Download this picture, and open it with
Gimp.
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STEP 2:
- select the whole image by clicking <ctrl>+<a> and cut
the selection by clicking <ctrl>+<x>
- paste the layer <ctrl>+<v>, in the layerbox should appear
something called "floating selection" click on the "new layer"
layer button
to create a new layer out of the floating selection.
- name this selection "blue texture"
- duplicate the layer "blue texture" and name it "polka
dots"
you should have something looking like this:
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STEP 3:
- move to the channels dialogue in the layers box
- create a new channel, name it "dotmask" and set the value
of opacity to "100"
it should look like this one here
- save the image as "dots.xcf" in case of a crash, you will not
lose your work you did 'till now :-)
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STEP 4:
- create a new picture, with 20 x 20 pixels in size and white background
- activate the circle selection tool, place it in the middle of the new picture. Hold down the left mouse
button to start making a selection.
While holding down the left mouse button press <ctrl><shift>
and increase the size of the circle selection till you have about 3, or 4 pixels left on each side of the
image.
that you have about 3 or 4 pixels left on each side of
the image
- fill the selection with black
it should look like the one i did (note: the picture shown here is zoomed to 1600%, in 100% view it is much smaller :-))
- now deselect the selection
- safe it as gimp pattern file, simply give it a name, and use the
.pat extension. f. ex. dotmask.pat
- copy the dotmask.pat file into the directory /home/username/.gimp-1.1/patterns/
this is necessary, because gimp reads the
pattern files from this directory.
- close the little picture you created and go back to the original
big picture we want to work with
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STEP 5:
- open the pattern box, while clicking on the symbol within the red circle that you can see on my screenshot
- after the box opened up, click on refresh and look for the new pattern
you created and safed in the pattern directory, there
should be something like here
- select the black dot, and click on close
- back in the channels dialogue, activate the channel "dotmask"
- open the "tool options dialogue" while right click in the image,
choose dialogs -> tool options ...
- the option box pops up, select pattern fill in it
- now fill the channel "dotmask" with the pattern, and you will
get something like that
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STEP 6:
- create a selection out of the channel "dotmask" while clicking on the button in the red circle you see in my layer box
- make the channel "dotmask" invisible
- now switch back to the layers dialogue, and activate the layer named
"polka dots"
- now clear the selection by clicking <ctrl>+<k>
- make the layer "blue texture" invisible to check your result,
it should look like this
- make the layer "blue texture" visible again
- use "filters -> blur -> pixelize" with a value of 8 on the
layer "blue texture"
- set the mode of the layer "polka dots" to addition
if everything worked, it should look similar to this one
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STEP 7:
- go to the channels dialogue and create a selection out of the channel
"dotmask"
- switch back to the layers dialogue, and create a new, transparent
layer on the top of all other layers, name it "white glow"
- invert the selection by clicking <ctrl>+<i>
- fill the selection with white
it should look like this (note that the selection is still active)
- shrink the selection about 1pixel by "right click -> select -> shrink
..." set it to a value of 1
- clear the selection <ctrl>+<k>
- deselect with <shift>+<ctrl>+<a>
- set the mode of the layer "white glow" to addition,
and the opacity to about 50
The layer box looks like this
and here is how the image should look like
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STEP 8:
- activate the background layer, and fill it with black
- gaussian blur "polka dots" with a value of 10
- set the opacity of "blue texture" to 55
- set the opacity of "polka dots" to 95
Congratulations, you are finished with it :-)
If everything worked just fine, you have something that looks like that
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And here is what I created using this technique:
