Converting Photoshop Brushes to GIMP (with a Side Tutorial on Making Photoshop-style Dynamics for GIMP)

Things you'll need:
GIMP
Photoshop or its Demo


Hello everyone! Today I downloaded the Photoshop demo to figure out how to convert a video tutorial to something feasible with GIMP. I've always loved the look and 'feel' of Photoshop's leaf and grass brushes, so I figured, while I was at it, I'd play around with some things and make some of the PhoSho brushes/dynamics for GIMP. Here is how I did it... hopefully it will help all of you GIMPers out a bit.

This is, by far, the shortest, simplest instructable I've made yet!

Step 1: Preparation

Open Photoshop and, on a new layer, click and place a single image of your brush. Select and copy this.

Hint: Use a high resolution. the higher the resolution, (usually) the higher the quality. Mine was about 250 pixels.

Step 2: Moving to GIMP

Make a new image in GIMP, then make a new layer. Paste the selection onto the new layer, select it, invert the selection, feather the selection, and delete the excess. Deselect everything.

Step 3: Touching Up

Use selective Gaussian blur to smooth out most of the pixelization. You can manually smudge out anything selective Gaussian blur missed. Next, sharpen the leaf, and duplicate it. Merge the duplicate with the original leaf layer.

Step 4: Finishing Touches

Convert your picture to greyscale using image>mode>greyscale. Delete the blank or white background layer; then export it as a .gbr (GIMP brush) and put it in the brush folder. You can usually find this folder under local disc (C:) > Program Files> GIMP2> share> gimp> 2.0 .

Step 5: Phosho Leaf Dynamics

To make the dynamics and preset, just copy the pictures above.

Step 6: You're Done!

Done! It's not hard, but it's very rewarding! Enjoy your new Photoshop style brushes!

Comments

[balbritton]

Great advice for using the medium.

[grutbrushes]

Oh, this is exciting. I'm not a GIMP user (this makes me think I need to become one) but I would love to see if someone could faithfully convert some of my more complicated pressure responsive brushes like this one http://grutbrushes.com/free-realistic-photoshop-watercolor-brush/ If anyone wants to give it a go let me know and I can provide a few challenging ones.

[aartcritique]

I'd love the challenge! I do not have access to a graphics tablet, so, as you can imagine, I am always playing around with dynamics settings. There are still things that I wish I could do, but can not because of the lack of a GT, and some nice minor Photoshop effects (like multiple lens flare options, more realistic lighting effects, interactive motion blur, ect. ) that I'd like to one day see in GIMP, but all in all, GIMP is a great program for people who don't want to spend a ton of money for a few extra effects and filters.