Male Sunglasses – Customize in Gimp

Contents

2.1. Customize in Gimp

This is a section of the tutorial “Making an Accessory – Male Sunglasses“. See the entire article here.

To create your own sunglasses, we have supplied you with 3 texture options:

Glasses Frame
Lenses
Opacity Map

You are going to change each texture to get a cool pair of sunglasses.

○ Glasses Frame Texture

To open the “Glasses Frame” texture, go to the top menu and click on File ➞ Open.
Go to the folder where you have saved the texture, select it, and click Open.

The easiest way to change the color of the glasses frame is to make a new layer.

Layers

Images stacked on top of each other.

To do so, look for the toolbar on the right bottom corner of the screen and click on the Create a new layer button .

A new window opens to set the attributes of the layer.

Click OK.

You can use the Zoom Tool to magnify or reduce the view of the texture.

To ensure you see everything correctly, check that the RGB Mode is activated. To do so, go to the top menu and click on Image ➞ Mode ➞ RGB.

You are going to use this new layer to change the color of the glasses frame.

Select the Rectangle Select Tool on the left toolbar.

Click and drag from one corner of the glasses’ bridge area to the opposite corner.
Go to the top menu and click on Select ➞ Invert.

Now, all the area related to the glasses frame has been selected.
Set the Background Color to black.

In this case, the current Background Color is white. When you click on it, a new window opens and a pallet of colors is displayed.
Enter in the HTML Notation field the value 000000 and click OK.
You can see that the Background Color has changed from white to black.

To fill the layer with the chosen color, select the Bucket Fill Tool on the left toolbar.

Once it is selected, the shape of the cursor changes.
Move the mouse over the texture and click on it.
The color of the layer has changed from transparent to black.
Your Sunglasses Frame texture is ready!
- Save the changes by going to the top menu and click on File ➞ Export As …
- Select the folder where you want to save the texture, name it, and click on Select File Type (By Extension).
Select the JPEG image option and click on Export.
A new window appears. Click on Export.

The new texture has been saved in your chosen folder.

○ Lenses Texture

Now it is the turn of the Lenses Texture. Let’s start!

- Go to the top menu and click on File ➞ Open.
- Browse the folder where you saved the textures and select the Lenses Texture.
Set the Background Color to black.

In this case, the current Background Color is black already.
To fill the texture with the chosen color, select the Bucket Fill Tool on the left toolbar.
Move the mouse over the texture and click on it.
The color of the texture has changed from white to black.
Your Lenses texture is ready to be saved! Follow the same steps you did to save the Sunglasses Frame texture.
- Save the changes by going to the top menu and click on File ➞ Export As …
- Select the folder where you want to save the texture, name it, and click on Select File Type (By Extension).
Select the JPEG image option and click on Export.
A new window appears. Click on Export.

The new texture has been saved in your chosen folder.

○ Opacity Map

Just few steps left!

Previously, a black color was chosen for the lenses. To give the lenses a bit of transparency, let’s create an Opacity Map.

Opacity Map

An Opacity Map is a grayscale image that determines what areas of your texture are opaque, transparent, or translucent.

To learn more about this topic, please read the article Opacity Maps.

- Go to the top menu and click on File ➞ Open.
- Browse the folder where you saved the textures and select the Opacity Map.
Set the Background Color to white and the Foreground Color to black.

To set the Foreground Color to black, click on the double arrow icon .

➔ ➔

Now, the Foreground Color is black and the Background Color is purple.

To set the Background Color to white, click on it.

A new window opens and a pallet of colors is displayed.
Enter in the HTML Notation field the value ffffff and click OK.

You can see that the Background Color has changed from purple to white.
Click on the Gradient Tool button .
Click on the Tool Options button and then on the Gradient button.
Click on the premade gradient called FG to BG (RGB).
To draw a gradient just click and drag.

Click on the bottom of the current Opacity Map and drag until the top of it.

The premade gradient previously selected is displayed along with a line that divides it in half.

The line contains a Startpoint , an Endpoint , and a Midpoint .
By clicking on a Stop or a Midpoint, a small dialog appears with its information. For example, when the Endpoint is clicked, the following dialog pops up.

The Position and the Color of a Stop can be changed through its small dialog.

Typing a value in the Position field or clicking and dragging the Stop, varies its position value. The color can be changed by clicking on the Color field and selecting the desired one.
Let’s add two Stops. These Stops will allow us to control the color of the gradient.

To add Stops , click on the line.
Make sure that each Stop and the Midpoint have the right Color and Position values.
- Start Endpoint Location and Color values: X = 125, Y = 256, and Color = FG (foreground color = black).
- Stop 1 Location and Color values: Position = 5, and Left and Right Colors set to FG (foreground color = black).
- Stop 2 Location and Color values: Position = 74, and Left and Right Colors set to BG (background color = white).
- Midpoint 2 Location and Color values: Position = 19, and Coloring set to RGB.
- End Endpoint Location and Color values: X = 125, Y = 0, and Color = BG (background color = white).
When the values are set, click the “enter” key on your keyboard to apply the changes on the gradient.
The Opacity Map is ready!
Let’s save it. Follow the same steps you did to save the previous textures.
- Save the changes by going to the top menu and click on File ➞ Export As …
- Select the folder where you want to save the texture, name it, and click on Select File Type (By Extension).
Select the JPEG image option and click on Export.
A new window appears. Click on Export.