An excellent article for us beginners. Your time and help is appreciated.
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| Beginner's Guide to Kitbashing with Free Software http://www.worldworksgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=10582 |
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| Author: | mproteau [ 11-19-2011, 12:28 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Beginner's Guide to Kitbashing with Free Software |
Hopefully what I'll capture here is enough to get someone who is not familiar with any graphics tools through the process of modifying a WWG product they've purchased. This will walk through opening a PDF file, removing the anchors from a floor tile, and creating a new pdf from it. I'll include steps for making it into a packaged kitbash for good measure, just in case people would like to try to share their work. I was going to include a lot of pictures, but I can only attach three images to a posting. I can upload a bunch of photos later if people feel it's necessary. I just plowed through this on my laptop while my kids were busy, so please let me know if something isn't clear or something is missing. Part 1: Getting the software you need I am walking through this on my Mac, though I use the exact same steps on my PC. The first thing you should do is install the following: - I am running version 2.6 - I am running version 3.3.0 A that you have paid for. The . That's pretty much it! Oh, and you should reserve TIME. Kitbashing files helps you appreciate how long it takes to make really nice, complete sets of terrain! A note about using GIMP on the Mac - the program is divided into three main windows we'll use - the Toolbox, Layers and the image itself. When I want to do something in the toolbox, I have to first click on the toolbox window to activate it, then I have to click again to activate the tool button. It's annoying, but you get used to it. Part 2: Modifying the images Start up GIMP and open up the "kitbash.psd" file that is provided in the official kitbash template you've downloaded. If you don't see a floating window labeled "Layers" then let's turn that window on - we'll need it. From the Windows menu, select Dockable Dialogs, then pick Layers. I think Ctrl+L will get you there too. In the Layers window, there's all sorts of handy stuff for putting together your own kitbashes, but in this case, we're not going to use much but the bottom layer. To shrink the size of our image, let's remove the other layers. Select each layer and click on the trash can at the bottom of the Layers window, leaving only the "trades raw" layer. Now we're going to open the images we want to modify. For this guide, I'm going to use the Lost Halls of the Dwarven King set. From the File menu, select Open as Layers... Browse to the PDF file containing the images to modify. I am going to select "1 inch big floors.pdf" and click Open. GIMP is going to ask me to select which pages I want to import from the PDF. For simplicity, I'm going to only import one page. After clicking on the page to import, change the value of the Resolution box from 100.000 pixels/inch to 300.000 pixels/inch. If you don't do this, then what you'll end up with is an image that is 1/3 the size of the full page. After clicking Import, you may be prompted to "assign a color profile". I just click Cancel... Or OK... I admit I've done both, and have not seen any difference... So, now we have two layers available to us. The original template layer should be on the bottom of the list. Before I start fixing up the image, I'm going to expose the lower kitbash template layer. To do that, I'm going to start by making sure the right layer is selected in the Layers window. Click on the layer with the image you're modifying. We also want to have bits of this layer transparent so the lower layer will show through. To do that, right-click on the layer and select Add Alpha Channel. Now select the "rectangle select tool" from the Toolbox window. What? You don't see the toolbox window? From the Tools menu, you'll find the Toolbox menu. Click the selection tool, then use it to draw a box around the tile image. It's OK if there's a little space around the edges of the tile. From the Select menu, invert the selection. This causes the selection to include everything EXCEPT the tile we want to keep. Now hit the delete key, and it should clear the selected area, letting the lower layer (the kitbash template) show through. Time to modify the image. I start by zooming in on one of the corners. Using the same selection tool, create a new selection that fits the glue area in the corner. GIMP makes it easy to adjust the selection size after you've done the initial selection. If you hover over an edge of the selection region, you'll see rectangles appear. You can drag these rectangles to grow or shrink the selection rectangle. Adjust the rectangle so that it perfectly fits around the glue area we're trying to get rid of. By creating this selection area, we can move it to another part of the image and copy the right size chunk to cover the corner. There are, of course, other ways of getting the corner covered, but this is a simple first try. If you hover the mouse over the center of the selection area, you should see the mouse cursor change to arrows pointing in four directions, with a rectangle below and to the right of it. This tells you that it's going to move the selection. Drag the selection to another area of the image that kind of matches what you'd like to see in the corner. Edit > Copy, then Edit > Paste. The paste operation will create a "floating selection (pasted layer)" layer. You can click and drag within the boundary of the pasted image and move it over the corner to cover the anchor area. You can repeat this process for all the anchor spots. Of course, you'll probably see that the thing you pasted stands out. The edges of what you paste will be lighter or darker than the surrounding area. There are things that you can do to play with this, but that's a little more advanced than what I want to get into here. Maybe I'll do another topic - just ask! Once you've got your layer all set, we can save the image out. From the File menu, select Save As. Change the name of the file to "anchorless-tile.jpg" or whatever else you want. GIMP will use the extension to choose the format to save in, and I typically save as JPEG images. You'll be warned that transparencies