Making Your 1st Wall

So are You ready to make Your 1st Wallpaper, well if You have downloaded and installed the Photo Editor and downloaded the art work that I have in "What You Need 1st", then Yes You are.  If you have not done so yet, please click on "What You Need 1st" above and do so, before continuing on. And I Thank You.
   
Now with Gimp up and running on Your Computer and before we starting doing any work, let me try my best to explain a few things to you about Gimp as shown here....

Everything that you see above that is shaded in lite blue is the main Photo Editor and when Gimp first opens this is where the program is waiting for you to tell it what it is that you would like to do first.  While the box to the left, that is shaded in lite yellow, is the Tool Box-Tool Options with the most common tools used in image manipulation at the top and with each tools options at the bottom. While the box to the right, that is shaded in lite green, is the Layers-Brushes, with Layers, Channels, Paths, and Undo are at the top and different Brushes, Patterns and Gradients that are used at the bottom.  Keep in mind that these two boxes lay on top of the Main Window in lite blue and can be moved around, re-sized and even closed to get them out of the way while you are working on the Main Window on Your Project(s).  And if You close either one of them or both, to get them to re-opened and appear again, just click on the Main Window Top Tool Bar - Windows/Recently Closed Docks and selected the one(s) that you want to reappear, as shown here...

Now that you have a somewhat a basic understanding of how this program is layout and the purpose of the three windows that you are seeing, let's go to work....

A Note Here: Please be advise that any and all screen shots that I'm about to share with you about Gimp may not always appear to be exactly in the same way that you see them while following the steps below, for I have been using Gimp to create this Blog and some of the default settings may have changed within My Version of Gimp!!!  Also be advised that you can right click on any of the screen shots on the this Blog and then select from the pop up menu "Open in a new tab" to view the screen shot in full size for a much easier viewing/reading of the screen shot, like the one above.
    
#1. The first thing that you want to do is start a new project by clicking on "File" in the top main Window Tool Bar and then select from the drop down menu "New".  Then you will see a new window with the title of "Create A New Image" and it is wanting to know the image size you want.  And since we are creating a Desktop Wallpaper, well if you have a standard monitor you would type in for width 1024 and for height you would type in 728 and if you have a wide screen monitor you would type in for width 1920 and for height you would type in 1200 and then click on [OK] Button. In which you will see the following after you moving both the left and right boxes to each side as shown here....

Now there is big white box in the center of your screen, the above is showing for a standard size wallpaper, this is the beginning of your first Wallpaper.

#2. Now click on "File" in the top main Window Tool Bar and then select "Open" and then browse to Your "My Pictures/My 1st Wallpaper" and click on "MountainStream", that is if you downloaded the photo to this folder as I asked you to do in "What You Need 1st", or open it to where you saved it and you will see....

Now move this Window that is containing "MountainStream" to the right till you can see "File" in the top menu bar of this window and then click on "Edit" in the top menu bar and from the drop down menu, click on copy and then close this window by moving it all the way back to the left till you see the Red "X" in the top menu bar and click on it.

#3. Also Close the Tool Box on left and close the Layer-Brushes Box on the right and now click on "Edit" in the top Main Window Tool Bar and from the drop down menu select "Past".  Now you will see the MountainStream Background in Your New Project as a new layer, but this layer is either to large for Your Project if you choose to do a standard size wallpaper as shown here....

Or it is to small if you choose to do a wide screen wallpaper here as shown here...

So to resolve this problem, 1st click on the Top Menu Bar - Windows/Recently Closed Docks and select "Toolbox - Tool Options" to restore the Toolbox for a tool that you need at this point.  Once restored, click on the "Scale Tool" (see below where the red arrow is pointing to) and move your mouse to the picture and left click on it and a new window will appear wanting to know what Scale you're want to re size the picture to....
   
First for those making a standard size Wall as shown here...

Now you can either click on the center box on the grid to the right, that will turn gold in color and while holding down on your left mouse drag it to the left till you reaches the edge of the white box and then do the same on the left and drag it in to the right till you reaches the edge of the white box or just simply type in 1024 for the width.  Which ever way you chose, when you're done, then click on the [Scale] Button and the "MountainStream" will then be re-sized to your project.
   
