The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects: Creative Techniques for
Photographers, Artists, and Designers
Reviewed by Wayne LeFevre
Author: Michael J.
Hammel
Publisher: No
Starch Press
http://nostarch.com/frameset.php?startat=gimp
Released: August
2007
Pages: 360
$44.95 USD, $44 CND, £21 UK (Based on exchange rates)
ISBN-10: 1-59327-121-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-153-4
Audience: Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced |
|
Strengths: Excellent, Useful effects. All skill levels covered. Easy
step–by–step tutorials that will have you working like a pro.
Weaknesses: None
(If you use GIMP.) |
Introduction
The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects shows you how to harness
the GIMP's powerful features to produce professional-looking advertisements,
impressive photographic effects, as well as logos and text effects. Author
Michael J. Hammel, who has used the GIMP since its first public release, won't
mince words or waste your time. His extensively illustrated, step-by-step
tutorials are perfect for hands-on learning and experimentation.
In this book…
Although not an inexpensive manual at $44.95 USD, I was
immediately impressed with how much information is offered. As you may, or may
not know, GIMP is short for GNU Image Manipulation
Program. Basically, it is a free Adobe Photoshop type pixel pusher, and well
worth trying before spending a lot of money on the branded product. It is now
on version 2.4.1 and multi–platform, however it’s not the easiest
application to install. Running GIMP on Mac OS X requires Apple’s X11
environment. It is included on the “Optional Installs” package on the OS X
install disk. (Under the new Leopard install, X11 is automatically installed,
unless you uncheck it on the initial installation.)
In all practicality, it is as fine of an image editor as
Adobe Photoshop. The tutorials in this book are exactly the kind you see on
DIGG in individual articles as a way to do neat effects. I’m sure you’ve seen a
few of them, anything from putting smoke and flames into your photos to
changing the weather and creating your own type effects. This book has them
all. After a crash course in using the GIMP’s interface and core tools (such as
brushes, patterns, selections, layers, modes, and masks), you’ll learn:
• Photographic techniques to simulate ripped edges,
create sepia-toned antique images, swap colors, produce motion blurs, alter
depth of field, and even fix rips in an old photo
• Web design techniques to create tiled patterns,
navigation tabs, rollovers, and fancy buttons and borders
• Type effects to create depth, perspective shadows,
metallic and distressed text, and neon and graffiti lettering
• Advertising effects to produce movie posters and
package designs; simulate clouds, cracks, cloth, and underwater effects; and
create specialized lighting
• Interface design tips for creating textures, navigation
bars, and buttons
I cannot even begin to list all the tutorials, but some of
the neater ones are putting in reflections from glass to lakes, creating a
waving flag, making things look like they are underwater, and making text look
like anything from metal to neon. Each tutorial has plenty of pictures, and
offers a true step–by–step approach making it almost impossible to
mess it up.
The author, Michael J. Hammel is an embedded software
engineer living in Colorado Springs. He's been involved with the GIMP since
version 0.54 and was a contributor to the early development of the program.
Hammel wrote a column on the GIMP for Linux Format magazine for three years and
is the author of The Artist's Guide to GIMP (Frank Kasper & Associates,
1998) and Essential GIMP for Web Professionals (Prentice Hall PTR, 2001).
Conclusion and Recommendation
If you use GIMP, you really should take a look at this book.
