GTAM Minute Tutorial - Editing Textures (Repairing A Deleted Branch In Leaves) with The GIMP

Playing around with editing textures for Minecraft (Tutorials on how to do that Coming Soon!) something happened that I think others would run into - it was a pretty minor/specific thing, but I'd like to share what I did and how I fixed it, just in case anyone ever runs into this little problem.

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program, changed from General Image Manipulation Program) is a free editing application that is quite capable to stand up against most of the functions of Adobe's Photoshop and similar programs. Using it to edit the general Leaf texture portions of Minecraft's texture source, I accidentally selected and deleted a section of branch. Wanting to change the colour anyway, I replaced it but then thought that this might be something that could happen to other people, especially those new to graphic editing. I wanted to erase it again and record what I had done to repair the poor deleted branch and share it.

Perhaps for you it was deleted and then the file was saved, or perhaps you didn't notice it until a later step, where it was then inaccessible as a layer or similar problem. No matter what the situation, if anyone happens to run into this specific minor misfortune or even similar, it has spawned what will now become the first in a new series of videos I'd like to start, called Game Tips And More Minute Tutorials.

GTAM Minute Tutorials will be very short (60 seconds or less!) instructions showing how to do something very specific. I don't mean completing a quest or mission, I mean one thing, or at least a small number of steps, that complete one specific task. It may be editing or troubleshooting (the "And More" portion of this blog's namesake) or it may be how to jump high or shoot something in a specific game. Whatever it may be, in this time of short attention spans (who doesn't get crabby when the computer takes more than a second to do what you just told it?), all the tutorials/walkthroughs will be less than one minute. Really. Guaranteed! Not really.

In this tutorial, I show how to easily replace a deleted branch in a photo of leaves. That is something pretty specific; but the concepts presented, such as shading, blending and some general GIMP usage can be applied to many other situations and projects as well:

It is played back at 4x speed and states the steps being taken and basic concepts behind them. Being very specific in nature, not a lot of extra information is given, but this video is targeted towards people already editing [Minecraft textures for instance] and familiar with programs and games such as GIMP and Minecraft.
(I would like to do a full tutorial on how to extract, edit, import and save your own textures for use in Minecraft in the future)

Recorded with: Bandicam
- 'Rectangle On A Screen', 'For Edit Premiere/Sony Vegas' Preset
- 1280x720 (720p HD), 60fps, no Audio
- compressed to 720p, 30fps, 10Mbps, h.264/AVC for smaller upload size


Check back for more Game Tips And More Minute Tutorials in the future and See you in the games!

The Game Tips And More Realism Texture Pack for Minecraft (Work In Progress)

I have been having a lot of fun lately with the easy-to-get-into, simple-yet-vast gameplay of Minecraft. After getting used to the graphics, which are great in their own pixellated 1980's way, I have been going about messing with the textures just for fun:

Examples of the work-in-progress textures, showing wood/bark, sand, a tree stump, topsoil with grass, soil and bricks, while holding green wool. Click to see image full size.

The game itself is simple in execution but very addicting to many aspects of human nature. I plan to cover these in a First Impressions of the game in the future, with a video and screenshots galore. I realize there are already a generation of kids who will have bad eyesight sooner in life because of this game, but after playing the PCGamer Demo and then purchasing the game, I realize that it will be worth it.
(Note to Marketing Departments: This is how you do an addicting Demo, fully-functional, limited only by Time)

I just wanted to share that I was starting my own Photo-Realistic Texture Pack, learning the cropping, blending, cloning, tiling, color correction, sizing and all the other aspects that go along with importing it into the game and will have it available for Download to anyone that wishes to try it out/use it/play it here in the future.


See you in the games!