On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Ray wrote:

Does anyone have an instructional on how to create a glass christmas ball and add a picture (that hopefully) would follow the contour of the ball?

Play with curve bend to get an image onto the ball: http://docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-curve-bend.html

You might google around for a pre-made ornament template as well.

HTH, Chris

Yes, you can!
It actually is very simple. This will get you a rounded ball. As far as making it Christmas would be up to you. Step by step:
1. Load your image.
2. make sure the part of the chistmas bulb you want is in the middle. 3. Go to filters/light and shadows/apply lense, Move the numbers up/down to get a satisfactory sphere.
OR
3. For more advanced manipulation of the sphere go filters/distort/lens distortion. If you just mess with the settings for a minute or two you will figure them out. They are not difficult to learn.

Also, Depending on your picture you may have to undo steps and move the image around and repeat steps to center the image.

I hope this helps you, never hesitate to reply, Stefan Maerz

On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Ray wrote:

Does anyone have an instructional on how to create a glass christmas ball and
add a picture (that hopefully) would follow the contour of the ball?

-- Ray (via www.gimpusers.com)

Oh, forgot to mention that you should select "make surroundings transparent" when in the lense box.
Also You should keep your Image at a 1:1 aspect ratio. Otherwise you will result with a elliptical sphere.

This will require some manipulation to get working. If the result is unsatisfactory for you, I can figure something else out.

On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 9:59 PM, Stefan Maerz wrote:

Yes, you can!
It actually is very simple. This will get you a rounded ball. As far as making it Christmas would be up to you. Step by step:
1. Load your image.
2. make sure the part of the chistmas bulb you want is in the middle. 3. Go to filters/light and shadows/apply lense, Move the numbers up/down to get a satisfactory sphere.
OR
3. For more advanced manipulation of the sphere go filters/distort/lens distortion. If you just mess with the settings for a minute or two you will figure them out. They are not difficult to learn.

Also, Depending on your picture you may have to undo steps and move the image around and repeat steps to center the image.

I hope this helps you, never hesitate to reply, Stefan Maerz

On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Ray wrote:

Does anyone have an instructional on how to create a glass christmas ball and
add a picture (that hopefully) would follow the contour of the ball?

-- Ray (via www.gimpusers.com)

Ray wrote:

Does anyone have an instructional on how to create a glass christmas ball and add a picture (that hopefully) would follow the contour of the ball?

'Filters > Distorts > Curve Bend...'. But how do you proceed after this?

I tried it using 'Map > Map Object', but the result isn't very convincing, either. Imho, the best thing would be, to do it in 3D and map the object onto the surface of a sphere (such as 'UVSphere' in Blender). But that would require you to have at least some basic experience w/ 3D. As I said, I tried it myself, and I think that it's difficult using Gimp.

HTH,

Claus

Ray wrote:

Does anyone have an instructional on how to create a glass christmas ball and add a picture (that hopefully) would follow the contour of the ball?

I'd have thought your best bet would be Filters > Map > Map object and map to sphere.

HTH

Andrew