And now for those making a wide screen size Wall as shown here...

Now you can either click on the lower box on the grid to the right, that will turn gold in color and while holding down on your left mouse drag it to the lower right corner of the white box and then do the same on the left top box and drag it to the top left corner of the white box or just simply type in 1920 for the width and 1200 for the height.  Which ever way you chose, when you're done, then click on the [Scale] Button and the "MountainStream" with then be re-sized to your project.
   
#4. Now click on the top Menu Bar - Windows/Recently Closed Dock and Select "Layers, Channels, Paths, Undo - Brushes..." and you will see that You now have Two Layers in Your 1st Project as shown here....

Now right click on the "Grayed One", the one labeled "Floating" and from the drop down menu, click on "Anchor Layer" and this layer now becomes Your Background for Your 1st Wallpaper and now you have one Layer at this point in time and your half way done in creating your 1st Wallpaper, so let's save what work you have done so far by clicking on "File" in the top menu bar and from the drop down menu, click on "Save".  I always save all my working project where I have my backgrounds and studs that I'm using for my current wallpapers, so navigate your way to Your "My Picture/My 1st Wallpaper" and save this project as "my1stwallS.xcf" for standard size and for wide screen size, save it as my1stwallW.xcf.  All working projects created by Gimp end with a file extension of "xcf". And with this done, click on the Red "X" in the top menu bar to close this project, so that we can start a new project and that being the furry stud that we are going to be adding here later.

A Note Here: If you are running out of time, and would like to continue on at this at later time, this a a great place to stop at and close everything,  you can then continue on at this point when you return by simply re-opening GIMP and of course this Blog!!!

#5. Now let's go to work on that furry stud to add to the Background that you just made that I share with you in "What You Need 1st".  First click on "File" in the top menu bar and then select "Open" and browser your way to Your "My Pictures/My 1st Wallpaper" and select "Sean_Cody_Charles_0213" and click on the [Open] Button.  And Yes, isn't He a cute young furry stud?  As shown here...

****MOST IMPORTANT NOTE HERE****

AND THAT IS YOU NEVER, EVER WANT TO MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THE ORIGINAL PHOTO THAT YOU ARE USING, WHETHER IT BE FOR A BACKGROUND OR FOR ANY OF YOUR STUDS THAT YOU WANTING TO USE IN ANY OF YOUR WALLPAPERS!!!!  SIMPLY BECAUSE IF SOME HOW, SOME WAY YOU DO A MAJOR SCREW UP, YOU ALWAYS WANT TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL TO RETURN TO AND START OVER!!!! 
   
So with that said, click on "Edit" in the Top Menu Bar of "Sean_Cody_Charles_0213" and then from the drop down menu select "Copy". Now click on the "Red X" in the Top Menu Bar of "Sean_Cody_Charles_0213" to close it so nothing with be done do it and from the Top Menu Bar of the Main Program, click on Edit and from the drop down menu select "Past". Now you are ready to what I call a "Rough Extraction" of an image from a photo.  And while there is a "Foreground Select" Tool that let's you automatically do extractions within Gimp, like within most Professional Photo Editor that allow for an AUTOMATIC EXTRACTION, I'm not that found of them for I never end up with a nice clean edge around the studs I'm extracting, so I always do it the old fashion way, and that is by hand, the way it was done way, way back in the the beginning with the very 1st version of Adobe PhotoShop and is still true to this day!!!  For I find it's the only way to get a nice clean Extraction and that none of the many AUTOMATIC EXTRACTORS in any of my Professional Editors can do still to this day. (Just My Thoughts On This One).

#6. So before we start to extract Him, first right click on the "Sean_Cody_Carl" Layer in the "Layer-Brushes" Box to the right and select from the Drop Down Menu "Add Alpha Channel" as shown here....(This Step Is Most Import To Do When Trying To Erase Background from a Layer)

Now click on the "Eraser Tool" in the Tool Box on the left as shown here with the Red Arrow....

