On 04/13/2016 06:35 PM, apeterl808@yahoo.com wrote:

Hi everyone,
First time user here! I’m trying to take an object (like a car and not the picture) and place it in a new background. Any help would be appreciated!

Hey Peter!

The GIMP User list usually replies to questions like yours right away, sorry about the lag. It is a Big Question though.

In broad terms, you will open the image with the background you want in the GIMP, add the image with the car (or etc.) that you want over that background on a layer above the desired background, and remove everything but the car (or etc.) from the top layer.

It's a Big Question because there are /many/ ways to remove the unwanted part of a layer in an image while leaving the part you want to keep intact. The more complicated the outline of the part you want to keep, the more it pays to use specialized tools and techniques to accurately (or at least "convincingly") remove the background. Cars are usually fairly simple shapes with nice sharp edges, and the "one best" way to remove content from an image layer in the GIMP is usually by using a layer mask, so I will present that method.

The tools and controls you will need include the image canvas, where the image you are working on is displayed; the toolbox, for selecting different tools to use on the image, i.e. tools for selecting parts of the image, tools for painting on the image with a brush, etc; and the Layers dialog dock. These are indicated by numbers 1 (Toolbox), 3 (Canvas) and 4 (Docks window with the Layers dialog selected) in the picture on this manual page:

https://docs.gimp.org/2.8/en/gimp-concepts-main-windows.html

or https://tinyurl.com/gozowlm

It will also be MOST helpful to review section 4 of the online GIMP manual, Common Tasks, before diving in: If you open some random image in the GIMP and do the things described (especially the techniques that actually change the appearance of an image), you will start to pick up the basics right away.

Section 6 of the online manual, Files, is also very important for understanding how the GIMP saves images in its own XCF format, and exports images into formats like JPG, PNG, GIF, etc.

https://docs.gimp.org/2.8/en/gimp-images-out.html#gimp-using-fileformats

or https://tinyurl.com/hyq2f8o

Now then:

Open the image file that will be the background of your finished product in the GIMP. Then drag and drop the image file with the car from your file system browser (probably Windows Explorer) to the image canvas (the background image). The image with the car will appear to replace all or part of the background, but look at the Layers dock: It now shows two layers. The bottom layer is the background image, the top layer is the image with the car.

If necessary, you can change the size of the car relative to the background image by doing Layers > Scale Layer. You can either select this from the menu at the top of the image canvas window, or right-click on the canvas and select it from the menu that opens on the spot.

Play around with the Scale Layer commands in the window that pops up. As with text editors and similar tools, Control-z is your friend: It will undo the last thing you did. Do Control-z again, and the previous action will be undone, etc. When the car is about the right size for your finished image, proceed to the next step.

In the online GIMP manual, a tool called Intelligent Scissors is described here:

https://docs.gimp.org/2.8/en/gimp-tutorial-quickie-separate.html

or https://tinyurl.com/z4gmvu4

Give it a try. If the car in the source image has strong color and/or brightness contrast with its original background, you may be able to select it very accurately with the Intelligent Scissors tool. Once it is selected, issue the command Select > Invert, to turn the selection inside out: Now, everything /but/ the car is selected. Do Edit > Delete, or Control-x on your keyboard. Look over the results: With luck, you will have accurately removed the background around the car.

If so, you can turn off your selection (Select > Select None), turn on the Move tool (the Toolbox button with a four pointed arrow icon), then click and drag the car to position it where you want it on the background, and you are more or less done.

If the car's outline has not been accurately enough selected, do Control-z or Edit > Undo to bring back the deleted background from your car layer.

You can either do Select > None and try again with the same tool, or leave the selection outline in place and use it as a "pretty close" staring point for making a very precise layer mask.

Add a layer mask to the car layer: In the Layers dialog, right-click the top thumbnail (the layer with the car), and select Add Layer Mask from the menu that opens. Accept the default (full opacity). Left click on the new rectangle that will appear to the right of the top layer in the Layers dialog, to assure that the mask is selected.

Back in the Toolbox, find the Color selector (a black rectangle over a white rectangle), and drag and drop black onto the image canvas. This will fill the layer mask with black in the area around the car (still selected), making that part of the layer transparent. The result will look the same as deleting the non-car part of the layer, but there's a big difference: You can bring back as much or as little of the "deleted" layer as needed, by painting on the layer with the Brush tool.

Turn off your selection by doing Select > None in the main menu. Then, select the Paint tool in the Toolbox (its icon looks like a paintbrush), click the white rectangle in the color selector to paint with white, and check out what happens when you click and drag to "paint" on the edge of the car: Its original background comes back, right where you painted the mask white. Back in the color selector, set the color to black, and undo your last action by painting with black in the same area you painted with white. Congratulations, you are now using "expert" techniques!

To get really precise, you will need to zoom in close on the parts of the image that need work. Try this: Hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, and scroll up and down with your mouse wheel. Zoom in, zoom out. Any time you are having problems with fine details in an image, you can always blow them way up. Note that the zoom function more or less tracks on where the mouse pointer is on the canvas when zooming in and out.

It will also be helpful to change brush shapes as required: The stock ones include hard and soft edged circles of various sizes. Select the one you need in the Brushes dialog dock, which in the manual image mentioned above is the left-most tab in the dock area numbered 5.

At any time, you can save your work in progress by doing File > Save or Control-s. This will save your image as an XCF file, the GIMP's native format, with all layers, masks, selections, etc. intact for later modification if needed. "Save early, save often."

When you are done tweaking on your image, save it one last time then Export it: That's File > Export or Control-e on your keyboard. Type a name for the file, and give it the right extension for the file format you want: PNG is usually a good choice, although JPG provides more compression (smaller file size), etc. as per the Files in the GIMP online help docs. The GIMP will recognize the file type you want by the extension you typed, and present the relevant options - defaults are usually good.

Hoping this intro was worth the wait,

Steve

:o)

Nicely described Steve. Well done!

Rick

-----Original Message----- From: Steve Kinney
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2016 11:34 PM To: gimp-user-list@gnome.org
Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] First time user

On 04/13/2016 06:35 PM, apeterl808@yahoo.com wrote:

Hi everyone,
First time user here! I’m trying to take an object (like a car and not the picture) and place it in a new background. Any help would be appreciated!

Hey Peter!

The GIMP User list usually replies to questions like yours right away, sorry about the lag. It is a Big Question though.

In broad terms, you will open the image with the background you want in the GIMP, add the image with the car (or etc.) that you want over that background on a layer above the desired background, and remove everything but the car (or etc.) from the top layer.-user-list.

etc.

On 04/18/2016 12:01 AM, Rick Strong wrote:

Nicely described Steve. Well done!

Rick

Cliff Notes version of same: RTFM ;)

You might also find bits of this useful:

http://pilobilus.net/gimp_tutorial.html

It shows how I normally set up the user interface to maximize screen real estate for the image canvas, and has links to some useful resources.

:o)

The site looks informative, Steve. Thanks,
Rick

-----Original Message----- From: Steve Kinney
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2016 1:18 PM To: Rick Strong ; gimp-user-list@gnome.org Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] First time user

On 04/18/2016 12:01 AM, Rick Strong wrote:

Nicely described Steve. Well done!

Rick

Cliff Notes version of same: RTFM ;)

You might also find bits of this useful:

http://pilobilus.net/gimp_tutorial.html

It shows how I normally set up the user interface to maximize screen real estate for the image canvas, and has links to some useful resources.

:o)