How to Make a Bullet Impact Effect
A bullet impact effect creates an image showing a split object and a bullet near the channel separating the object's pieces. Use a program like Paint.NET, GIMP or Photoshop to create this effect, as these programs have layering tools. Layers allow you to manipulate the bullet and other elements of the final image separately. To enhance the image, use your program's animation tools to show the bullet approaching the impacted object, then cutting through it. Paint.NET doesn't have animation tools, but you can save individual images for the animation's frames, then use a Web service to assemble those images into an animation.
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Instructions
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Click the "File" menu, then navigate to and double-click a photo showing an object you'd like to apply a bullet impact effect to. For example, to show a bullet cutting through a playing card, load an image of the playing card into your imaging program.
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Click the toolbar icon shaped like a lasso to run the "Lasso" selection tool. Click the middle of the object you want to apply the bullet impact to, then drag the mouse in a jagged line around the top half of the object. For the playing card example, drag the mouse around the top half of the playing card.
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Press "Ctrl" and "X" simultaneously, then press "Ctrl" and "V" simultaneously to cut the object's top half to the clipboard and paste it onto a new painting layer. Press "M" to enter "Move" mode if you're using Paint.NET or GIMP; press "V" if you're using Photoshop. Drag the top half of the object upward so a narrow channel separates the top and lower halves of the object. This channel represents the path the bullet took as it cut through the object.
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Open Windows Explorer and navigate to a photo of a bullet on your hard drive. You can get such a photo from MorgueFIle, Copyright Free Images or Public Domain Pictures if you don't have one. Drag the bullet's photo onto your painting program's application window to insert the bullet onto a new layer in the window.
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Use your program's "Move" tool, as you did when moving the object struck by the bullet, to move the bullet so appears directly to the left or right of the channel you cut into the object. For the playing card example, move the bullet so it's directly to the right of the channel you cut into the playing card. The image this produces strongly suggests that the bullet caused the channel cut into the object.
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References
- Paint.NET Documentation: Paint.NET Move Tools
- GIMP User Manual; GIMP Documentation Team
- Photoshop CS5 Bible; Lisa Dayley