And then within the Tool Box Options at the bottom of the box to the Left, click on Bush at the top as shown here with the Red Arrow and it's showing you the default setting of "2. Hardness .025" with the Blue Arrow as shown here...

And then Select "2. Hardness.075" with the Blue Arrow as shown here...

Now Select the Brush Size and move it up to somewhere around 100 as shown here...

You want a somewhat large eraser to remove the bulk of background around Sean at this point. Now move your mouse to somewhere in the background around Sean in the top of the photo and while holding down your lift mouse button and moving it around,  this will begin to erase the background around Sean.  And as you start to erase you will then see a lite black and white checker board, if not and you're seeing white as you try to erase then you haven't set this lay to have an "Alpha Channel", as pointed out at the beginning of Step #6.  This is how transparency or clear is displayed in a photo editor and as shown here....

Remember to let up on your mouse once in a while, for if you make a mistake and erase part of Sean, You can just click on "Edit" in the Top Menu Bar, then Section "Undo Erase" from the drop down menu and this will restore what you just erased and place you right back to when you started this erase click.  Don't worry about getting to close to Sean at this point in time, the goal here is just to erased as much of the back ground around him quickly as you can and when you are done you should have something that looks like this.... 

#7. Now at this point let's save what work you have done by clicking on "File" in the top menu bar and then click save and browse your way to Your "My Pictures/My 1st Wallpaper" and save this project as "Sean_Cody_Extract.xcf"  I always save my extraction of each stud by what ever the studs photo name was and add the word "Extract" to it.  This way the working project is always right next to the original photo of the stud in the folding that he is stored in.
   
#8. Now let see what this furry stud is going to look like on the Wallpaper that we are making at this point.  I always do this at this point because sometimes when I place the rough extraction of a stud on the Background of the Wallpaper I'm making,  sometimes he just doesn't look right and there is no need to do anymore extraction of Him and I try another stud.  So click on "Edit" in the top menu bar and click on "Copy" and then click on the "Red X" to close Sean.  Now Click on "File" in the top menu bar and select Open and open up the 1st project that you saved, it will be either "my1stwallS.xcf" or "my1stwallW.xcf".  Now click on Edit and select paste and this is what you should see if you are doing a standard size wallpaper....

The first thing I see is He is nice and big for the Wallpaper We are making for a standard size, as shown above and a little bit small for a wide screen Wallpaper We are making, but both are fix able, and I will tell you how after we finish completely extracting him, and since I like the coloring that is going on between Sean and the Background, so I say let's continue on and make Him a Wallpaper. So good ahead and closed this window and when asked if you want to save changes, click on the [Discard Changes], for we really don't want the rough extraction of Sean to be saved within this project.

#9. Now let's re-open the rough extraction of "Sean" by clicking on "File/Open" and click on "Sean_Cody_Extract.xcf". Once opened, now right click in the left box, "Layer-Bushes" somewhere within the white area underneath "Pasted Layer" as highlighted with a red box below and select from the Popup Menu, "New Layer" as shown here...

When asked the details of the New Layers, name, size and details, just click on the [OK] Button, for we are going to be using all the defaults for this layer.

#10. Now click on the "Black Square" of the "Foreground/Background Color" Tool in the top position of the Tool Box as shown here by the red arrow....

When the "Foreground" Window Opens and is wanting to know what color you want to change "Black" to, then click on the last tap to the right and then select red as shown here by the blue arrows...and after you do this then click the [OK] Button. 

#11. Now Select the Bucket Fill Tool in the Toot Box as shown here with the red arrow...

and move your mouse over to the photo of Sean and Left click on it.  This will fill the new layer with red, and yes, you can no longer see Sean, as shown here...

So to solve this problem, simply left click on the "Pasted Layer", that contains Sean in the left box of "Layers-Brushes" and while holding down your left mouse button, move it up to above the Layer of "Red" and you will see Sean once again and this is highlighted with the blue box as shown here....

