Using GIMP with the Glass Tile filter and creating an animated GIF

This post explores using GIMP with the Glass Tile filter and creating an animated GIF. The Glass Tile filter is in the Artistic group. It is pretty simple, so I thought I’d show you how to make an animated GIF from the filter’s output in this post as well.

Glass Tile Filter

With only three possible adjustments, applying this filter is simple.

If the link is closed the width and height are equal. If it is open you can specify width and height to get rectangular tiles. I experimented with un-linking, changing the the height then re-linking. And the values went back to being equal.

Original image for this demonstration. — Original image

Using GIMP with the Glass Tile filter: filter applied with the link between width and height on. — Original image

You can get a rather nice effect by applying the filter more than once.

Example of applying the GIMP's Glass Tile filter twice. — Glass tile filter applied then applied again with the same settings.

Creating an Animated GIF

The GIMP makes it simple to make a series of layers into an animated GIF. Each layer forms a frame in the animation. A series of results of the glass time filter makes an interesting animated GIF. You can make a series of layers to use by copying the original layer then applying the filter with different settings.

After creating the layers for your animation, you simple use the Animation filters under the Filters tab. First use the “Optimize for GIF” filter.

The second step in creating a GIF is to optimize your layers. This image shows how to locate the Optimize for GIF command in the Animation set of filters. — How to locate the Optimize for GIF command.

This creates a new file with the same layers, but the new file has been sized and color adjusted to be compatible with the GIF format. The default length of time for each frame is 100ms, but you can change that by typing new values into the parentheses beside the layer name.

The default values that result from the Optimize for GIF command. — Default values

Example with the time for each frame changed from the default. — Default values

Test your animation using the Playback command in the Animation filter (located just beneath the Optimize for GIF). Once you have your layers and timing as you like them you export the file as a GIF. File>Export as. Change the file extension to “.gif” and hit return. This will pop up:

Where to find the “As animation” command.

Make sure to check the “As animation” box. You can tell it to Loop forever if you want by checking the box.