How to Add a Wind Effect to an Image

Original Image

Looking through my old pictures I found this rather boring picture of a small part of Downtown Pittsburgh. Although the image has nice lighting, it really is not useful as a picture of Pittsburgh and has no power or story. Could I save this image and turn it into something else? I had an idea that maybe I could take one building and apply a wind effect to make it look like it was blowing away. I was sure GIMP must have such a tool--and right I was. I am not sure if the final image works; you be the judge. Read on to find out how to apply a wind effect to part of your image.

Things You'll Need

• A Digital Image
• GIMP

Instructions

1. 

   Find a suitable image. You could really choose anything: a flower, a building or any other object that suits you. In this case I wanted to see if I could apply the effect to a single building in this mini-skyscraper image. Once you select your file, open it in GIMP.

2. 

   Select the "Fuzzy Select" or magic wand tool. Notice there are different modes in the tool control box. I used anti-aliasing and select transparent settings. Once I selected the base image I used the ADD TO and SUBTRACT FROM modes to select as much as I wanted. This takes some time to get exactly the area that you want to impact with the wind effect. You can also use the COLOR SELECT or LASSO tool to select the area. Use whatever tool you are most comfortable with.

3. 

   Open the WIND tool panel form the FILTERS tab. The LOWER the threshold number, the greater the effect. The HIGHER the effect numbers, the greater the effect. Experiment with the different settings and observe the results in the preview window. Remember, the effect will only be applied in the selected area, so move your previewer to see the impacted area. Once you are satisfied, click OK to render the image.

4. 

   Save the image under a new file name so you can see the impact. You will not be able to see it well after rendering, since the FUZZY SELECT will block your view. You can UNDO the fuzzy select to see the impact, but if it isn't what you want you will have to reselect, which is the hardest part of this exercise. Does it work? I don't know, but it is easy to do, and I think I will select a flower for my next try.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember to save under a different file name to preserve the integrity of your image archive.

Resources

• GIMP