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Layers are one of the basic features of
GIMP and most photo editors. What we are going to do is
take the existing images we have and put them on a layer.
Use File/New and create a new window
and made the
dimensions
135 pixels by 91 pixels.
Oops! It should be 97 pixels. That matches
all our other images.
Now, if your Layers panel isn’t showing up
you can go into the menu and select Windows/Dockable Dialogs/Layers
Or you can use CTRL L (Command L on the Mac)
There is a really fast way that you can pull in images into layers
I’m going to use File/Open as layers
and this is going to bring all my other files in.
I’m going to come in here
and I’ll select my five images.
You can see that they came in the layers panel. I can move these around
as I want to. If I want hawk1.xcf
to be first, I’ll move it down here. hawk2.xcf
hawk3.xcf, hawk4.xcf, and hawk5.xcf.
For each of my images I can
see what they look like.
I can also turn off
various images by clicking on the eye icon.
If we want to see how an
image overlays over another image, I can select
the image and change the opacity. Say, 40%.
I’ll hide these above it
hawk2.xcf is at 40% opacity so you can see the overlay of the one on top
and the one below.
I’ll change hawk3.xcf to 40% opacity
and now you can see how the animation is going to work
out with the different images.
I’m going to use CTRL z (undo) and put those all back to 100%.
And turn on all my visual eye icons.
So, these should all be 100% now.
So, that’s how we set things up in layers.
There’s another way we can work with layers and that’s by
having individual files open and copy and pasting
those into each layer.
I’m going to go in and open all my existing images.
Notice that I’m just choosing
the GIMP files, the .xcf files
so there are all my five files.
So, let’s make a new file: File/New
It is the dimensions we want: 135 pixels by 97 pixels.
My background came transparent, yours may
be white.
But, for this it doesn’t matter. The first thing I’m going to do
is make a new layer. I’ll call it hawk1
and then I’m going to go and find my hawk1 image
so (by looking at the file name at the top) I can see this is hawk1.xcf
I’ll use CTRL a to select it all
and you can see the marquee, the marching ants, walking around.
and then CTRL c to copy it.
I’ll go to my new file. Make sure
I have the new layer selected and use CTRL v (v as in Victory)
and that will paste the image onto the layer.
Now, over here on the Layers panel you can see that the new image is floating
so I have to go down and click on the anchor icon to anchor it to my layer.
So, let’s do that with the next one. Make a new layer.
Call it hawk2.
Find the hawk2.xcf - double check the file name.
Do a CTRL a. Notice I don’t even have to
see the whole thing. CTRL a (select All) CTRL c (copy)
Go to the new file
click on the new layer. Use CTRL v (insert)
click on the Anchor. Let’s do it once again.
New layer. Call it hawk3.
Find hawk3.xcf. CTRL a.
CTRL c. Back to the new image
Go to the layer. Paste in the image using CTRL v.
and anchor it. So, I’m going to do the
rest and I’ll be right back.
rest and I’ll be right back.
Now you can look in my layers and you can see that I have a background
it could be either white or transparent. And, I have my
five files as layers.
As I walk through those
by turning off the visual eye icon I can see what they look like
At this stage I can build my animation
with the tools that are built into GIMP.