GIMP & Background Cutting

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

After reading this guide, I've been trying to create some custom unit cards. However, this guide mainly refers to Adobe Photoshop, whereas I'm using The GIMP to edit my TGA images.

I've been having a bit of trouble in trying to select and then cut the background of my images though. The only selection tools provided by GIMP are Rectangular, Elliptical, Hand-Drawn, Contiguous, Colour, Shapes etc. There is no sign of a magic wand selection tool, or any apparent 'cut background' options from the toolbars.

If anyone uses the GIMP and has a solution to this problem it would be greatly appreciated, cheers

[Red Harvest]

I lost patience with GIMP when I tried to do this. It was very non-intuitive, the result appeared to be like doing brain surgery with chainsaw, but slower. As a result, I found that I don't mind having the background visible.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

I lost patience with GIMP when I tried to do this. It was very non-intuitive, the result appeared to be like doing brain surgery with chainsaw, but slower. As a result, I found that I don't mind having the background visible.

I was thinking about using the free-hand tool to select the areas I was interested in, but my hand's not that steady and you have to zoom in real close to see what your doing properly.

However, I've left the background in the unit card, and this is the result:



Don't look too bad considering it was done with the good ol' GIMP

[Quietus]

After reading this guide, I've been trying to create some custom unit cards. However, this guide mainly refers to Adobe Photoshop, whereas I'm using The GIMP to edit my TGA images.

I've been having a bit of trouble in trying to select and then cut the background of my images though. The only selection tools provided by GIMP are Rectangular, Elliptical, Hand-Drawn, Contiguous, Colour, Shapes etc. There is no sign of a magic wand selection tool, or any apparent 'cut background' options from the toolbars.

If anyone uses the GIMP and has a solution to this problem it would be greatly appreciated, cheers

I use the Gimp. Clearing the background takes some time.

1) First open the file.
2) Create a duplicate (then hide the original background file).
3) On the duplicate's background, use the Contiguous wand tool, then CLEAR (CTRL+K, not CUT). Note, the cleared background becomes white. Repeat to other areas of the background.
4) After clearing the background, just zoom and use the eraser to clean the remainders and particulates.
5) After all the background is white, use the Color selection or Contiguous tool (depending which works better) on the background, then invert selection and the selection you want is selected and the white is deselected.

After you cut out the background and you need to reselect your figure, just use Alpha to Selection on the layer.