GIMP - textures - importing - CHAOS

[BroderickLogan]

Would apprecite any input I can get here.  I'm using GIMP 2.6, I've saved textures from SL to my computer, and supposedly, I've opened them in GIMP, and re-saved it as a .gbr file in the appropriate "Brushes" folder in the program files.

However... It never shows up, and if I go to that folder through my hard drive, it doesn't show either.  

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!

[MIstahMoose]

Why did you save them as gbr files? Just curious if you made them a brush? (Usually I use any textures as layers and tile them, making them brushes can get pretty messy unless you tweak them a lot before setting them up..)
Windows might not realize its a native file and won't show it (even though it should show anything and everything.) But you can setup the file source in gimp so that it identifies and selects the file from the source folder and imports it to your brush palette

http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-using-brushes.html

[BroderickLogan]

I'll give that a go MistahMoose.  Thanks for the reply.

I was changing it to .gbr per a few helps I found online (including GIMP Help), and that's how a friend is trying to teach me to do it.

I should have added I'm totally brand new to this.  Working with my first template in GIMP ever.

[MIstahMoose]

I would typically suggest downloading brushes if you're new rather than making your own getting textures from websites and SL is great but making them into working brushes can be tedious. But yeah wish you the best and I'll check back if you need any help.

[BroderickLogan]

So I realized I had already done what that link said to do, as I had been there for hours last night following the directions (Yeah... I'm slow). - This link - http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-using-brushes.html

Those directions are what originally prompted me to change the file format to .gbr.  I know the file is there.  But, how do I find it in gimp?  I select the brush, then click on the color palette area, and don't see an option to pull up that texture.  

Or.... Is there a better way to apply a texture to a template?

Thanks again, in advance!

[MIstahMoose]

You can always just open the texture as a layer and overlay it over the entire template, or skew and rotate as needed, That is what I usually do. If you have an AO map with the template you purchased then you can open that on top of everything and set the layer properties to multiply for a nice shadowing effect.

[BroderickLogan]

Okay... lol. I'm going to chew on what you posted and figure out what it all means.  It sounds like what I want to do... Now I just need to figure out how to do it.

[Pamela Galli]

Not sure what you are asking, but you save a file with Gimp the same way you save a file made with any program -- to some folder in your harddrive.

 

You are not using the newest GIMP (which you should, it has important features like Single Window Mode) but with the newer versions, if you use Save, it saves in native Gimp format; if you Export, you can save in almost any format, including Photoshop.

[BroderickLogan]

Yeah not sure how I ended up with the older version, but I got 2.8 installed now.  I've saved the textures to where it says to save them.  Now just need to figure out where to go to pull them up and apply them.

[Coby Foden]

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BroderickLogan wrote:

Yeah not sure how I ended up with the older version, but I got 2.8 installed now.  

I've saved the textures to where it says to save them.  Now just need to figure out where to go to pull them up and apply them.

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I must say that I don't get what exactly you want to do?

In your first post you said that you saved textures from SL to your computer. Ok that part is clear. I assume that you want to open those textures in Gimp. Is my assumption right?

When you save the textures from SL to your computer you can define the folder in your computer where to save them. Then if you just want to open those files in Gimp, just go to that folder with Gimp and open the files you want. There is no other magic in that.

Then do with the files whatever you wanted to do with them in Gimp.

If you want to save the files in Gimp format, then just do "File, save". It will save the files in Gimp's file format (xcf).

If you want to save in some other format then do "File, Export" and select the file format.

If you want to save the files so that you can import them back to SL, then you can use TGA and PNG file formats (don't use JPG file format, it just degrades the quality).

 

What I didn't understand in your last post are these your words:

I've saved the textures to where it says to save them.

Now just need to figure out where to go to pull them up and apply them.

 

 

Erm, what do you mean?

• What says where to save them, SL or Gimp?

• Apply them [the textures] to what?

 

 

[BroderickLogan]

Forgive me Coby for not being clear.  I'm very, very new to all of this, and appreciate the help.

To answer your questions:

• What says where to save them, SL or Gimp? - Gimp help page told me where to save them if I wanted them as a brush, which I was advised by one person is the best way, and another person not.  At this point, I just want to get the textures period on.... >>> next question >>>
• Apply them [the textures] to what? A mesh clothing template.

I've searched every day for a couple of weeks now on a tutorial on YouTube and I've been able to pick things up here and there, but the biggest thing holding me back from any progress on this project is knowing how to put the textures from SL onto the mesh clothing template.  

Again, thanks for the help and patience.

[Coby Foden]

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

A simple video how to use SL clothing templates in GIMP.

 

It shows how to open a clothing template, how to change the colour for the template area, and it shows how to add another texture on the template. I guess you get the idea by watching the video.


I don't still get why you want to use the textures exported from SL as brushes in GIMP.  Well anyway if do want to do that, in GIMP help there is instruction how to save a texture in GIMP to be used as a brush. I paste the info here:

Adding New Brushes to GIMP

To add a new brush, after either creating or downloading it, you need to save it in a format GIMP can use. The brush file needs to be placed in the GIMP's brush search path, so that GIMP is able to index and display it in the Brushes dialog. You can hit the Refresh button, which reindexes the brush directory. The .gbr ("gimp brush") format is used for ordinary and color brushes. You can convert many other types of images, including many brushes used by other programs, into GIMP brushes by opening them in GIMP and saving them with file names ending in .gbr.

So, where should the brush files be saved? To find it out where to, from the GIMP menu select "Edit, Preferences" and from there look at "Folders, Brushes". There you can see the folder where you need to save the new brushes what you create.