How to Make a Colorful Line/Wavey Effect in Gimpshop Using Only Filters

Updated on: August 5, 2013

You would be amazed what you can accomplish with the filters that come loaded standard in Gimpshop. Just like in Photoshop and other expensive editing suits, the filters are some of the most powerful tools in your tool box. In this tutorial, we're going to create a colorful wave textured background just by using filters.

1.) First, let’s open a new canvas. Click File > New or Press Ctrl + N.

A pop up box will open. Choose the size of your canvas. It’s best if you use dimensions that are a bit bigger than you’re intended output. For this tutorial, I used 640 x 480 pixels. When you’re happy with your settings, click OK and a blank canvas will open.

2.) Next, click Filters > Render > Clouds > Solid Noise.

A dialog box will pop up. We’re just creating a base image so you don’t have to be so particular with settings. In this tutorial, I set the Detail to 1, the X size to 4.6, and the Y size to 3.4. After adjusting the settings, click OK.

Your canvas will now look something like this.

3.) Next, Click Filters > Noise > HSV Noise.

In the pop up box, set the Holdness to 8, the Hue and Saturation to 0, the Value to 255 and then click OK.

Your canvas will look similar to this:

4.) Afterwards, click Filters > Blur > Motion Blur.

In the pop up box, set the Blur Type to Linear. You can adjust the Length and Angle however you want. You can check the preview image so you can see how it’ll reflect on your canvas. In this tutorial, I set the Lenth to 95 and the angle to 90. When you’re happy with your settings, click OK.

Your canvas will look like this now:

5.) Click Filters > Edge-Detect > Edge.

In the pop up box, set the Algorithm to Sobel, the Amount to 4, and click Smear. Afterwards, click OK.

Here’s how your canvas should look like by now.

6.) Next, click the Crop Tool in the Toolbox or Press Shft + C.

Crop out the white areas at the bottom of the canvas. Click and drag from one of the corners at the top and move diagonally. The area inside the rectangle will become your new canvas.

Click anywhere inside the rectangle. Everything outside the boundaries will be cropped out.

7.) Once again, click Filters > Blur > Motion Blur.

You can keep the same settings from before.

Here’s how your canvas would look like:

8.) Next create a new layer. Go to the Layer Dialog Box and click the lower leftmost icon that’s highlighted in the screenshot below. If you can’t locate the Layer Dialog Box, click Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Layers or Press Ctrl + L.