On 01/04/2012 01:16 AM, vish wrote:

hi all,

i am new to gimp and could really use some help.

i have pictures of several shirt fabrics which i need to crop. this is easy. however, i need to add an effect that will make the edges appear to be a zigzag shape. see link below. look at the edges of the picture (including the shadow). this is the type of image effect i'm looking for.

http://www.customshop.com/shop/apparel/custom-mens-dress-shirts/custom-dress-shirts.html?pattern=127

does anyone know how to do this? please help if possible.

thanks

Hey vish,

There are several possible approaches but probably the one you want is to make an image where your fabric fills most or all of one layer. Add a layer mask to this layer, and fill the part you don't want to show - the cut-out area that leaves a zig zag edge - with black on the mask.

Start with a new image where the base layer is your cloth. You will want this to be about twice as wide as the finished image will be, relative to the texture of the fabric etc. as required.

Making the pattern for the mask can be done lots of ways but I think I would probably create a new white layer, make sure my foreground & background colors are black and white, and use the filter at Filters

Render > Pattern > Checkerboard. It will take some calculation

and tweaking to get the right size squares for the look you want.

Then go to Layer > Transform > Arbitrary Rotation, and turn the checkerboard layer 45 degrees. Now you will need to use the rectangular selection tool, and use it to select areas of the checkerboard to fill with white and black, until you end up with a layer that with a jagged white center where the cloth will be, surrounded by black where the cloth won't be visible.

Next, go back to your "cloth" layer, right-click on its thumbnail in the Layers tab of your dock, and add a layer mask. To transfer your modified checkerboard layer, first click on the new layer mask to make it the current selection. Then click on the modified checkerboard, do Edit > Copy (better: control-c), then Edit > Paste (better: control-v). Over in the Layers tab, you will see a "floating selection". Just click on the Anchor icon and it will merge down into the mask.

Now click on the eyeball next to the checkerboard layer to turn it off. If all went according to plan, you how have an image of a piece of cloth with a zig zag edge, on a transparent background.

The drop shadow is easy. Make a duplicate of your cloth layer. Select the mask part on the lower of the two duplicate layers, and do Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur to fuzz out the edges of the mask. Then click on the image part of the same layer, and fill it with black. Finally, activate the Move tool in your main toolbox, and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move it around until the shadow is where you want it.

Crop the image, save as .xcf for later tweaking, save as .png or .gif for a web image with a transparent background. Or, if this will be against a known solid color background, go ahead and make a layer of the said color and put it at the bottom of the stack before saving.

Example: http://pilobilus.net/xfer/zigzag-cloth.xcf Not a production quality version of what you want, but it illustrates the principles.

YMMV, I did the process described to make the sample image but I did not proofread the post very carefully.

:o)

Steve

On 01/04/2012 02:17 AM, Steve Kinney wrote:

Crop the image, save as .xcf for later tweaking, save as .png or .gif for a web image with a transparent background. Or, if this will be against a known solid color background, go ahead and make a layer of the said color and put it at the bottom of the stack before saving.

Oh one more thing: Re-use the same .xcf file as a template for different cloth sample images. Open it, open an image of your next piece of cloth, and do control-c to copy the new sample. Select the old .xcf image, click on the old cloth layer to select it, and do control-v to paste. Finally click the anchor icon, and your new sample of cloth will replace the old one. "Save as", rinse, repeat.

:o)

Steve

hi all,

i am new to gimp and could really use some help.

i have pictures of several shirt fabrics which i need to crop. this is easy. however, i need to add an effect that will make the edges appear to be a zigzag shape. see link below. look at the edges of the picture (including the shadow). this is the type of image effect i'm looking for.

http://www.customshop.com/shop/apparel/custom-mens-dress-shirts/custom-dress-shirts.html?pattern=127

does anyone know how to do this? please help if possible.

thanks

As you can see from the other posts this is not an easy task to explain.

I think the easiest way is to make a set of zigzag brushes. so you would need to know how to make those, not so easy for a beginner then use them to nibble away at the edges not as a brush but with the eraser tool.

Other things you will need to know, how to add transparency. something like this http://i.imgur.com/DKB8a.jpg

Then comes the drop shadow, gimp has this filter already. but you will need to know how to make a selection and invert it. Finally you might need to convert the transparency back to some other colour (or not) like this http://i.imgur.com/zag9p.jpg

the two brushes + copies of the screenshots about half-a-MB https://rapidshare.com/files/74511304/swatch.zip

it looks like i'm unable to get the desired results. i guess i'm still too new to gimp and need to learn about the features possible.

would it be possible to email me step by step instructions. it seems some of the terminology and jargon used is slightly advanced for me, and if you had step by step instructions, perhaps it would be easier to follow for me. let me know if possible.

thanks again for your time and efforts

btw, the photo example you sent is exactly what i'm looking for.

--

I made a quick video of another method to get your results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB6NnrrDhbc

-Rob A>

On 01/04/2012 02:00 PM, rich wrote:

As you can see from the other posts this is not an easy task to explain.

You ain't kidding. I am just finishing up a tutorial that explains the process in step by step detail as a series of screen shots with brief text where required. I am putting the web page together now, I will post a link when it's done.

:o)

Steve

Greetings,

Just uploaded a completely visual tutorial on zigzag edges + drop shadow:

http://pilobilus.net/gimp_drop_shadow_tutorial.html

This is a "version 0.1" effort, but it should get the job done until I get around to tweaking things some.

:o)

Steve

On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 4:44 PM, Steve Kinney wrote:

This is a "version 0.1" effort, but it should get the job done until I get around to tweaking things some.

Nice!

IMO - the last steps might be:

- Save as XCF for future use - Copy paste each texture to new layer - Export each as JPEG/PNG

0.02 - nice explanation though :)

Chris

On 01/04/2012 01:16 AM, vish wrote:

hi all,

i am new to gimp and could really use some help.

i have pictures of several shirt fabrics which i need to crop. this is easy. however, i need to add an effect that will make the edges appear to be a zigzag shape. see link below. look at the edges of the picture (including the shadow). this is the type of image effect i'm looking for.

http://www.customshop.com/shop/apparel/custom-mens-dress-shirts/custom-dress-shirts.html?pattern=127

does anyone know how to do this? please help if possible.

Does grab one of those images and play with it until you have eliminated the color part and then replace it with what you want make sense?

Fool with it as in select the black, no feathering, copy and paste into a master.

When in doubt, steal. Works for web pages.