GIMP 3D perspective
YOU’LL NEED THIS
GIMP 2.1 OS: Windows 7 or newer.
FOR THIS TUTORIAL, we ‘ll be turning our attention to 3D image placement and how to bring two images together while maintaining the same 3D perspective. We’ll be using GIMP for this tutorial and a royalty-free image by Jurre Houtkamp on Unsplash ( unsplash.com) to show how to build your photo manipulation skills. Practicing using sites like Unsplash allows you to play around with high-quality images with plenty of manipulation potential. We’ll also be using a flat graphic site called the Noun Project ( thenounproject.com) for a flat sign we’ll be adjusting.
This should build your knowledge of perspective and help you blend images together while maintaining a natural finish. We’ll also be touching on textures, as we bring the texture from our original image into the graphics from The Noun Project. You can choose any image for this tutorial but to start, choose an image that’s looking straight towards the horizon. –SAM LEWIS
1 CHOOSE YOUR IMAGE
As we mentioned above, we chose an image from Unsplash by Jurre Houtkamp, which is of a beach in the Netherlands. We’ll be adding a beach graphic into the path on this image as if it has been painted on.
>> Once you’ve found an image you’re happy with, open up GIMP, then go to File, Open and find your image. Alternatively, you could drag and drop the image into your workspace [ Image A].
>> After the image has been placed, we’re going to find our vanishing point, which is the core of the image’s perspective. The vanishing point is where two parallel lines on an image eventually join up. To create this, first, make a new layer. From the default arrangement on GIMP, this is usually in the bottom right corner—the icon is of a piece of paper with a plus sign on it. Name this layer ‘vanishing point’ and rename your image layer to ‘background layer’.
2 VANISHING TRICKS
Once that’s prepared, we can start drawing our vanishing points. Making sure you’re on your vanishing point layer, go to the tools on the left, and select the paintbrush tool. Make sure this is a small point size, nothing too specific. Then, click on the bottom left of the path in the image and hold the ‘SHIFT’ key. This will enable you to draw in straight line mode. With this straight line, follow the line of the path and continue it until it reaches the top of the page. Repeat this process on the right-hand side afterward [ Image B].
>> Next, bring the top margin down for the horizontal line to hit where the two perspective lines meet and do the same for the side margin. You should now end up with something like we have in our image. The point where all the lines meet is the vanishing point.
3 ICONIC IMAGES
It’s time to bring in our icon. We’ve opted for a sunset graphic and are aiming for this to look as though it has been painted onto the path. To bring this into our document, copy it from the website and then go to Edit > Paste As > New Layer. Then rename this layer.
>> Head to the top again and go to Layer and then Crop to content. This cuts the layer down to the size of the graphic we’ve just pasted in. Then drag this to the vanishing point and it should snap into place. If it doesn’t snap, head to the View drop-down and make sure that ‘snap to grid’ is selected [ Image C].
4 MAGIC TRANSFORMATIONS
This is where the magic happens. We can hide the vanishing point layer for now as we have our icon in place. Then, while on the icon layer, hit ‘SHIFT’ + ‘W’ to bring up the 3D transform tool.
>> When this opens up, on the left-hand side, make sure under the 3D transform options that ‘Unified interaction’ is checked [ Image D]. Then, hover your mouse over to the
C
side of the icon, and you can hold ‘SHIFT’ and tilt the image back and forth, giving it a 3D perspective.
>> Make the layer vanish by tilting it back into the horizon—it will appear as though it’s a flat line, like in our image [ Image E].
Once you hover your mouse over the flat line where the image is hidden, this will change to the move tool icon and then you can drag your image down and it will start to appear as in our example. Then, drag this down towards the path so it follows the perspective and sits nice and flush with the pathway.
>> To alter the size, once it’s in position, hold the ‘CTRL’ key— this locks the Z-axis to make sure the perspective remains the same. Once you’re happy with the position, hit ‘transform’ on the 3D transform pop-up window to confirm your selection.
5 ADDING TEXTURE
To finish the image off, we’ll be adding the texture from the original onto our icon. Duplicate the original background and bring this layer to the top. Then change the blending mode to ‘Grain merge’.
>> Now, we’ll create a layer mask from the icon layer, so click on this layer while holding down the ‘ALT’ key to create a selection from it. Then right-click on the top layer, hit ‘add layer mask’, and on the drop-down click the ‘selection’ option. Next, select the icon layer once more, go to ‘layer’ and select the option ‘layer to image size’ [ Image F]. Then, hit the forward slash key to bring up the search, and once this is open type ‘Bump Map and hit enter.
>> The Bump Map can transfer textures from one layer to another with fine adjustment. After the window pops up, click on the question mark and double-click the original background layer. Then you can tweak the elevation and depth sliders to get a 3D texture you like.
>> Once you’re happy, hit ‘OK’ and there you have it [ Image G]. You’ve just created a painted graphic to an existing image using 3D perspective and a vanishing point. Keep trying this on various images with alternative shapes and images. These skills are great at helping you to understand how perspective works in an image.