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Thread: GIMP: How to Automate the Tedium?

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    Post GIMP: How to Automate the Tedium?

    Okay, so here's one for you great GIMP overlords of cool:

    Say I've got a transparent background tab with some blobs of color on it, and I want to take the smudge tool and randomly smudge these blobs of color inward (toward the center of the blobs) and outward, to give the color blobs a radial-like pattern that blends into the background layer.

    Now, let's say I have a lot of these blobs of color, and it's going to take a long time to apply this "radial smudge" to all of them. How, oh great ones, would you automate this to make it easier on yourselves? (I tried using using alpha-to-select then stroke selection with the smudge tool selected, but this basically treated the smudge tool as if it was the painbrush tool, laying down whatever color I'd selected in whatever brush shape I'd selected instead of smudging anything.

    Any thoughts would be duly appreciated, in the form of a nice soft wack from my +1 blackjack of repping...
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    Community Leader Facebook Connected torstan's Avatar
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    I'm sorry to suggest the obvious, but Gaussian blur doesn't do the trick? I guess that you are after something a little spikier?

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    Quote Originally Posted by RobA View Post
    I have a python script (a modification of someone else's)that might do some of what you want...

    Do you have python installed?

    -Rob A>
    I do indeed... and it appears to be working. (The posts I've been putting up on GURM and the problems I've had there seem to relate to the modifications that needed to be made to the .py and .ini files, but Python itself seems to work fine.)

    Quote Originally Posted by torstan View Post
    I'm sorry to suggest the obvious, but Gaussian blur doesn't do the trick? I guess that you are after something a little spikier?
    Nope, I'm afraid not. I'm looking to create a (slightly irregular) radial pattern - like an ugly starburst that fades out, only on highly irregular shapes.
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    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Karro View Post
    Okay, so here's one for you great GIMP overlords of cool:

    Say I've got a transparent background tab with some blobs of color on it, and I want to take the smudge tool and randomly smudge these blobs of color inward (toward the center of the blobs) and outward, to give the color blobs a radial-like pattern that blends into the background layer.

    Now, let's say I have a lot of these blobs of color, and it's going to take a long time to apply this "radial smudge" to all of them. How, oh great ones, would you automate this to make it easier on yourselves? (I tried using using alpha-to-select then stroke selection with the smudge tool selected, but this basically treated the smudge tool as if it was the painbrush tool, laying down whatever color I'd selected in whatever brush shape I'd selected instead of smudging anything.

    Any thoughts would be duly appreciated, in the form of a nice soft wack from my +1 blackjack of repping...



    How solid do you want the "spurs"???? Perhaps distort against a plasma layer (perhaps motion blurred in a specific direction). Alternatly, perhaps whirl and pinch might be what you need.

    Perhaps an example would help.....
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

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    With the script I munged up, if I start with this:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	before.png 
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    and do a selection to alpha then alpha to path, running the script will do this:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	after.png 
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ID:	10912

    Enlarging and shrinking the selection first (to make an outside path and an inside path), then running the script first on the outside then on the inside I got something like this (after playing with spacing and such):
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	after2.png 
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ID:	10913

    Of course, randomness lengths could be added in. Unfortunately, pdb calls won't use new settings like jitter ;(

    Let me know and I'll upload a copy if this is the effect you are looking for.

    -Rob A>

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    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RobA View Post
    Let me know and I'll upload a copy if this is the effect you are looking for.

    -Rob A>
    umm... YEAH!!! thats kind of neat.. I would give you rep, but I just did that for the script you created for me the other day.

    Quote Originally Posted by RobA View Post
    Of course, randomness lengths could be added in. Unfortunately, pdb calls won't use new settings like jitter ;(
    If it does not take long to do, go ahead and add it in. Mo options is mo bettah.
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

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    Why not just use the iWarp tool?
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    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RobA View Post
    With the script I munged up, if I start with this:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	before.png 
Views:	228 
Size:	8.8 KB 
ID:	10911

    and do a selection to alpha then alpha to path, running the script will do this:
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	after.png 
Views:	227 
Size:	100.1 KB 
ID:	10912
    Hmmmm.... with some playing with the right colors and some dodge/burn effects, this would make for a somewhat quick way to make top down(symbolic) mountains effect. With variable lengths, I expect you could make some niceish hills...
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

  10. #10
    Community Leader jfrazierjr's Avatar
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    Rob, I just had a thought, what if you use your top down mountain technique with the angular gradient fill, and then run this on top of the resulting height map?
    My Finished Maps
    Works in Progress(or abandoned tests)
    My Tutorials:
    Explanation of Layer Masks in GIMP
    How to create ISO Mountains in GIMP/PS using the Smudge tool
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Unless otherwise stated by me in the post, all work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

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