GIMPing it! Stone Wall Recipe

For anyone that is curious the graphic editing software that I am using for the graphics is GIMP - a freeware editing software that can be plugged in all over, and I use it because the cost of Photoshop is in the hundreds, I'm cheap, and considering that I would like to make money someday from software I have a moral qualm against software piracy. Soapbox and confessions aside, I have decided to use Thursday's entry to detail all the ways I use GIMP to trick people into thinking that I am actually capable of graphic design.  This will run for as long as I have these 'recipes' for making pretty sprite art with minimum skill.

Brick/Stone Walls

This isn't hard if you abuse the selection tools.  For the walls as depicted in the test room from a past post, you first decide how large the tile will be in pixels, and then roughly divide that lengthwise into nine sections.  You may have padding if the dimensions don't divide evenly.

This tile is 50x50 pixels, so there is padding.

So, the next think you do is use the rectangle tool to select the first two sections from the bottom out to the halfway/thirdway point.  Fill it with the colour of your choice.



Next, go into the Select menu and select the border option, and leave it at 1px.  Using the burn tool, darken the selected area to your liking.

Then, select a small rectangular region at the top of that brick, but lower than the border and lighten it with the Dodge tool to your liking.




 Then, copypasta!





Next, copypasta that entire row, and past it on the next row, such that it is above the previous row.




Remember to evoke more copypasta magic!




Now, select the new row and use the dodge tool.




Now, remember a few paragraphs earlier I instruct to divide the working area into 9 sections?  The bottom row is taking up the first two sections, and now the current row being contended with is taking up another two... that is going to change.  Use the scale tool and grew this two section row into three sections.

The even more amazing part is the fact that the scale tool will automatically add the extra shading that would further define the bricks as they appear closer to the player.

For the third row, wash (and fix the occasional blunder that the pencil tool and eye dropper tools know how)...

...rinse...





... and repeat.  The third row should be the remaining four sections.





Add some colour or texture for the padding (if there is padding left over).



Tada!  You've just laid down some brick!  Now, that wasn't so hard now was it?