369 replies to this topic

[wtiger]

Lane Guide Lights - Part 4


The “D”

Scroll to the D and zoom in:




Using the Draw Bezier Curves and Straight Lines tool trace around the “D” using straight lines. Don’t worry about the curved part as we will adjust that in a bit:




Double click on our newly created object so we can edit the control points:




Now hold down the shift key and click and drag on the control point indicated in the image below to add a Bezier node and curve our line:




Do the same with the control point indicated below:




Do the same with the control point indicated below:




Our inner curve has been formed. Now we do the same to create the outer curve. Add a Bezier node to the following two control points:




Turning off our Bitmap layer we can see our completed “D”.





Looks like we need to do a little adjusting. Once again we will utilize reference lines to make things parallel:




Delete all the reference lines:




That looks a bit better! Now fill it with black and we are done drawing. Here’s all three characters:




Save your file. Lastly, go to the File menu and select Export Bitmap, then click on Export. This will save an image of our drawing in .png format and will automatically have a transparent background. We will use this in The Gimp on our playfield.

[wtiger]

Lane Guide Lights - Part 5

Putting the letters on our playfield

Start up The Gimp, load your playfield file in, and zoom in to the lane guide area:




We’ll start out by placing the letters we drew in Inkscape over the existing letters of the playfield image then we will add a new the new light insert images.

As it turns out, we didn’t need to export our I D 4 letters file from Inkscape as a .png file since it turns out that you can actually load the .svg file created directly into The Gimp. Choose one of the two files and load it into The Gimp. I’m going to go ahead and use the .svg file. Accept the default values on the Render Sclable Vector Graphics dialog box that opens up:




Zoom in to the letter I and use the Rectangle Selection Tool to make a square around the I:




Now copy it (CTRL-C or Edit, Copy), switch over to your playfield image and paste (CTRL-V or Edit, Paste). Make sure you click on the Create New Layer icon so your layer shows up as a Pasted Layer:




Go ahead and rename this layer to Light52 – I. Now move it on top of the existing I on the playfield image and scale it down until it’s the same size (or slightly bigger). Remember when using the scale tool hold down the CTRL key so that the image maintains it’s aspect ratio:




Do the same for the D (renaming the layer to Light53-D) and the 4 (renaming the layer to Light54-4):




Use the Ellipse Selection Tool to cut out the existing light insert portion for all three lights:




For the light insert, make a copy of the Light41 layer (this is the round red insert we previously added to our playfield). Rename the layer to Light52 and move it above the playfield layer in the layer list. Move the image up to above the new letter I that we added:




Change the Hue to 119 and the Lightness to -91:




Use the move tool and move it into position:




Now move both Light52 and Light52-I layers into sequential order in the layer list:




Make a duplicate of layer Light52 and rename the copy to Light53. Make another duplicate and rename that copy Light53. Move them into the proper sequence in the layer list and then use the move tool to move each one into the proper position on your playfield:

[wtiger]

If you haven’t figured out yet, my goal of these various tutorials regarding the lights is to show you several different techniques. For this next lesson, we will recreate the LOCK1, LOCK2, and LOCK3 text on lights 25, 26, and 27 using Inkscape’s bitmap trace feature.

Here’s a collage of images I have that show these lights:




The font I believe used for the text is called Freeline. Use the website we used before:

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/

Enter Freeline in the search box or go directly to the font sample page:

http://new.myfonts.c...s/t26/freeline/

Enter LOCK1 for the sample and adjust the size to about 146 points:




Take a screenshot of the screen (hit the Print Screen key) and paste into The Gimp. Crop the image to just the largest LOCK1 text. Do the same for sample text LOCK2, and LOCK3.

Start up Inkscape and load in your cropped LOCK1 image:




The “1” is not exactly what we want so when we are done we will use a modified and rotated “L” in it’s place.

Zoom in z bit and select the image:




Now go to the Path menu and select Trace Bitmap:




Hit the OK in the dialog box and then close it. You won’t see much difference on your screen, but if you move the currently select object down you will now see two lines of text. The top one is our original bitmap and the bottom one is a traced version of it:




At this point we can go ahead and delete our bitmap object so we are only left with out traced path.

We need to arrange the letters vertically and make them an outline. You’ll notice that you can’t edit or move any of the individual letters. We can fix that. With the path still selected go to the Path menu and select Break Apart. This will allow us to edit and move things around.

To change our text to an outline, go to the Object menu and select Fill and Stroke. On the Fill tab, click on the X to remove the fill. Click on the Stroke paint tab, click on the square to the right of the X (this is for a flat solid color). You will see that we now have an outline of our text. Lastly, click on the Stroke style tab and enter 5 for the width:




Close the Fill and Stroke dialog box.




Delete the current object for the “1”. Click on the “L” object and make a copy of it (CTRL-C, CTRL-V):




Go to the Object Menu and rotate it 90 degrees twice:




Now align the letters vertically. Note that the letter “O” consists of two objects. The outer one and the ininer one. You can group them together so they move as one by making a rectangle selection around them and then go to the Object Menu and select Group. Now they will move as one object. When you are done it should look something like this:




Save your file as LOCK1.

