 5 -
Step 10. That s it! You ve done a hair texture! Now, here s what I do (you can do it any other way you can think of, but this is much easier). Page - 6 -
Step 11. Save the file as a.pat. To do this, go to File > Save as. The, click on Browse for other folders, and it will extend the window into the image below Now, on the image below, it should show the path you need to save the image as a.pat. Make sure you follow the exact path, otherwise you won t be able to find the hair texture when you click on Patters (patterns is under Fill with a colour or pattern on main GIMP side window, and then Select Pattern fill, and find your pattern. Page - 7 -
Step 12. Now, you ve found the location, next you need to ave it as a.pat. Make a name for you hair, something like brownhair etc. Click Select File Type (By Extension) Search through the list until you find Pattern File, and then click that, and then OK. There we go! Done. Now, I need to reboot the GIMP sometimes to find the pattern file, you could do this too, if necessary And there we have it, your own home made hair texture. Thanks for reading! Page - 8 -