TIP GIMP Fractal Backgrounds
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Abstract This short how-to describes how to make a simple and yet visually appealing background for your computer in very little time with very little skill.
Contents |
[edit] Prerequisites
To create these images, you will need GIMP, an open source image editor available for most operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista, BSD, and other OS distros. To get GIMP you can do:
# emerge -av gimp
Otherwise, you can always go to the GIMP homepage. An installer exists in the downloads section for win32 users.
[edit] Step 1, Make Image
This is the very simple method to follow:
- Open gimp.
- Set Foreground color to Black (it should be black by default)
- In menu, select File --> New
- In Create a New Image, select the desired resolution.
- Also set Advanced --> Fill With to "Foreground Color"
- Optional: Click on greyscale bar and set the gradient to something else. This can produce mixed results.
- Press OK
- On the Menu for the image, select Filters --> Render --> Nature --> Flame
[edit] Step 2, Setting up Flame
The images shown used this method; however, not all the images in my collection were done with this method. This method will take longer to process. On my athlon64 3000+ the flame render takes about a minute or two.
Starting in the flame dialog:
- Goto tab Camera and set Zoom to "3"
- Optional: Use "1.5" for higher speed.
- Click Edit
- In the "Edit Flame" dialog, set Variation to "Spherical".
- Optional: Sinusoidal also works well at a high zoom.
- Now you must look at the nine boxes. If you like a pattern, choose it. If not, click Randomize. Note, this may be slow.
- When a suitable flame pattern has been chosen click OK.
- In the dialog "Flame" goto the Camera tab and adjust X and Y until you get an image that is fairly centered or otherwise looks good.
- Click OK. Wait a while. This step takes a while!
[edit] Step 3, Color Time
In this step, color is added. I guess you have to decide what color to use. Blue pretty much always works well, and Red rarely works very well as variations in red end up looking purple or yellow. Orange is another good choice. Green is not too hard to get working either.
- In the menu for the image, choose Colors --> Components --> Channel Mixer - in older version of gimp it's in Filters.
- Now, set Output Channel to the color you want to dominate in the image.
- Changing Red, Green, or Blue will make parts of the image that are those color become more or less of the Output Channel Color.
- Adjust the settings here until a desired look is obtained.
- Click OK
- In the GIMP Menu, Choose File --> Save As
Alternate method (this one is a bit easier to get the desired results):
- In the menu for the image, choose Colors --> Colorize
- Either choose one of the preset colors or make your own custom color
- Click OK to apply the settings
- In the GIMP Menu, Choose File --> Save As
Another Alternate Method (With this you may pick the exact color you want to use and even modify it dramatically later.)
- Create a new layer.
- From your toolbox, pick your desired color as the foreground color.
- Select your created layer and choose Edit --> Fill with FG Color.
- Now, from your layers box at the top, find the Mode drop down and select Multiply.
- Play around with different layers, blending modes, opacities, and color adjustments to achieve the desired effect.
Another Other Alternate Method:
- Before running Flame, set your FG and BG colors to the colors of your choice. Make them similar, though (for example, red and orange, etc.) Set your gradient to "FG to BG (RGB)". This will cause Flame to use your gradient as the coloring scheme, which results in the flame being this color. There is no need to do anything else.
[edit] Tips
- I suggest against setting multiple values to 200. Generally this makes the image a bit flat and undetailed.
- Setting the Gradient creates images where some parts have more green and other more blue, or such. This allows for more flexibility in the Channel Mixer.
- Experiment with multiple flame renders before adding color - this can create awesome effects!
- Setting a gradient from the main gimp dialog then choosing Custom Gradient from the colormap box on the rendering tab(in the flame dialog) can create multi-colored flames
- You can use layers and different flame renders on each layer to create an image with multiple colours
- Save as PNG, not JPG
- Make the image "indexed" rather than RGB, to save diskspace (and memory). Right click and select Image --> Mode --> Indexed. Just choose select optimum palette.
- Try multiple Filter --> Color effects. Like mapping to alien2 or (after colorizing with the channel mixer), Sample Colorize from a gradient.
- When using multiple flames on the same canvas, try using the same exact flame, just rotate or flip the entire image before putting the new flame on top. This will result in a more symmetrical / kaleidoscope type images.
- If using Gnome set the background colour to transparent, the background colour can then be controled from the desktop control dialog
[edit] Issues
- Currently the GIMP flame plugin appears to have issues generating flames on large images. The page says the plug-in worked in a quick test for a 1024x768 pixel image, but didn't do it for a 2500x2500 pixel image.
[edit] Posted Collections
When I first discovered this method for creating vivid color images in a simple manner, I tried to get people to make some images for me, so that I could have enough images to make a good screensaver out of them. To this end, I suggest that people who make a lot of images and who have them available online should edit the wiki page and add links here.
fractal flame generator that is free
[edit] Gentoo-Wiki Collection
- Post yours here!
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x1024) |
 Gentoo Wormhole (1280x1024) |
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 Tro's Thinger |
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 Dark & subtle. Hard to see in preview (1400x1080). Used Script-Fu Lava after article instructions. |
 (1680x1050) Phyton-Fu -> effects -> Fog (purple) + Flame (green) + some text from "emerge sync" |
 (1280x1024) Lava |
 (1280x1024) Emerald |
 (1280x1024) Blue |
 (3200x800) A blue themed image suitable for dual monitor setups. 3200x800 should scale. there are just so many dual monitor resolutions out there. |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1920x1200) |
 (1920x1200) |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x1024) |
 Solar (1280x960) |
 A fractal image resembling a dragon (1280x1024) |
 Xinerama Smoke (2560 x 1024) |
 See my others here |
 (1600x1200) |
 (1600x1200) |
 (1280x1024) Filter->Distort->Wave + Filter->Distort->Ripple + some text from 'emerge sync' (borrowing from above example) |
 (1920x1200) |
 (1024x768) |
 (1024x768) |
 (1024x768) |
 (1024x768) |
 Penguin of Wonder's (1600x1200) |
 "Hope" (1024x768) SuperNova effect. |
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 (1024x768) fog python effect |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x800) |
 (320x240) Good for PDA |
 (1600x1200) Multiple flame layers with color effects |
 (1600x1200) |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1680x1050) Lime |
 (1280x1024)Thumb does not do it justice |
 (1280x1024) |
 (1280x800) |
 (1024 x 768) Looks kinda like the ocean. ~CarpeGuitarrem |
 (800 x 600) Used the supernova effect over part of this one. I like how the colors turned out. ~CarpeGuitarrem |
 (800 x 600) Underøath pretty much rocks period. This wallpaper proves it. I actually messed up and forgot some steps on this one, but I like it. ~CarpeGuitarrem |
 (1280 x 1024) Using my "Another Other Alternate Method". Thumbnail doesn't look very good -Goffrie |
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Background.jpg
just something i made |
