How to Make a 3-D Water Stream With GIMP
- 1). Click the tool palette icon shaped like a rectangle with a dashed line to run the "Rectangular selection" tool, then drag on the canvas to create a rectangle whose length is at least five times its height. This shape will form the outer edge of the water stream.
- 2). Select the "Filter" menu's "Solid noise" command, which produces images that simulate objects with fluid or streaming qualities. Click "OK" to render the noise, which will be in black and white.
- 3). Click the "Filter" menu's "Unsharp mask," which sharpens images despite its name. Click "OK" to apply the sharpening effect, right click the highlighted layer in the "Layers" window. Click "Alpha to selection" to make GIMP select just the content area of the noise instead of the entire layer containing it.
- 4). Press the page icon on the "Layers" window to create a new layer, then click a rich blue color from the tool palette's upper color swatch.
- 5). Select the tool palette icon shaped like a paint bucket to run the "Fill" tool, then click inside the selection region to fill it with blue. Drag the "Layer" window's "Opacity" slider to the left until you can see the noise you rendered in Step 2 turn blue from the fill operation you just performed.
- 6). Click the "Layer" menu's "Merge" command to merge the noise and the color layers to fill the rectangle with the water effect. The rectangle is too stiff to provide a realistic shape for the stream, so you'll now bend the rectangle into a stream-like shape.
- 7). Click the "Filter" menu's "Curve bend" filter, then drag upward on the line in the dialog box that appears to curve the water stream's upper edge. Select the "Lower" option to select the lower edge of the rectangle, then use this step's beginning instruction to curve this edge as you did the upper edge.
- 8). Press "OK" to complete the curve bending and your water stream.