GIMP Tutorial: Striped Background Design

texture: http://lostandtaken.com/blog/2009/6/23/7-coffee-stained-paper-textures.html
splatter brushes: http://monsoonami.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2oz03f
make your own splatter brushes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sUL-qWLePU

outcome: http://monsoonami.deviantart.com/art/Striped-Background-Design-169905032

GIMP is an open-source (free) image editing program with many of the same features as Adobe Photoshop.
http://www.gimp.org/

This video was recorded and edited with the following free programs:
CamStudio http://camstudio.org/
Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
VirtualDub http://www.virtualdub.org/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• GIMP
• tutorial
• striped
• background
• design
• paper
• cutout
• text
• horizontal
• vertical
• stripes
• lines
• red
• pink
• purple
• colorful
• texture
• splatter
• brush
• howto
• tut
• demo
• graphics
• software
• open-source
• free
• virtualdub
• audacity
• camstudio
• monsoonami

[kakashigirl100]

I have a question. The first time I attempted to do this tutorial, it worked perfectly fine, but, I'm trying to do it for the second time, and now I'm having difficulties. At 2:32 where you set the layers mode to "soft light" the grunge doesn't appear at all and the colors I picked for my stripes are still a solid color. No change. I did everything correctly according to your tutorial. I even tried reinstalling GIMP in order to fix it, but sadly that didn't even work. Can you help me? Thanks.

[monsoonami]

@kakashigirl100 Can you post the "HTML notation" for the colors you used in your stripes? (For example, see the annotation at 0:46) If you used colors like "ff00ff" or "0000ff", then I know what the problem is. (Actually it's not a "problem", but rather a side-effect of the way the Soft Light layer mode works.)

[kakashigirl100]

@monsoonami I was using ff0000 and 000000. Red and black.

[monsoonami]

@kakashigirl100 That's what I expected. If the Red, Green, and Blue components of your colors are all either completely on (ff) or completely off (00), then the Soft Light layer mode will have no effect. When a black and white layer (such as the texture in this tutorial) is set to Soft Light, it causes the RGB components of the image beneath it to be "pushed" toward the extremes (either ff or 00). So if your colors are already at the extremes, Soft Light won't affect it. (continued in part 2)

[monsoonami]

@kakashigirl100 (part 2) However, you don't have to use the Soft Light layer mode to complete this tutorial. Try experimenting with other layer modes like Hard Light, and adjust the opacity to your liking. Or you could try using colors for your stripes that are less "pure." For example, instead of pure red (ff0000), maybe try something like df1b0b. And instead of pure black (000000), maybe try a very dark gray like 0d0d0d.

[XxElegantTragedyxX]

Fjfvfrjdbel!!! Thank you so much! You have no idea how much I was struggling. I tried to find stripe brushes and couldn't and then I tried lassoing each individual stripe, but they all came out slightly uneven. I wanted to gouge my eyes out with a spork. Now this took me about two seconds and it was perfection. My only regret is not finding your video sooner. Haha! ^_^'

Incredible tutorial! ^_^

[monsoonami]

@XxElegantTragedyxX Cool, glad I could help. You're not the first person to have a hard time figuring out how to make stripes in GIMP, which is why I made this tutorial. Of course there are other ways to do it, but this is one of the easiest I've found.

[monsoonami]

@MultiGimpTutorials Just because it has vertical stripes? I'm sure a million people have made backgrounds with vertical stripes before you. :P

[Mr90027]

I LEARN ALOT FROM YOUR VIDEO TUTORIAL.THANK YOU VERY MUCH

[Leadman1989]

@kakashigirl100

Also, try overlay.

[Leadman1989]

What font is that?

[SindoDarkLady]

Thank you so much for sharing!!You are awesome!!

[candoitnow1]

WOW !!! you make it so easy to follow and understand. I'm very new to all this And up till 6 months ago never even touched a computer at all. So have been self taught. I'm amazed with myself and what I can now do. But love to watch alot of the tutorials and yours are wonderful so THANKS HEEPS KEEP EM COMING !!!

[Babyshaking]

Awesome work, it's a shame that you aren't so active anymore, you have some of the best GIMP tutorials on YouTube.

[kakashigirl100]

@monsoonami Okay, I'll try that, thank you very much for your time and information. I appreciate it. =)