Abstractish and Fractals with The GIMP

Ok well I have nothing to do so heres a little tutorial on how to make an abstract-style picture in GIMP, also make note that this is similar to the abstract tutorial for Photoshop

Ok, open up GIMP and start a new picture (Duh)

1st thing you want to do is to get the layer dialog up if it isnt already, just press Ctrl + L

Now that theres the layers, you'll see that the only one there right now is a "Background" layer. Everything will be set upon this

Now, time to add the fractal as the background go to
"Filters > Render > Fractal Explorer"

Youll be given a default Mandelbrot fractal, you can go to the "Fractals" tab and select which one you would like

Just for a quick one I'm choosing "Explosive" im leaving it with its default variables, you can change them on any fractal if you want..mine looks like this so far:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/5...torial1fs9.jpg

Now open up the "Layers" window and add a new layer, im naming it "Clouds"

After you make the new layer, go to "Filters > Render > Clouds > Solid Noise" Now check the "Turbulent" box. You can click on "New seed" and it will change the looks of the clouds, once your done press OK

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/9...torial2vp7.jpg
(You should have something like that)

Now go to "Layer > Colors > Levels" and slide the middle tab to the left some, youll notice the grey areas start to turn white. After that go to "Layers > Colors > Invert" Well....thats self explanatory what that does....

Now to make it blend with the background, you can do this 2 ways

1st. Way - In the Layers window click on "Mode" and go to "Overlay

2nd. Way - also in the layers window, you can turn down the opacity

I will use the 2nd way, I turned to Opacity to 60 and this is what I got:

http://img314.imageshack.us/img314/9...torial3cc2.jpg

Make another layer and name it whatever you want, then go to "Filters > Render > Nature > Flame" you may want to change the color before you do this (I chose blue)

You can change the look of the flame if you click on the edit button and by messing with the bars on the window. You can also go the camera tab and zoom and look around at certain parts

Also, you may want to change the opacity of the flames layer if you want it to not stand out as much, I set the opacity to 65:

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/7...torial4jx5.jpg

Now, for the last thing, a Supernova. go to "Filters > Light effects > Supernova" now position however you like,

Just remember you can put the supernovas on a different layer if youd like

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/1...torial5bn5.jpg


Hope this helps someone, this is just basic stuff, once you get the hang of it you'll find out how to use things better and more things to use :thumbup: