Submitting a Derby Entry Using The GIMP Raster Art Program - the basics

Artist Central
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Ok Firstly This is probably going to be the longest post i will ever make.

Secondly, This will be my first guide to doing anything.
So be prepared for things that don’t make complete sense.

Thirdly I don’t know if there is already one out there so i thought hey why not do something constructive?

This guide is very basic but it should hopefully help people out whether they want to start designing with gimp or just need some help getting their stuff into woot.

A few things you will need :
The Gimp Software (available at http://www.gimp.org)
The shirt template ( available at http://www.mediafire.com/?3yd332u29xi )
Kindly created by Jack 31081

(Optional)The Pantone Color Palette ( Unfortunately i don’t remember where i found one, but you don’t necessarily need it. Woot will translate the colours you choose into pantone colours when it prints, but its still nice to have it)

And look at the unofficial derby rules thread as well. has plenty of useful tips and bits of information. Not much point of submitting an entry if it gets rejected straight away?

Oh yeah, read the Help for explanation on how to correctly use gimp and the tools.

Ok here it goes…

Ok lets start with The print ready file. Click File>New. Set the dimensions for your drawing ( i go with 2400 x 3000 /3000 x 2400 to start with depending on whether you want it landscape or portrait.

Then click advance options and change it to 300 dpi.
Now draw your design how you likel using paths or pencil or whatever ( TIP: when using the eraser, make sure to tick hard edge so you don’t get fuzzy edges to your lines) Make sure to keep all the colours on separate layers when colouring in.

Are you done and happy with it ? Good. Now Save it ( if you haven’t already ) And now click Save as and change the file extension from XCF to PSD i.e. Awesomedesign.psd . And Voila!! It’s ready!!

But Wait!! You still have two more things to do !!

For the shirt comp you will need to download the template from the site i mentioned earlier at the begginning of this post ( It’s been a lon time since then ain’t it?) Now open it up and save as an XCF file.
Now choose the shirt colour you want and make it so its the only one visible. Now click > edit >Copy Visible.

Then Click File >New and create a 600 x 600 file with 72 dpi. Paste the shirt in and it will come up with floating selection. make it a new layer. Now. Go back to your Print ready file, make sure all the colour layers you want people to see on the shirt are visible and click copy visible. Now go back to your shirt comp and paste it in making the floating selection a new layer again . Now scale this new layer with your design on so it fits on the shirt ( it needs to show where the design will be placed on the shirt if it gets printed) .

Is it where you want it? Good. Now save it as a normal xcf file ( so you have a back up if it goes wrong ) and then save as a JPG extension .
i.e. shirtcomp.jpg . It will come up with a new window. click export ( if it comes up) and make the slider up to 100 and save Now it should be done!! Now you’re two thirds of the way there!! Way to go!!

Ok now its time for … the design detail !!! This is the design thumnail that you’ll see on the main derby page.
IT MUST BE 250 X 250 IN RESOLUTION AND MUST BE A GIF , JPG , PNG FORMAT).
So create a new file dimensions 250 x 250 with 72 dpi. Now go back to your Print ready File. Using the selection tool create a selection box with dimensions 250x250 and click copy visible from the edit menu . Go back to your thumbnail file and paste it in.

Does it look good? If it doesn’t , experiment with different parts of the design as to which look best. If it looks good, save it as an XCF ( as a backup if it goes wrong) and then follow the steps earlier to save the file as a jpg. Now it should all be ready to submit. Go to the derby page, click submit entry put the files in their respective fields name then submit!!!

If anyone has any comments or feedback or anything, then please reply to this thread.

I know its not that great but i just thought that since there were often a few entries that look like they were done in paint or had no shirt comp or things like that, they could do with a bit of help.

Xanzibar

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I wrote one up a while ago for Photoshop. Thanks for writing a GIMP guide.

I’ve got some corrections for you, on the parts I quoted.

  1. The design detail should be 240x240, not 250x250.

  2. For both the design detail and the shirt comp image, anything submitted that is not in JPG format will be automatically converted, almost always creating artifacts to appear in the image. Therefore it is best to submit in jpg, even though woot will accept other formats.

  3. It isn’t necessary to make it 72 dpi. DPI only comes into play when physically printing a document. Everything on screen is based only on the resolution. As long as you’ve got the detail at 240x240 and the shirt comp at 600x600, it really doesn’t matter what the dpi is. However, it IS important to have the document at 300 dpi for the print ready file, since that will be used to print the shirt.

Overall, this looks like it would be useful for users new to GIMP. I hear it has a steep learning curve.

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Thanks for the help EH , as i said its really my first guide to anything, and i posted it at like 1 in the morning so i figured i’d make a mistake.

However, for the design detail thing, i have always submitted it in 250x250 and i’ve never had a problem or anything so i’m not sure what the problem is exactly.

But just in case anyone is reading, stick with 240 x 240 res for the design detail.

