User blog:SamwiseFilmore/How to Remove a Background Using GIMP

Hello everyone! Samwise here, and I'm going to show you, in this blog post how to remove the background of a mob image, so that you get a nice infobox mob image like you've seen around.

GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an image editor similar to Photoshop or PAINT.net. It is free and open-source, so anyone can download it, on just about any operating system. This is the program we are using for this tutorial, though you can probably adapt the instructions for just about any program. You can visit gimp.org for downloads and information. For Linux, GIMP can be installed via the command line, or the Ubuntu software center (for Ubuntu). The App store for Mac, and Windows store for Windows probably has it as well, though I haven't checked. It might even be on steam. Anyway, once you've installed, just try opening the program. Make sure never to close the toolbars on the left and right side. To close the program, use the X in the middle window, where your image will appear. Click the X to close.

Beginning Your Crop
Alright, so the first thing you are going to need is a closeup screenshot of whichever mob you are cropping. I would suggest taking the screen in a superflat world, without grass. Choose a mob that can be easily distinguished from the background for your first shot. Get nice and close, press F1, and when he's in a good position, press F2. Then you need to find your screenshots folder in your .minecraft folder. Find the shot you took, and drag it to your desktop. Then right-click it and select Open With > GIMP. Gimp should pop up, with your screenshot. Now, find the crop tool in your left-hand toolbar. It looks like a little exacto knife. Hovering over in icon will tell you what it is. Click the crop tool icon. Then Go to your image and drag over the part of the screenshot that you want to keep. It will show a box, and you can resize this as necessary. Click in the middle of the box to crop your image. Now, find the eraser tool in the same sidebar. Click it. At the very bottom of the toolbar, select hard edges. Change the brush size to about 70 pixels, and select the largest round brush. There should be a black dot above brush size. Click it, and it will show a menu. Go over two to the largest hardest black dot and select it. Now you need to find your menus, I'm not sure where they are on Windows, on the top for mac and Linux. They may be a part of your image window. Find Layer > Transparency > Add Alpha Channel. Click that. Now you are ready to start erasing.

First Erase
Alright, start by removing as much of the background as you can with this large brush without deleting any of your mob (Control+Z if you make a mistake). Once you've deleted major portions of background, go and re-size your brush again down to 20 pixels. Zoom in to 400% on your image. Go around the entire image with the 20 px eraser and remove more background. I'll supply a gallery to show the levels or erasing that needs to happen. You can still leave a few pixels around the outside of the mob, we'll get it next with the 5 px brush.

Second Erase
Alright, so you're now going to need to resize your brush to 5 pixels. Zoom in to 2000%, and choose a place to start. Work your way all around your mob using the 5 pixel eraser. There will be little spots that you can't get with this brush, just leave them. When you're done with that, change your brush size once more to 1 pixel, and go around your whole mob again. There shouldn't be much, as you got close to most of it with the 5 pixel brush. Just clean up with this brush. Then do, in your menus, File > Export As and choose a name and location. Click Export, and Export with no settings adjusted, and there you have your first cropped mob image!

If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask in the comments or on my wall. Here is a gallery with a few pictures moving along in the process.

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