Now to the same for the LOCK2 and LOCK3. For the numbers 2 and 3, go ahead and stretch them to the same height as the rest of the text prior to moving them vertically:




When you are done you should have three separate files (LOCK1.svg, LOCK2.svg, and LOCK3.svg)


Well, after some experimenting importing our LOCK1, 2, and 3 images into The Gimp and scaling them down, I found out that the black outlines end up turning gray by the time we scale down to the right size for our playfield. To correct this, go back into Inkscape and for each of the three files, load them back in, hit CTRL-A to select everything, and scale down to around 16% (you will see your scale % at the bottom of the screen just to the right of the layers area). Make sure you hold down the CTRL key to scale proportional. Now set the line stroke width to 2 and re-save the file.

Start up The Gimp and load your playfield file in. Load in the LOCK1.svg file. Zoom in a bit on your LOCK1 image and make a rectangle selection around the text. Copy and paste it into our playfield image. Move it close to where it goes and zoom in:




Now scale it down to it’s approximately the same size as the existing text. Finally, rotate it to the proper rotation:




Now cut out the inside of the light insert first using the ellipse selection tool for the top curve, then the free select tool for the rest:




We’ll use a copy of the light insert we used for light 9/10. Make a duplicate of that layer, move it, scale it, and rotate it to match our cutout. Rename it Light 25:




Now move it into position, move the text layer into position (rename the text layer to Light 25 text) and move both into sequential order in our layer list:




Repeat for the other two lights. When done, it should look like this:

[wtiger]

It was just pointed out to me that I skipped building the transparent portion of the third (left) ramp. I spent some time last night and tonight building it and putting the instructions together. See post# 225 on page 12!

[wtiger]

Light 37 – Area 51 Arrow




For this session we’ll be working on the green arrow light with the words Area 51. I found a nice playfield picture of descent quality that has this particular light. Load your playfield into The Gimp and download the following image (click to enlarge):




and load it into The Gimp as well.


We can use the Fuzzy Select (Magic Wand) Tool for this since we want to select the black text areas.

We need to fix two areas first otherwise our Fuzzy Select will select too much. Right right side of the second letter A and the number 1 are connected to the black outline of the snake’s head. If we were to use our Fuzzy Select tool on these two areas, it will select portions we don’t want. To correct this, use the Free Select Tool to make a shape at the edges of the text as shown in the following picture (click to enlarge):




Once you have your selection shape completed, hit the delete key to fill that area with white (click to enlarge).




Now using the Fuzzy Select Tool start clicking inside all the black areas of text holding down the shift key so we can add each piece to our selection. When you are done, it should look like this:




Now hit CTRL-C to copy (or Edit, Copy) and paste this as a new layer in your playfield image:




Now rotate and scale to match the existing text:




Go ahead and rename the layer to Light37 Text. Now use the Free Select Tool on the playfield layer to cut out the inside of the light insert making sure you leave the snake’s head:




Make a copy of the Light35 layer and rename it to Light37. Move it into the approximate position where it goes in the cutout we just made. Use the rotate tool to rotate into the proper rotation:




Adjust the Hue so that it is green then move the text layer into position (as well as move the text layer into sequential order in the layer section):

[wtiger]

I've been spending my time in the last week on helping out on the X-Wing animation on Subzero1970's updated Star Wars Trilogy table. I should have an update for this workshop next weekend. It will hopefully go through the rest of the lights that need to be worked on so we can finish that up.

[wtiger]

I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail at this point as I think you should have a pretty good idea of the process for cutting out the existing light insert portion from your playfield and pasting in the new light.

Before we begin, I realized that we have a light layer named wrong. Light 41 needs to be renamed to Light 42.


Let’s do the remaining easy lights (ones that don’t have any additional text).




Light 39 – use a copy of the image we used for light 42 and scale it down

Lights 29, 30, and 31 – use a scaled down copy of the image used for light 19


When done they should look like this:




Now do lights 43, 44, 45, 47, and 48:




For light 43, 44, and 45, cut out the inside of the flying saucer, copy the image used for light 27 and rotate it 90 degrees or so.

For light 47, copy the image used for light 35

For light 48, copy the image used for light 35 and change the color to purple by adjusting the hue -42, lightness-40, and saturation -20 (from the Colors and then Hue-Saturation menu)

When done they should look like this:





Light 24:



Make by using the purple image we just created for light 48


Finished:



Light 23:


Cut out the inner portion and use a copy of the image used for light 19. You will want to scale it down and rotate a bit:




The last two we will do are actually flash lamps located near the bumpers:




For these, cut out the inner parts and use a copy of the image we used for light42. Adjust the Hue all the way to the left as well as the saturation. Adjust the lightness to around 32. This should give you a nice white color. Rename the new layers to Flash1 and Flash2:

[Shockman]

Thanks. I have learned from your tutorials on Gimp both here and elsewhere.
I just have a couple of general questions about Gimp that the help suggests no.

1. Can the drawing window be set to top above the tool bars, and the tool bars take top when moused or with a key shortcut?
2. Can you explain the use of the bell pepper brush?