can't be handled, and it'll want you to flatten the image. It's going to basically mush all the layers together. Go ahead and click Export. It'll then ask about the quality settings to use to save out the image. I set the quality here to 100% and click Save. Part 3: Creating the PDF With the image saved, open up OpenOffice and create a new Drawing. From the Insert menu, select Picture > From File... and select the image you just saved from GIMP. Right click on the image and select Original Size. Now drag the image so the upper left corner matches perfectly with the upper left corner of the document. The image should match the 8.5x11" page perfectly. If you don't have an 8.5x11" page to start with (I don't know how OpenOffice behaves outside the US!) then you can change the page dimensions from the Format > Page menu. Rename your slides so each page has a meaningful name. Open up some of your WWG PDFs and take a look at how they name pages and try something similar. If you plan on making multiple modified images, you can do them all first, then create multiple "slides" in the Drawing document for each image. Now select File > Export as PDF... The PDF Options dialog has a lot of settings in it. Here's what I typically have set: GENERAL TAB Range: All Images: JPEG compression Quality: 75% General: Export bookmarks should be checked INITIAL VIEW TAB Panes: Thumbnails and page should be selected Open on page 1 Magnification: Zoom factor 75% Page layout: Continuous should be selected Click Export. You'll be prompted for the filename to save it as. Click Save. You should now have a PDF file with your image in it. If you follow these basic steps, you should find that the automated cutter files should be perfectly compatible with your changes, since you haven't MOVED any of the images around - just changed their textures. With practice, you'll get better at all sorts of useful things. Here are some more basic skills: Experiment with how to adjust selections so you can quickly get just the regions you want. Experiment with layers. You can paste things into new layers and play with transparency etc. Experiment with tools for drawing, smudging, blending etc. that are helpful to make your changes not stick out. Create your own blank templates! "hollow out" the tiles and walls, so you can quickly drop in layers below them showing new textures. Oh, and if you don't post pictures, it didn't happen! Share your successes and frustrations. |
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| Author: | punkrabbitt [ 11-19-2011, 03:00 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
Thank you! I'm sure a lot of people will find this VERY useful! |
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| Author: | ehisey [ 11-19-2011, 04:22 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
You forgot one of the most important Gimp plugins to get, Resynthesizer. This tool is great for matching or replacing large swaths of textures |
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| Author: | mproteau [ 11-19-2011, 05:20 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
I'd like to say "That's more advanced than for a beginner's guide" but really, I had no idea about the plug-in! I'll have to learn it, as it sure looks a lot nicer than the tedious hand-smudging and what-nots I'm used to. Thanks for the pointer! |
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| Author: | Talae [ 11-19-2011, 06:36 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
Wow, this is an amazing resource! Nicely done! |
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| Author: | punkrabbitt [ 11-19-2011, 06:39 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
Does GIMP run on Android 2.0? |
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| Author: | Haydn [ 11-20-2011, 04:02 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
An excellent article for us beginners. Your time and help is appreciated.
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| Author: | Rrok007 [ 11-22-2011, 07:26 AM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
| Author: | GirlGamer [ 12-09-2011, 05:19 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
This is great!!! I have always wanted to kitbash and this has enabled me to start! Good job! |
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| Author: | GirlGamer [ 12-10-2011, 02:35 AM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitashing with Free Software |
I have been having a lot of fun with this. I am trying to convert some floor tiles from canals (open water as a 6x3 and 3x3 etc). My plan to convert from GIMP to pdf is to print to Cute PDF writer and set the paper size to letter (8.5 x 11) Are there any known issues with doing this? |
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| Author: | GirlGamer [ 06-15-2012, 04:59 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitbashing with Free Software |
Thank you!!! With this guide I have created at 6 * 36 tile that fits !!! |
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| Author: | mproteau [ 06-15-2012, 06:04 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitbashing with Free Software |
That's great to hear! I think I'm up to about 30 "new" types of tiles thanks to simple kitbashing. I wish I would take the time to build them! I've gotten much better with GIMP since posting this, so if you have some specific questions that YouTube can't answer (it's a really great resource for learning stuff!) post some questions and maybe I can help. |
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| Author: | mproteau [ 09-19-2013, 10:25 AM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitbashing with Free Software |
| Author: | greypilgrim [ 09-20-2013, 02:45 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitbashing with Free Software |
So glad you updated this because I had totally forgotten about the original posting... [Maybe the Moderators can make it a sticky? Or have a sticky posting listing of "gotta check it out" tips like this?] |
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| Author: | mrcaptainpants [ 09-20-2013, 09:07 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitbashing with Free Software |
| Author: | Zenguy [ 09-20-2013, 09:47 PM ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Beginner's Guide to Kitbashing with Free Software |
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