Now the reason why I add a layer that is filled with a bight color and place it behind the stud I'm extracting is because it helps me see what Background I may have missed when doing the rough extraction of a stud with just the lite black and white checker board background known as transparency or clear and as you can plainly see by the green arrows here....

I missed some major background and while hard to see by the blue arrows, I also missed some smaller background, but they all for sure will show up on my Desktop if I don't clean them up before doing a final extraction and then coping this layer of Sean to the background and making it a Wallpaper of Him.  Plus it also helps me see the edge of the stud when finishing up the extraction of Him, which we about to do.  So if you have any such areas on you rough extraction, just click on the eraser tool and clean them up now on the Pasted Layer and when done, click on File/Save in the Top Menu Bar.
(A Note Here) Try different colors for Your filler color here besides red.  Sometimes I use Green, Yellow, Blue, even Black or White, all depending upon what the major color is of the background that the stud is on when first trying to extracting him, believe me, this really, really helps in getting a nice clean extraction!!! 

#12. Now using the short cut keys of Gimp and that being while holding down on the "Shift" Key and then pressing the "Plus" Key on your key board you can zoom in on Sean and then just "Minus" Key to zoom back out.  With this said, go ahead and zoom in on Sean 4 times.  Now click on the "Eraser Tool" in the Tool Box and change the eraser size at the bottom of the box from 60 that you used in the "Rough Extraction", all the way down to 20 to start Your final extraction and make sure that the "Brush Hardness" is still set at .075. Now using the bottom "horizontal Bar" and the "vertical bar" to the right, if the "vertical bar to the right not visible, move the "Layer-Bushes" Box to the right over a bit to the left till the "vertical bar" is visible.  Now slide the "vertical bar" to the top and bottom horizontal bar over to the right till you see the top of Sean's shoulder on the right and begin to erasing the remaining background by left clicking and holding down on the background above His shoulder on the right and moving upward towards the top of his head as shown here...

And remember to let up on your mouse once in while when erasing just encase you erase to much, you can always click on in the top menu bar, "Edit/Undo Erase".  And when I reach the top of His head and have removed as much of the background that I can with the eraser brush this size, I then come back to his shoulder where I started to work and then start working my way down to the bottom of the right side of him, using my mouse wheel to scroll down as I erase.  Once at this point I then scroll back up to and erase what I can with the current brush size I'm using to erase between the right side of his body and arm and clicking on "File/Save" as I go just encase the power goes out and my computer is shut off!!!  And after clicking on the minus key four times, I'm back to the screen size when first started my final extraction of Sean, and this is what is shown....

Yes there is still some background above His ear and under is arm pit and where is hand reaches His swimming suit, but I will come back here later with a smaller brush to finish these areas as shown in the next step.  But for now, zoom back in four times and scroll back down to the bottom and erase what You can between His Legs and then move to the Left and starting at the bottom erase what I can all the way up to the left side of Him to His arm pit and then down and around His left arm and hand and then to the top of Him Head.  And with all this done you should see something like this after zooming out (4) times.....

#13. And believe it not, You are all most done with the extraction.  All that needs to be done now is to clean up all the background that the eraser that you were using before, couldn't get into, as shown here by all the Blue Arrows....

#14. So now zoom back in on Sean once again, this time go (6) times with the [shift button] & [plus key] and using the scroll bars till you see the top of Sean's ear to the right.  Now click on the "Eraser Tool" and change the brush size of (20) down to (3) and click on Sean and remove what you can above His ear.  Then change the brush size once again, this time down to (1) to get that last little bit of background still remaining, as shown here....

Now by toggling back and forth between an erase brush size of (3) and (1), do the same for the other ear, both of His arm pits, both of His hands and then between His legs and then you should have Sean completely extracted and by zooming back out (5) times, and this is what you should see...

At this time all that needs to been done is to save the work you have done by clicking on "File/Save" and then placing Him on the Background We first made.

#15. To do this, first click on "File", then "Copy" and close the Sean Window.  Now click on "File", then "Open" and open the 1st project that you saved, then one with the background by the name of "my1stWall(s)or(w).xcf" and then click on "File and then "Paste As" and then select "As New Layer"....

