Creating Material in GIMP for Sculptris

[sanc]

Hello,

I wrote a tutorial with illustrations on how to build materials usable in Scultpris with the free open source and excellent photoshop alternative named GIMP

I tried very hard to make this as beginner friendly as possible, but english not being my primary languages, typos or oddities are always possible.

But with the many screenshots illustrating my tutorial, it should make it easy to understand.

Attached to this post is the PDF version.

Attachments:

[sanc]

And the source of this PDF, made with Open Office, in case someone may want to rewrite it for other languages, fix mistakes etc...

ODT format (Open Office) attached to this post.

Attachments:

[thwak]

Thanks much for this Sanc! As a GIMP user, I really appreciate tuts for GIMP.

[sanc]

You're welcome, i like GIMP a lot and recommend anyone looking for an alternative to Photoshop to look into this very fine piece of open source software.

It gets better and better in each version already being a serious alternative to commercial software, i can't wait already for 2.8 from what i have read about the update.

Anyways, for those that doesn't or can't register to download the attachment, here are 2 mirrors , the .rar archive contains both the PDF and the ODT files :
www.megaupload.com/?d=2MRSX8BS
or
www.mediafire.com/?ixtq0mzkyzk

[jimb]

I have not tried Gimp in quite a while,but what I did'nt like was the way it scattered its sub-windows across the desktop.

[sanc]

That has always been an annoyance to me too, but fortunately, 2.8 will feature a decent single window interface that will solve this problem for many window OS users :
www.chromecode.com/2009/10/single-window-mode-progress-report.html

the release candidate is scheduled for december 2010.

[kenmo]

Excellent and many thanks.....

[freakmean16]

Thanks a ton man, its really the same process Neville Page uses for custom material in ZB!!!!....
Thanks again...

[wikkidwidgets]

Jun 6, 2010 11:36:53 GMT 1 sanc said:

That has always been an annoyance to me too, but fortunately, 2.8 will feature a decent single window interface that will solve this problem for many window OS users :
www.chromecode.com/2009/10/single-window-mode-progress-report.html

the release candidate is scheduled for december 2010.

OMG! There is a god! LOLz

Now that is good news indeed! ;D

[Gz88]

Gimp 2.8 will bring a lot of news. Look here: www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/gimp-2-8-features-preview-april-2010.html .
I use Gimp a lot. And pardon my English, but I do not know much ...
And congratulation for Sculptirs!

[sanc]

Just noticed today, the "development version" 2.7.1 of GIMP available there :
www.gimpusers.com/news/2010-07-02/gimp-2.7.1-released.html


***VERY IMPORTANT***
the windows installer of 2.7.1 will remove your GIMP 2.6.x, so if you want to keep your current GIMP install, do not install this development version.
Or keep a 2.6.x installer and your 2.6 plugins near you if you want to get back to 2.6.x after.

And what is nice is that it actually features the long awaited "Single Window Mode" that is one of the most exciting feature of the 2.8 future release.

After installing and launching this 2.7.1 , in the main "floating" window , click on Windows then click on Single Window Mode to use this new excellent display.
You can get back at any time to the "floating" windows by going to Windows and untick Single Window Mode, in case you prefer the old version.

a screenshot of it in action, loading one of my sculptris screenshot in it :


As it is a beta test version, there's some annoying bugs with it (most notably that it does not keep your single window mode setting when you quit and relaunch GIMP, or switch between single window mode/floating window mode, but that was a problem of 2.6 on my computer too, though it was less obvious than what you'll see).

Another annoyance is that the toolboxes are definitively anchored, you can't customise you location, unless i missed something.
Additionally, when pressing TAB you can hide the toolboxes and so work on your picture on the whole screen, but unfortunately, another problem, you need to have the picture actually being the last thing you clicked on.
By example, if you click on a tool, and press TAB, it will hide nothing, it will just select the next tool in the chain.
You need then to either right or left click on the picture first (or left click on the picture and select Windows-> Hide Docks).

Wanting to close the program does not actually close it, it just close the current picture (as you see on my screenshot you can load several at the same time in the single window mode and switch from one to another by clicking on it).

Hopefully, all those little annoying bugs will be solved for release sometime in the end of this year/beginning of the next.
But the feel of having a single window mode really helps when you are annoyed at 2.6 with all those floating windows that the you have difficulty to keep at the correct size and location you need.

[taron]

Thanks, sanc, that was interesting!
...Gimp is curious for sure. Somehow, this inspires me to create a little material creator, hahahaha...should be much more fun to use. I might have a go at it.

Still a very nice tutorial, though!

[kasperhviid]

Wow this is epic news! :-D

BTW, I discovered how to move toolboxes - just drag them around!

[taron]

Alrighty, I told you I was gonna try to make a quick little material generator... there you have it!

I havn't had a chance to test it on any other machine, so I can't tell whether it will work for everyone (or anyone but myself, haha), but all Nvidia cards should be able to handle it. I can only hope for ATI there and Intel Mobiles I've given up on anyway.

Maybe I'll write a version without any openGL later, too, but where's the point. It's just a gimmik.

I will however add color selection and a few more things. It's a fun quick little tool which should be part of Sculptris to begin with, I think. Imagine this as an option inside the material selections, for example.

Anyway, have fun with it! ...and I hope it works for you, too.

Attachments:

[sanc]

Taron, while not working for my system, that program of yours sounds really great.

I think you should release your application in its own deserved thread : GIMP is not really popular (those annoying floating windows are always the major point i read from everyone listing what they don't like in GIMP), so i imagine the majority of the Sculptris boards member are not GIMP users either.
Leading then those members to just not read this thread that is about a tutorial for GIMP that has no use for their workflow.

And i am sure most of them would be interested by your material generator, but with it buried into a GIMP based thread, they have certainly not noticed your release

edit : just noticed you posted it into the Material thread too, better place to get it to attention.