FAKE TIME LAPSE CLOUDS WITH GIMP/GAP

[jakazza]

How did you get from an .xcf file to something you uploaded onto youtube ?

[ClayOgre]

@jakazza

GAP (Gimp Animation Package) is a series of plugins for Gimp which, to quote saulgoode from Gimptalk, "turn Gimp into the world's most powerful and hardest to use video editor". What Gap Does is to generate a series of .xcf files, each with it's own layers, etc, that can then be turned into single frames of video. It's kind of an involved process, but you can do a lot of cool stuff with it.

[victordemise]

I liked it. I'm not entirely sure how you went about it-but to wach it makes me ask myself, "How would I do that?" I use Gimp/GAP and I have my own ideas, and THAT's why I like it!! It made me think.

[agentEE7]

you have got to make a tutorial showing how how you made this! (everyone who agrees should click that "Like" button up there ;))

[ClayOgre]

@agentEE7 Hmm, it has been quite a while since I mad that. I could probably re-create it. Right now I don't even have a computer that has GAP installed. The clouds are a long "strip" that was animated moving vertically in a series of frames (the clouds are just plasma with some parts "cut away"). The perspective tool as applied to that series of frames. Then the frames were duplicated and I think I used a custom curve to make them darker, i.e. "shadows" and the image was...

[ClayOgre]

@ClayOgre ...flipped/rotated to make it a mirror image of the clouds. The opacity of the shadow layers was set so that they would let the ground show through. The ground is just bump mapped plasma that was then manipulated with the perspective tool. The sky background is a simple gradient. The clouds and shadows were added over the top of this.

[BrianMastermind]

that's really cool...you must have put a lot of time into it. am i right?

[ClayOgre]

@BrianMastermind , Yeah, can't remember how long it took, couple three hours anyway.

[4FFAF]

fantastic

[TheMadStrangler]

Excellent! I'm attempting to use the program, but it's hard as hell to use.

[ClayOgre]

Yup, it's a cast iron pain in the patootie, but once you begin to get the hang of it, you can do all sorts of stuff. You just really have to learn the tools and then think things out in advance. ...and sometimes you just have to scrap everything and start all over from scratch.

[Kryodrache]

Little flat, and the water isn't moving, but its still awesome to watch; great work!

[ClayOgre]

Actually, it isn't water, youtube really trashed the quality, its just sort of dark ground with a bluish cast to it. And yeah, it is flat. I couldn't figure out how to make things look more three dimensional.

[Kryodrache]

..Oh yeah, I see it now. My bad XD

[JesusFreakNo1]

That is so cool! Too bad I don't know how to install the gap plugin..

[ClayOgre]

Depends on what OS you are on. With windows, it is a simple matter of downloading an .exe installer that will put all the GAP plugins in your plugins and scripts directories. Linux is a bit more complicated, unless you're running something like Debian and its derivatives. Mac, you are out of luck.

[Falcofan22]

Wow, wicked!

[JesusFreakNo1]

Yeah, I fixed that already. :P Thanks, though.

[ClayOgre]

Thanks...they didn't quite work as well as I had hoped, they look a bit "flat".

[Tomron1231]

nice job really!

[z3matt]

Very cool CO