And for those of you making a standard size wall, Sean is going to be a bit to big for the background as shown here....

And if you are making a wide screen wall, well then Sean is going to be a bit small for the background as shown here....

#16. So what we need to do now is to "Re-size" Him to fit the background you're using. So for those making a Standard Size Wallpaper and if you can not see the bottom dotted box around Sean, as shown above then click your minus key till you do, then click on the "Scale Tool", as shown by the Green Arrow below and then click on Sean and when the scale window appears, first click on the [Unlock] Button as shown below by the Red Arrow, this changes it to the [Locked] Button that preserver the Vertical And Horizontal Aspect Ratio of Sean when re-sizing Him. Now either click on the lower right hand corner and move it upward and inward till the bottom of Sean's Legs reach the bottom of the Wallpaper, or click on the the [Down Arrow] of Height and hold down till it reaches 765 as shown here by the Blue Arrow...

and then click the [Scale] Button to re-size him to Your Background.

And for those making a wide screen wall, click on the "Scale Tool", as shown by the Green Arrow below and then click on Sean and when the scale window appears, first click on the [Unlock] Button as shown below by the Red Arrow, this changes it to the [Locked] Button that preserver the Vertical And Horizontal Aspect Ratio of Sean when re-sizing Him. Now either click on the lower right hand corner and move it downward and outward till the bottom of Sean's Legs reach the bottom of the Wallpaper, or click on the the [Up Arrow] of Height and hold down till it reaches 1190 as shown here by the Blue Arrow...

And then click on the [Scale] Button.

#17. Now that Sean is re-sized, click on the "Move Tool" in the Tool Box that the Blue Arrow is pointing to as shown here....

and move Sean around to where you would like to place him in your wall with His legs all the way to the bottom of the background.  You may like Him to the left, centered or to the right like I have him as shown above.  And if you not happy with the size of Him, just simply click on the "Scale Tool" again and either make Him bigger or smaller to your liking.

#18. So are you are liking what you have done so far and you are are thinking it looks great? Wrong, for it can even look better.  Here is my little trick to even make the wallpaper you just finished look even better and how I get all my extraction to look like they are a prefect match to the background. First click on "Color" in the top menu bar and then click on "Level" and when the Adjust Color Levels Window opens, just click on "Auto" as show here by the Blue Arrow.....

And Sean "Pops" and comes alive with a more perfect color match to the background, much more so than He was before at least I think so.  And while this may not always be the case, but more so than not, it sure does work for me.

OK, believe it not YOU ARE NOW DONE CREATING YOUR 1ST WALLPAPER!!!  All you have to do now is click on "File" and then "Save" to save YOUR 1st Wallpaper Project.  Once you have done that then click on "File" and then "Export As" and when Export Window Opens, down near the bottom, click on the down arrow at the end of "All images" and select the "JPG Format" and using the default sittings, then export it to Your "My Picture/My 1st Wallpaper" Folder with the file name of "my1stwallS.jpg" for Standard Size and "my1stwallW.jpg for Wide Screen Size.  Once that is done, then I highly recommend that you set it as Your Desktop Wallpaper.  For what may look great within a Photo Editor's Window, doesn't always look so great when blown up full size on One's Desktop and you just might see somethings you missed.  If so well, you can always re-open up your Sean Project and correct them or you Wallpaper Project to correct them and believe it or not, I do this with every Wallpaper I make before posting them to My Wallpaper Blog.

A Final Note Here:  Please be advised that what I have just shared with you should in no way be considered to be set in stone as the only way to create a Wallpaper, for it isn't and there are oh so many other ways to do so!!!  However, this is how I have been doing it since 2009 and it is with the greatest of hopes that I have at least wet your whistle enough and put a tickle in your pickle to the point that just maybe you will be wanting to do more, and if so, then please click on [Tips And Tricks] at the top of this Blog to do so.

All This Shared With You

With Wallpaper Love & Hugs

Your Wallpaper Buddy Always

(((((( BRENT ))))))

With Hopes You Will Now Share What You Create With All Of US!!!