GIMP: MAKING BACKGROUNDS
One of the hard things about making banners is getting a background. Of course, you can always just use an image for a background. There are other techniques, as well. Here's a guide to help you make great backgrounds using GIMP!
Gradients
The easies background to use, aside from a solid color, is a gradient. First, choose the two colors to fade between. Make one your foreground color, and one your background color. Then, edit the type of gradient your using in the gradient tab. If you don't have the gradient tab, add it by clicking on the following image then going to Add Tab >> Gradients:
Once in the tab, you will see a large selection of gradients you can use. If you want a default color scheme, then you can use one of those. If you want to use your two colors, then select one of the first three. I normally use FG to BG (RGB). Now, just click anywhere on the window with your image, and drag your mouse to the other side of the picture. The further you drag it, the smoother the gradient will be. You should have the gradient with your two colors now, and a cool background. =D
Patterns
While these aren't the best backgrounds, these can be played with. You can also use your own pattern (you can download them yourself, or save them as .pat and install them using the same methods as brushes but in the pattern folder) First, set the pour tool to Fill Type: Pattern Fill (under tool options in the tool tab) Then, just fill the background with one of the patterns. I'll use the stone pattern:
However, that's not finished. Now you can clean it up using filters. I'm going to use a combination of the blur (Filters >> Blur >> Blur) and soft glow (Filters >> Artistic >> Soft Glow) filters. Just play around with them to smooth out the original pattern. Now I have this, a nice cool background:
Images
A third way to make a cool background is to use an image. So, the first step is to Google search (or use one of your own pictures) for an image to use in the background. Be sure you aren't breaking any copyrights, such as using hand drawn images, photos, or any other pictures that are copyright to someone. Check the Terms of Use if you're not sure. I chose to use a picture of trees for my background:
Once you have the image as your background, enhance it in the same method you used for the pattern. As you probably already know, I'm a huge fan of soft glow. So, you can combine it with either blur or unsharp mask (Filters >> Sharpen >> Unsharp Mask). In this instance, I used glow, unsharp mask, then another glow. This gives me crisp, bright results:
Closing
As you can see, there are many ways to make cool backgrounds in GIMP. You can also use cool brushes that you download, or find your own creative method. Just remember to try everything, and you'll find a sure fire way to make backgrounds you love. :]
