Compass wheel in GIMP (Please Improve)

[Notsonoble]

Okay, Redrobes inspired thought in joão paulo's compass card tutorial thread. I tried one of his ideas and got a fuzzy mess... so I tried some ideas until I got something that worked.

This is a fairly simple process, but has a lot of really basic steps that I would not be surprised in the least if they could be improved on/replaced with fewer steps.

Any who:

What you need:

A computer with GIMP (you need a version that supports the resizing of selections)...

NOTE: I used different line colors for each layer. You don't have to, it was just easier for me to see this way. (And hopefully assist those reading this tutorial.)

Step one:

In whatever image you're working with create a new transparent layer. (I did this in a blank image with a plain white layer on bottom.) Use the Rectangle select to start a selection, then use the tool options to set the selections size to an odd number pixel length square. (I used 201 px by 201 px).

Then go to Select->Boarder and choose 1px, now fill the selection with a color.

NOTE: Step one can be ignored by starting a blank image the size you want to begin with.



Step Two:

Make a new layer. Use the circle select to create a selection that has the same dimensions as the square. (You can use the mouse resizing and positioning to drag the selection tool's "box" to contain the square in the previous layer.



Step Three:

New layer again (the layers will help later on, don't try this on one layer). Now with the pencil tool, set to 1px, start at one corner of the square and draw a straight line to the opposite corner. Then do this again for other corners. This gets you four of your points, and the center of the circle (which will make the compass wheel) clearly marked.



Step Four:

In the same layer from the middle of the "X" created by the two lines, draw straight lines leading out from it to the edges of the square/circle. This gets you all eight points of the compass. Now to connecting the "edges" of the star/compass.



(Steps 3 and 4 are one of the things I'm expecting someone has a better way to do. I just haven't found a good way to do it yet myself, and since I did this, then turned around and looked my undo history and started making step images all in less than 40 minutes. I'm sorta happy with it.)