I’m going to show you how to turn this:
Napoleon Dynamite
Into this:
The Ultimate Noob
Scripts/Plug-in(s) used in this tutorial:
- You’ll need to download the FX Foundry Scriptpack found here. This tutorial uses Convolution Matrix Presets: Edge Detect (Laplace).
- You’ll need to download the G’Mic plug-in found here. This tutorial uses the Enhancement filter called Anisotropic Smoothing (using Photocomix’s presets).
- Other scripts used are built in to the latest versions of GIMP (Gaussian blur, IWarp, etc) so you should be fine with those.
- I am using Windows Vista (64bit), with GIMP 2.6.7 (32 bit)
- Please take your time to READ the Installation notes for the Foundry Scriptpack and G’Mic plug-in prior to starting this tutorial. Read this post if you don’t understand how to install scripts and plug-ins. Leave comments if you have any questions.
STEP 1: (FX Foundry scripts and G’Mic Plug-in loaded? They need to be, in order to proceed)
Find a suitable face picture of the intended “victim” for this tutorial. Use a picture of yourself if performing this tutorial could be potentially hazardous to your health using a picture of anyone else.
I will be using this picture of Napoleon Dynamite. You can grab it or use your own.
STEP 2:
Make two copies of the same image (not two layers, but two separate images of the same picture)
STEP 3:
On one image copy we’ll run Edge Detect (Laplace) from the FX Foundry scriptpack, which is under the menu FX Foundry/Convolution Matrix Presets/Edge Detect (Laplace). The settings we’ll use is as shown:
Click to enlarge
Your image should end up looking similar to this:
STEP 4:
Now we need to run Colors/Levels. You want to move the middle slider to .16, as shown in the image below:
Click to enlarge
You want the outline to be dark enough that it profiles the image fairly well.
STEP 5:
Using the Airbrush tool and foreground set to white, paint out the “noisy areas”, leaving only the darkest lines and any shading related to the glasses. To give you an idea of what I mean, see the image below:
Click to enlarge
The hair and shirt shading can be left as is, the most important area to work with is the face.
STEP 6:
Select All on the cleaned up image, the Edit/Copy (CTRL + C).
STEP 7:
Open the extra copy of the image and Paste (Ctrl + V) the cleaned up image into it. Highlight the newly added layer and change the mode to Multiply.
STEP 8:
Highlight the bottom image layer, right click, and select “Flatten Image“. It might look funny at this point, but that is ok, the next step will blend the dark lines into the picture.
STEP 9:
Go to Filters/G’Mic/Environments/Anisotropic Smoothing. The correct settings we’ll be using were suggested by Photocomix, and they are as follows:
The need for the dark outline becomes clear once you run this G’Mic filter. It actually highlights the shades and features of the entire image and makes it stand out.
STEP 10:
There is no right or wrong way to run I-Warp (Filters/Distorts/IWarp). Just remember to use the “reset” button as often as needed (instead of closing the image and restarting the script).
The way I used IWarp was to make minimal changes and then click ok. Open IWarp again and make more changes. Doing this prevents you from losing ALL of your changes when doing a reset.
When doing caricatures, I tend to avoid using Shrink and Grow, as much as possible, as it tends to distort the pixels to a point of losing quality. So, I prefer using the Move tool at the default setting.
On the Napoleon image I Shrank his eyes a little bit, used Grow on his bottom lip and forehead (slightly), and used the Move tool to extend his jowls outward, make his neck smaller, and to lower his shoulders.
Take note of the image for reference:
Click to enlarge
That’s it, you’re done! Enjoy… 
Please leave a comment to report problems with steps in the tutorial or if you have any questions.
Some Additional Caricatures:
King of the Noobs!
More…
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01:32, 30.10.2009
Hello,
Thanks, for your tu.
Could you give more details about Step 7 and 8.
How many layers, have you got in Step7.
That is the result about Step8 ?
Regards
01:46, 30.10.2009
On step 7 you should have a single layer image that is cleaned up (after you have done a Levels filter and cleaned up the image as described in step 5, and then copying the edited image in step 6)
Step 8 involves opening the “original” image you started with (it has no editing done to it at all), you would paste the cleaned image from step 7 into the orginal image in step 8). In step 8, you should have two layers, the original image plus the newly pasted “cleaned” image layer at the top.
The whole concept here is to take an image, create a dark line drawing from it, paste the line drawing over the top of the original image, change to multiply mode and flatten it before running the G’MIC filter.
The dark lines enhance the image more so, than if you just ran the G’MIC filter without it.
05:24, 12.04.2010
Hey Mahvin – that's a cool tutorial – I love it!!!! I have noticed yet another way to get the smooth line drawing overlay in GIMP 2.6.8, using the standard GIMP filter: Artisitic > Cartoon, which does away with the steps using the FX Foundry edge detect Laplace filter through to the flatten layer step. It's a slightly different effect, but it still accentuates the lines quite nicely. If you bump up the mask radius in the cartoon filter, it smooths out the lines and takes away most of the noise for you, and even more if you run the anisotropic smoothing filter afterwards.
22:35, 24.06.2010
awesom!
21:00, 03.08.2010
@ BK: I tried using the Cartoon filter several different ways and could not get the majority of the noise out of the image. Perhaps you could drop me an email and give me the steps you took and then I'll try to implement them into this tutorial, if the process is faster and get the desired results.
12:04, 07.09.2010
thats a crazy tutorial im impressed ,thank u for it ,im just new in gimp so ill be sure to try it.