(GIMP) How to easily add muzzle flash/smoke/etc. to your gmod pic.

This is called a technique called "Color to alpha".

So what you gonna do first is obviously load your image up in GIMP


2: Then find what your picture needs;for example this picture of my artillery requires it to be firing. Now what do you normally see when a cannon is firing? Yes smoke underneath it and a flash emerging from the muzzle.


3: What you gonna do now is go to google or any search engine and type muzzle flash/smoke or whatever you want exactly.

4: BE SURE TO ALWAYS PICK THE PICTURES WITH A ONE-COLOURED BACKGROUND
Something like what you see below:


5: So pick any image of your choice,copy it and paste it into the same gmod picture which you loaded in GIMP. For this tutorial I am using a muzzle flash

6: Now do not do anything yet,make sure the pasted image is still a seperate layer from your GMOD pic.
CLICK THIS PICTURE TO SEE THE FULL SIZE OF WHAT I MEAN


7: Resize it or whatever you wanna do to make sure the size of your muzzle flash is proportionate to the length of your gun muzzle.


8: Now the most crucial part,what you gonna do now is right click on your pasted image,go to colors>color to alpha and you will see this:


9: Alright so you're gonna set the colour in the box to the same colour of your background in your pasted image,so I chose black. And once you set black,the background of the muzzle flash will have grey and white checkerboards like so:


10: So just hit OK and just adjust where you want that pasted image to be (You might need to use an eraser with a soft brush to rub away the lighting effects displayed below,the highlighted parts can make your picture look very ugly so try to get rid of the corners first at least:


11: Once you're done moving where you want the pasted layer to be,
just go to image>flatten image and you're done.

One word : AMAZING. It'll be very useful for me, I won't have to use the muzzleflashes PNGs released by someone on facepunch anymore :3

Feel free to utilize it to the fullest again,my friend. It's definitely gonna save alot of time.

Very useful for me, comrade. Because I have no idea how to work with GIMP lol.

Okay man, there is my result. I think, it came out very well.

Again some work. Came out very well, I think.

Well that looks beautiful. Nice work