Michele Keller: Digital Graphics: GIMP: Chapter 7--Filters and Effects

Hello Everyone,

Name:

Michele Keller

Student Number:

GIMP: Chapter 7: Filters and Effects

PART 1: READ Chapter 2 in the GIMP book, then:

Answer all questions below, briefly but completely.
Change the color of the answer to BLUE.
Copy this information and paste in a new post in your DIGITAL GRAPHICS blog.

NOTE Regarding the Xtns menu: In Chapter 7, the author discusses the difference between FILTERS and EXTENSIONS found in the Xtns menu. The Xtns menu does not exist in GIMP any longer; the items have been moved to other menus.

1. What is a filter? A general term for anything that can operate on an existing image. It’s a collection of fun functions that can transform your image in all sorts of ways.

2. What is the difference between a TOOL and a PLUGI-N? Tools can respond to clicks in the image window, but with plug-ins, you cannot. Any adjustment must be done from within the plug-ins own dialog.

3. What is the purpose of motion blur? It blurs in only one direction (specified by angle) to give an impression of motion.

4. Briefly describe the purpose of the following ENHANCE filters:

· Antialias—Looks for the jagged edges and tries to make them smoother….like changing a jaggy line drawn with the pencil tool into a smoother line that a paintbrush tool would draw.

· Despeckle—Is used to remove small elements of “noise” from an image, particularly specks or small lines cause by dust or scratches on a scanned image.

· Destripe—Removes vertical lines that are left by some older scanners. Best solution is to use a decent scanner J

· NL Filter—Tries to do everything: it’s combination of smoothing, despeckle, and sharpen in one filter.

5. Briefly describe the purpose of the following DISTORT filters:

· Blinds—Makes it look like your image is painted on venetian blinds, and you’re adjusting the angle of those blinds.

· Curve Bend—Is useful for changing the shape of nearly any layer.

· Engrave—Creates the black and white “engraved” look that you sometimes see in old illustrations.

· IWarp—The Interactive Warp filter, is one of GIMP’s best toys. It can be used in all sorts of creative ways: you can change animals into other animals, chubby cheeks into gaunt cheeks, or a human into a Vulcan.

6. Briefly describe the purpose of the following filters:

· Polar Coords—Wraps an image around a point at the top or bottom center. It can also take what is wrapped and unwrap.

· Ripple—Makes an image look as though it’s being viewed through water waves.

· Lens Flare—Puts a bright flare of light into an image. Just click or drag in the preview to where you want it.

· Supernova—Is similar to lens flare, but with spiky rays and you can control the color of the flare.

· Drop Shadow—Its adds a shadow in the your selection, it can be on the bottom, top, behind or in front.

· Glass Tile—Makes the image look like it’s being viewed through a wall make of many glass bricks, each of which refracts light a little differently.

7. Describe various ways the EDGE filters are used in GIMP: There are six different edge-detection algorithms, each a little different. It gives a wild neon effect. The more colors the more “neon” effect will be.

8. What does the FILMSTRIP filter do? Combines the layers in the image into a single image that looks like a strip of 35mm film.

9. List and describe 5 filters found in the ARTISTIC filters group:

a. Apply Canvas—gives a canvas-like texture to the image.

b. Clothify—gives a similar effect, but with a slightly different texture.

c. Cartoon—simplifies colors and adds black outlines near edges with the intent of making a photograph look like a hand-drawn and inked cartoon.

d. Pradator—turns the image into something that should remind you of the movie “Predator” or a video game from the 80s.

e. Van Gogh (LIC)—gives the image a rather subtle shift. It won’t make the photograph look like a Van Gogh, but it can create some interesting effects.

10. What does the FRACTAL EXPLORER do? It can generate patterns. It is something to fiddle with if you like beautiful fractal patterns. The Fractals tab gives you samples of patterns that you can generate.

11. What does ALPHA TO LOGO do? Creates interesting effects with your text layer. It can give some fancy style to words on a text layer.

PART 2: GIMP PROJECTS:

Be sure to save these images in your GIMP folder before inserting them in this document.

1. WARP text:

1. Create a new GIMP image that is 600 X 400.

2. Use the paintbrush, gradients, etc. to create a lovely background.

3. Click on the text tool (letter A), and change the font, color (to coordinate with the background), change the size to fairly large (at least 200).

4. Type your first name in the text box (this creates a new layer with your name on it).

5. Warp the text: Make sure you are on the text layer. Now: FILTERSàDISTORTSàBEND CURVE. Drag the base line up/down to make it wavy. Click on PREVIEW ONCE to see the text distorted. When the text is distorted the way you want, click OK.

6. You can also add a Drop Shadow if you like: FILTERSàLIGHT AND SHADOWàDROP SHADOW.

7. Crop the image if needed, then save the image.

8. Insert your warped name image here:

2. Filter Car Image:

1. Go to the web site for this book: http://gimpbook.com

2. Look through the menus on the left to see the supplemental information provided for you about the book.

3. Click on the PHOTOS FROM THE BOOK link, and scroll down to see the images for Chapter 2.

4. Download and save the red car image from Chapter 7 (or get a car image from Google that you like)

5. Try at least TEN different filters on the car image. Try to make the images as different and interesting you can. Save each version with an appropriate name.

6. Insert the 10 filtered car images here:

1—Original Image—This is the original image that I worked from

2. This is Cartoon effect

3. This is Embossed with Blinds

4. This one is an Enhanced image: Enhanced using the NL Filter--which tries to do everything like smoothing, despeckle, and sharpen in one filter.