GIMP 3D perspective
1
CHOOSE YOUR IMAGE
As we mentioned above, we chose an image from Unsplash
by Jurre Houtkamp, which is of a beach in the Netherlands.
We’ll be adding a beach graphic into the path on this image as if
it has been painted on.
>> Once you’ve found an image you’re happy with, open up GIMP,
then go to File, Open and find your image. Alternatively, you could
drag and drop the image into your workspace [Image A].
>> After the image has been placed, we’re going to find our
vanishing point, which is the core of the image’s perspective.
The vanishing point is where two parallel lines on an image
eventually join up. To create this, first, make a new layer. From
the default arrangement on GIMP, this is usually in the bottom
right corner—the icon is of a piece of paper with a plus sign on it.
Name this layer ‘vanishing point’ and rename your image layer
to ‘background layer’.2
VANISHING TRICKS
Once that’s prepared, we can start drawing our vanishing
points. Making sure you’re on your vanishing point layer,FOR THIS TUTORIAL, we ‘ll be turning our attention to 3D image placement and how to bring
two images together while maintaining the same 3D perspective. We’ll be using GIMP for this
tutorial and a royalty-free image by Jurre Houtkamp on Unsplash (unsplash.com) to show how
to build your photo manipulation skills. Practicing using sites like Unsplash allows you to play
around with high-quality images with plenty of manipulation potential. We’ll also be using a
flat graphic site called the Noun Project (thenounproject.com) for a flat sign we’ll be adjusting.
This should build your knowledge of perspective and help you blend images together while
maintaining a natural finish. We’ll also be touching on textures, as we bring the texture from
our original image into the graphics from The Noun Project. You can choose any image for this
tutorial but to start, choose an image that’s looking straight towards the horizon. –SAM LEWISYOU’LL NEED THIS
GIMP 2.1
OS: Windows 7 or newer.go to the tools on the left, and select the paintbrush tool.
Make sure this is a small point size, nothing too specific.
Then, click on the bottom left of the path in the image
and hold the ‘SHIFT’ key. This will enable you to draw
in straight line mode. With this straight line, follow the
line of the path and continue it until it reaches the top
of the page. Repeat this process on the right-hand side
afterward [Image B].
>> Next, bring the top margin down for the horizontal
line to hit where the two perspective lines meet and do
the same for the side margin. You should now end up
with something like we have in our image. The point
where all the lines meet is the vanishing point.3
ICONIC IMAGES
It’s time to bring in our icon. We’ve opted for a
sunset graphic and are aiming for this to look as
though it has been painted onto the path. To bring this
into our document, copy it from the website and then go
to Edit > Paste As > New Layer. Then rename this layer.
>> Head to the top again and go to Layer and then
Crop to content. This cuts the layer down to the size of
the graphic we’ve just pasted in. Then drag this to the
vanishing point and it should snap into place. If it doesn’t
snap, head to the View drop-down and make sure that
‘snap to grid’ is selected [Image C].4
MAGIC TRANSFORMATIONS
This is where the magic happens. We can hide the
vanishing point layer for now as we have our icon
in place. Then, while on the icon layer, hit ‘SHIFT’ + ‘W’ to
bring up the 3D transform tool.
>> When this opens up, on the left-hand side, make sure
under the 3D transform options that ‘Unified interaction’
is checked [Image D]. Then, hover your mouse over to theB CA© UNSPLASH BY JURRE HOUTKAMP, GIMP64 MAXIMU MPC JUN 2022
R&D