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26 March 2010
In this tutorial, we will see how to create a cool orb effect using a panoramic image and the Polar Coordinates Filter with GIMP photo editor.
Learn to create this…
…from this…
…in 6 easy steps!
First off, we need a good panoramic photograph to work with. If at all possible, we want the sky, or other background, to be fairly consistent from end to end. It is also preferable that the elements at the left and right extremeties of the image are similar in height and tone.
Flickr (www.flickr.com) is an excellent source for images to practice on. I borrowed this panoramic photo of Manhattan from wmliu – and simply cropped it down a bit for the purpose of this tutorial. Many thanks to wmliu for the lovely photo.
To download click Manahattan.jpg.
Open up the photo in GIMP photo editor. From the Layers Panel on the right, right-click the background layer and select “Add Alpha Channel” from the menu.
From the main menu, select “Filters>Distorts>Polar Coordinates”.
From the “Polar Coordinates” window, set “Circle Depth” to 100 and “Offset Angle” to 180. Make sure only the “To Polar” option is checked and click OK.
From the Toolbox, select the “Crop Tool”. Drag a crop selection over the newly created orb in order to trim the extraneous space from the left and right. Click once in the center of your crop selection.
Using the zoom function from the bottom left, zoom in to 50%.
Splicing the ends of our photo has left a slight seam extending from the center all the way down.
Luckily, our sky is fairly consistent and we can fix this by lightly smudging the seam. From the Toolbox, select the “Smudge Tool” (Little Hand) and simply brush across and down the seam using small strokes.
And there you have it! It truly is a small world…after all!
Are you looking for a quicker, easier way to learn how to use GIMP for photo editing, photo effects and custom graphics? For 35 GIMP Video Tutorials - Click Here!
-OR-
Check out these excellent GIMP books
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