Gimp can be really complicated at first if you haven’t got a clue as to what you’re doing ( seriously check out my first derby entry Shirt.Woot) But after a while you’ll get better.

Just remember, the layers are all SEPARATE. Other than that its kinda like paint but with a whole bunch of extras. If you need help use the help manual. It’ll tell you more and explain it alot better than i could.

Xanzibar

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If you submit at 250x250, your image will be resized. I suppose you’ve just been lucky and quality hasn’t been reduced so much for your submissions. :slight_smile:

I’ve already been pulled into the Photoshop fold, but GIMP is a great free alternative. From what I’ve read, it’s as powerful as Photoshop (possibly not as powerful as the most recent releases) but isn’t quite as user friendly, since it is designed to increase workflow - i.e. it’s difficult for new users but you can work really efficiently if you know what you’re doing.

By the way, the link in your signature doesn’t work. I’m guessing you linked to an early submission that was removed.

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I used to use photoshop for a bit but then i found this and tried it out.
I think my art style is getting better since i began using it, but that could just be me.
It is kinda difficult ( heck i only just about figured out how to do everything properly, i still can’t do paths yet) But Once you find your way around its as easy as pie.
Unfortunately my computer is an old low spec laptop so it still takes a while for me to do anything good.

P.S. Thanks for the heads up. Im gonna sort out the sig now and hopefully get me a few more votes. Hopefully ill break 60 this time!!

Xanzibar

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Another imaging program you may consider is Inkscape. This is a free vector art program like illustrator. It is very powerful and incredibly efficient. When I pass my qualifying exams and have time to start submitting I will be using this.

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Thank YOU! This saved my life haha…I was completely at a loss but now, thanks to this, I am about to submit my very first derby entry.

The only ironic bit is I can’t vote for myself yet, I haven’t actually bought a shirt haha.

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Glad i can help :slight_smile:

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As of now, the shirt comp ought to be 580x580 instead of 600x600. somehow they decided that was better at woot (saves a little server space, I guess).

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Ah yes, i haven’t really updated the guide much. Thanks for the tip.

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I had a derby entry rejected (http://shirt.woot.com/Derby/Entry.aspx?id=30891) using the shirt template, on the grounds of inaccurate shirt colour. Be warned.

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That shirt colour you used IS inaccurate. If you got it from the official template, I can think of two possible reasons why your colour is off.

  1. You didn’t save it in RGB.
  2. You used an out-dated version fo the template.

Also keep in mind that the “real tee” template is NOT the official template. You should always draw your colour from the official template. The “real tee” you used is also a very old template, based on woot’s old swatches. You may need to adjust its colours.

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Okay, slightly off subject but since I use Gimp it’s not entirely unrelated.
Anyways, I haven’t really seen anything that gives a concrete answer to this, which is why I’m asking. I’m new to the derbies and I just don’t know a lot of stuff.
Is there a set number of submissions per designer or like only one submission per day or anything like that?
Going off of that, if you do have several designs, can only one win the derby or is it all truly up to the votes?
And I noticed when I went to save the Jpeg file for the print ready version you e-mail in, it automatically compressed all the layers, said it had to in order to save in that format. Is that okay or do I need to figure out how to make it stop that? (Jpeg was the only file type I could find on Gimp that they wanted. It didn’t have any of the others. I believe I have Gimp 2.6 if that matters)

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Hello!

You can submit as many times as you want.

You can have more than one print in a derby, though that very very rarely happens.

Don’t save your print-ready files in JPEG. Save them in .psd. They need the layers to print your work. GIMP can save in that format, just change the file type to “.psd” when you save it. I’d start all your drawings in .psd format instead of the GIMP format. They seem to work more smoothly that way.

The JPEGS they ask for are your shirt comp (580px by 580px) and your design detail (240px by 240px). You email the print-ready file to them. The print ready should be much larger; around 18 x 20 inches. It is your full-size design, where the shirt comp and detail are reduced and cropped versions of it.

Check out what other people have in the derby to get an idea of what the shirt comp and detail images can look like.

I hope that is helpful, have fun!

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Ha ha, I’m dumb…It was saved in psd format, i just got confused.
Okay, since the others ones have to be jpeg, there’s still the problem of it automatically compiling all of the layers instead of keeping them separate…
What do I do about that?

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they may accept something that large from you, but for the rest of us, the “official” word on the derby entry page says 16"x20".

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the smaller (not-print-ready) pics are okay merged into a single layer.

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Yup, that’s right. No1 is the helpfullest. JPEGS don’t even support layers and you don’t need them for the preview images.

I meant to say 16x20… or whatever the right size was. I get 16 and 18 mixed up all the time. Its some kind of number-disorder or something.

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one is 2x8 and the other is 1 and 8. or driving age and voting age in most states.

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yes, that must be why lol! They have so much in common. is gradually going crazy