28.Nov.2011. What a lovely day, isn’t it? Among other things, this day also happens to be Monday and by now you should already know what that means. It’s time for my wallpaper tutorial. So the wallpaper that I’m gonna teach you how to make today is called “Blue Bubbles” and looks likes this:
So without anymore useless talking, it’s time to proceed forward.
Step 1.
Create a new 2560×1600 image with GIMP and fill the background with the colour 002255 (rich dark blue)
Step 2.
Get this file: http://ubuntuone.com/0Axk5sGuZ5zDTu1fJw31rB and unrar it. Now open the file “BBBGT.png” with GIMP. Press Ctrl+A to select the entire image and then press Ctrl+C to copy it. Now go back to the wallpaper file and press Ctrl+V to paste. Press the New Layer button so the pasted layer can become active. Now set the layer mode of the new layer to Overlay. If done correctly your wallpaper should now look this way:
Step 3.
Now select black as your foreground colour and grab the Blend tool. Use the following settings for it:
Now create a new transparent layer and disable the layer beneath it (use the eye icon). Create a gradient like this one in the bottom right corner:
Duplicate this layer 4 time and using the Flip tool flip the 3 copies at the three remaining angles, just like that (note that in the screenshot I haven’t exactly done this, but it looks better with bigger gradients):
Now set the layer mode of this layer to Overlay and the Opacity to 50% and make all layer visible. If you’ve done this step correctly your wallpaper should now look this way:
Step 4.
Now it’s time to add another colour mask. So again create another transparent layer and make the layers bellow it invisible. Make sure that black is your foreground colour and select the Blend tool with settings like these ones:
Now make a gradient like this one:
Now set the layer mode of this layer to Overlay and the Opacity to 50% and make all layer visible. If you’ve done this step correctly your wallpaper should now look this way:
Step 5.
Now it’s time to make the wallpaper more smooth. So create a new layer and click Filters -> Render -> Clouds -> Plasma. Once there use the following settings and click OK:
After the plasma effect is created click Colours -> Desaturate and use these settings:
Set the layer mode to Overlay and the Opacity to 35%. This should make the wallpaper looking more smooth and much less greasy:
Step 6.
This step will bring some life to the wallpaper. Create three new layers and fill them all with solid white. For the first layer click Filters -> Render -> Clouds -> Difference clouds and click OK with the default settings. Set this layer mode to Overlay. Repeat the procedure for the second and the third layer, but this time check the checkbox “Turbulent”. Set the layer modes of those two layers to Overlay and the Opacity to 20%. If you have done this step correctly the wallpaper should now look this way:
Step 7.
This step is extremely easy. Create a new layer with transparent background. Select white as your foreground colour than select the Blend tool with the following settings:
Now make all layer bellow the current one invisible and make a gradient like this in the current one:
Make all layers visible again and set the layer mode of this one to Overlay and the Opacity to 35%.
This should lighten up the wallpaper even more:
Step 8.
Now it’s time to paint some additional bubbles. So if you haven’t downloaded my brush pack, now would be a good time to do so: http://ubuntuone.com/p/1AQ7/ Then extract it to ~/.gimp-2.6/brushes. (NOTE: make sure all brushes there are files and not folders!). If you have put the brush pack in the directory just now restart GIMP and read bellow, if you haven’t than proceed directly.
DMake sure your foreground colour is white and create new transparent layer (make all layers bellow invisible) and grab the Paintbrush tool with the following settings:
Now paint some bubbles, just don’t paint a lot of them (up to 10 bubbles should be enough). Click Filters -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur and apply 10px gaussian blur for the bubbles layer. Now it should look like this:
Now make all layers visible again and set the bubbles layer mode to Overlay. This should make the wallpaper more “bubbly”:
Step 9.
Almost at the end. There are just three simple steps. The first one is very easy. Select E100EF as your foreground colour. The select the Blend tool with the following settings:
Now make a new transparent layer and make all layer bellow it invisible. Make a gradient like this one:
Set the Opacity of this layer to 10% and make all layers visible again. This should create extremely subtle mask:
Step 10.
Open the file BBM.png from the archive BBWR.tar.gz and press Ctrl+A to select the entire image and then press Ctrl+C to copy it. Now go back to the wallpaper file and press Ctrl+V to paste. Press the New Layer button so the pasted layer can become active. Now set the layer mode of the new layer to Overlay and the Opacity of the layer to 40%. This should lighten up the wallpaper more and create some cool effects:
Step 11.
Last step, yupeeeeeee! Make sure white is used as foreground colour and create a new transparent layer (needless to say – make all other layers invisible). No select the Blend tool with the following settings:
Make a gradient like this one:
Now make all layers visible and set the layer mode of this layer to Overlay with Opacity 80%.
You are now done!
Here is mine 2560×1600 .PNG image:
And my .XCF file:
