Best book for GIMP?

goat · **Joined:** Sep 14, 2013 **Posts:** 6

GIMP Version: 2.8.4
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

List any relevant plug-ins or scripts:
GAP

I need a "how-to" book to explain GIMP animation. (One minute's worth can be repeated in two verses--but for the song's refrain, I'd prefer video).

I have a 32-bit operating system, windows vista.... (So far my animation is limited to changes on each layor, which isn't very sophisticated--so I need a book to explain in detail how to make elements seem to move).

If you'd like to collaborate ... I need photos or video for the refrain--and some shooting stars would help. The song would be excellent for UNICEF.
(In the refrain: "... I am the child who quietly weeps, I am that child with nothing to eat ... a soldier with lives to take, I feel the help-less-ness that awaits...", and any video will be "used by permission" if you're interested)

sallyanne · **Posted:** Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:21 pm **(#2)**

Your Gimp should have the link to the gimp manual
Help > Gimp online > user manual website.
http://docs.gimp.org/2.4/pdf/en.pdf

There is also a Gimp Magazine out regularly now.
http://gimpmagazine.org/

goat · **Joined:** Sep 14, 2013 **Posts:** 6

I like your picture, Sallyanne... but there are also some good books on Gimp and it always helps to research... but just ONE book. thanks. (And the user manual IS well written).

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

A few books on gimp out there worth reading, I held 2 in my hands and actually read them.
And as far as I can remember animation is not covered well in either of them. That is because GIMP is... uhm...
not a very good tool for making animations.
You listed GAP in OP. GAP is a plugin package for making animation in GIMP but the
book authors do not write about 3rd party plugins, since they are usually not well documented*, sometimes
available for certain OS's only and quite often not being maintained at all.

*that's the real issue for most of Open Source software.

If you want to learn how to use GAP to create more or less quality animations rather than GIF low-quality stuff,
you need to search for online GAP tutorials and learn on the fly. There is no other way with GIMP. Unfortunately.

Mokonafan · **Posted:** Mon Sep 23, 2013 11:33 am **(#5)**

If you want to do animation I'd get either Synfig or Blender if you want something free, or Flash is you want to pay.
Gimp is good for drawing frames and making gifs (unless you want to mas save all your frames then you can use a program like WAX or MovieMaker) but not really a movie making program. - GAP is an option, but really if you want to animate with it I'd save the frames and open in another program to add sounds or whatever you want.

There is a mass save script for saving all layers in GIMP, this is only useful in your case if after you finish a frame you put in a new project file and save as layers, otherwise you'll end up saving pieces of a frame instead of a finished frame.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8313&hilit=save+as+frames+script

I also found this program I never tried it but maybe that would be helpful.
http://www.powtoon.com/blog/best-free-a ... -software/

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 16173

Have you tried AnimStack?
http://registry.gimp.org/node/26501

goat · **Joined:** Sep 14, 2013 **Posts:** 6

Thank you all. I guess I'll study GAP for now. I only need 1 minute of actual animation.

Odinbc · **Posted:** Mon Sep 23, 2013 5:33 pm **(#8)**

The Gimp Bible (while a number of years old now) still does the best job of explaining how to do animation using Gap.