SL GIMP PRODUCTIVITY SCRIPTS-FU



As a content creator in Secondlife, and having made the choice to work with open source applications, I make a daily use of the GIMP for both classic texturing and sculpted map edition.
When creating images for SL content, I have to repeat some tasks dozens of times, when not hundreds, and when the work load increases, it turns into a real click nightmare to repeat steps again and again...

I really love the GIMP for plenty of reasons, but in a workflow perspective, one has to admit it has some severe drawbacks when compared to the commercial bitmap editing mammoths, amongst which the annoying impossibility to record macros.

Fortunately, GIMP can be (not so :) easily extended using Script-Fu's, so I decided to write my own, and forget my recurrent mouse tendonitis ( seriously ! )


****************************             Export a scaled copy of a xcf master to a tga file:

You work on a high resolution image, say 1024*1024, to achieve sharp drawing in details, but you want a lighter texture in world, say 512*512.

The usual method would be : duplicate image, scale image, save as --- total 10 clicks, 3 fields to fill in for size and new file name. Multiply this by 16 colour variations for your top fashion tee shirt, you begin to see the point.



export-scaled-tga.scm  does it all for you in 2 clicks

        Once installed, the script will appear in the menu as Image->Export a scaled TGA...
        I choosed to set it here, so that I don't need to dig far in the menu branches.

        So your 1024*1024 master is nice, right click on it, a window opens :

     

        The script should be self explanatory , but here are the options :


        ** The two top fields set the width and heigth of the new copy

        ** "Try to keep aspect ratio" : only useful if you set the new size with a different proportion. If this option is checked, the script will override either X or Y to create a copy with the same aspect ratio as the original, with the closest size to what you entered above. I do not use that option.

        ** "Save as <filename>.<x>.<y>.<suffix>" : if checked, the script will save your scaled copy automatically , in the same folder where the original file is, appending width and height information to the new filename. Otherwise, the script only works on a temporary file.
        eg : "mynicetexture.xcf" will turn into "mynicetexture.256.256.tga"

        ** "View in a new window" : if checked, the scaled copy will pop up in ... a new window !

        ** "RLE Compression" : if checked, GIMP will compress the texture with Run-lenght encoding

        ** "Origin to bottom Left" : if NOT checked, origin will be at TOP LEFT, see ? ^^





*******************************             Mirror a scupltie map on a given axis


Mirroring a sculpted prim is easy. You just invert the values for the Red, Green, or Blue channel , respectively for a X, Y , or Z mirrored prim.

Usual method : Image->Duplicate ; Color-> components-> decompose; in the new image, select the layer you want ot flip; Color->invert; Color->components->recompose ; back to the copy, Image->Save As..............I didn't count the clicks...


sculpty-flip.scm   does it in 2 clicks

        Once installed, the script will appear in the menu as Image->Mirror a SL sculpty map...

        Options are really simple :


        ** "Mirror Axis" : choose X, Y or Z

        ** "Save as <filename>-<axis>.flipped.<suffix> : if checked, the script will save a copy of the original file, appending mirroring info to the new filename, in the same directory where the original is.
        eg: "mywhickedsculpt.tga" becomes "mywhickedsculpt-Z-flipped.tga" , for instance.

        ** "View in a new window" : if checked, the mirrored map will pop up in ... a new window !




****************************                Prepare a SL sculpt map for a better losless import  


This one is more a dirty workaround to a problem that ( hopefully ) should be fixed in the SL viewer.

I export my sculpted meshes using Domino's blender export script with much satisfaction.
I noticied that to achieve the best results, I have to first create 256*256 sculpt maps in blender. Then I scale it down to 32*32, using cubic interpolation, then scale up to 128*128, using no interpolation. This brings a "pixelized" 128*128 texture, which seems to be the best candidate I found for SL losless import, reducing drastically the ripple effect that I have with any other methods. Again, hopefully this script will turn to obsolete soon ^^


The usual method is painful and long.



sculpty-losless-prepare.scm helps a lot :

        Once installed, the script will appear in the menu as Image->Prepare a SL sculpy map for losless SL import...

        Here we only have 2 options, save, or view. I guess you understood how they work ^^





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Well, that is my 2 cents for open source SL creators, I really hope this helps.

I release these scripts under the GNU Public Licence, feel free to mod them and make them better.

They are developped for the GIMP 2.4.0

TODO would be :    - making sure that the master file was previoulsy saved
                                - check that the file type is a 3 letters suffix. these scripts will work on a 'jpg' but not on a 'jpeg' or 'tiff'
                                - check that the image is a RGB image for sculpty-flip.scm
                                - probably other issues, my side I didn't find.


I want to thank Roland Berger http://fuchur.dynup.net/gimp/thumbnail.html ,  http://fuchur.leute.server.de for having written thumbnail.scm, on which I based the scaled export script, and which allowed me to understand how this all work, despite a severe headache. Well, better a good headache than a tendonitis.


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Some nice links

http://remixreality.net/secondlife/

http://www.gimp.org/docs/scheme_plugin/

http://www.gimptalk.com/