[wtiger]

Thanks. I have learned from your tutorials on Gimp both here and elsewhere.
I just have a couple of general questions about Gimp that the help suggests no.

1. Can the drawing window be set to top above the tool bars, and the tool bars take top when moused or with a key shortcut?
2. Can you explain the use of the bell pepper brush?

As far as I can tell the answer to question 1 is no. I tried to move and re-size the tool bars and they will only so small which doesn't leave much room for the drawing window. There is a version of The Gimp that someone made to look more like Photoshop. It's called GimPhoto. You might want to try it as I believe the tools take up less space.

For question 2, I think it's used when you are drawing pictures of Bell Peppers:

Attached Files

•  Bell_Pepper.jpg   101.94KB   52 downloads

[wtiger]

Sorry everyone, I was planning on finishing up the playfield lights this weekend but ended up working on things around the house and other things in VP. I'll get back to it soon.

[Shockman]

Sorry everyone, I was planning on finishing up the playfield lights this weekend but ended up working on things around the house and other things in VP. I'll get back to it soon.

Yeah, I bet you were playing with the bell pepper brush.

GimPhoto does look nice, compared to gimp, but it is not up to date with gimp and is not stand alone, but needs another app. set up.

Thanks for the link though. I wish I had $650 for Photoshop, or better broadband. Windows 7 version of paint is better than it ever was. I figure in less than 400 years it will catch up to where gimp is now. It's now already better than Deluxe Paint 4 on the Amiga was in most respects.

Your work in this thread is fantastic.

[wtiger]

Light 38 – Super Jackpot




For this light we will be using the font image that we previously created at the myfonts.com website (remember the exercise where we used the website’s preview and entered the various text needed for the various lights using the Modula Sans Black font).

In case you didn’t do that exercise, or can’t find the image, you can download this one (click on it to enlarge it and then save it):




We are going to use Inkscape once again to trace the bitmap image and then import the svg file into The Gimp. Start up Inkscape and import the Super Jackpot-image from above:




Zoom in a bit to make it easier to see things by using the + key on the number pad. With the image we just imported still selected, go to the Path menu and select Trace Bitmap. When the Trace Bitmap dialog box opens, click on the OK button once and then close it. The vectorized trace will now be object selected. Drag it up and away from the bitmap image:




Go ahead and delete the bitmap image since we don’t need it anymore.

You might notice that our vector object is one object rather than individual objects for each letter. To fix this, we need to separate it. Click on it to select it and then go to the Path menu and select Break Appart:




You will notice that the letters P, R, A, and O no longer have their white holes in them. The object is actually still there but it is filled with black. What we want to do is actually cut this object out so that it will end up being transparent. Go to the letter P in SUPER and make a rectangle selection around it (this will select the main object plus the inner object).




Now go to the Path menu and select Difference. We’ve not deleted that inner oval shape from the P letter:




Now do the same thing for rest of the letters that need it. When done it should look like this:




Save your file out as an svg file and call it Super Jackpot.

Now we need to modify things a bit so that it matches (somewhat) the original text of the playfield light. To do this, make a selection around the letters JACKPOT and move them down below the letters SUPER and center it. Click on the letter U of SUPER and stretch the top up a bit by dragging the upper center up/down arrow. Do the same for the E by the same amount. Click on the P and stretch it up a bit higher then the U and E. It should now look like this:




Now do the same for the JACKPOT but move the letters down. Stretch the A and O down a little bit, the C and P down a little more, then finally the K down a bit more then the others:




Save your file again!


Now fire up The Gimp and load in your playfield image that you’ve been adding all the lights to. Also import in your Super Jackpot.svg file you just created in Inkscape and use the default settings:




Zoom in a bit on your Super Jackpot image and make a rectangle selection around it. Copy and paste it into your playfield image as a new layer:




Go ahead and rename this new layer as Light38 Text. Using the scale tool, scale it down to match the size of the existing text on the playfield image (or make it small enough so that it fits inside the light insert circle):




Now cut a circle out of the playfield image to remove the current light insert (you might want to hide the Light38 Text layer you just created so that you can see things easier):





Now make a copy of the Light42 image (the red circle insert) and rename it Light38. Move it into order in the layers list and move the image into place on the playfield:




Now all we need to do is make it a yellow color and move the Light38 text layer into numeric order as well. Using the Hue-Saturation, adjust the Hue to about 63. That gives us a nice yellow color. Now move the Light38 Text layer into order and turn it back on:




Make sure you save your playfield file!

[wtiger]

PART 1

How about we do seven lights this time:

Light 20 – 10 MIL
Light 21 – 20 MIL
Light 28 – INCREASE JACKPOT
Light 33 - 10 MIL
Light 34 - 20 MIL
Light 36 - Roswell 1947
Light 46 – EXTRA BALL




Once again, hopefully you have already created screen captures from the myfonts.com website using Modula Sans Black for the text of all the above except the Roswell 1947 which uses the OCR A font. In case anyone needs it, or to make it easier, you can download the image below that has all the text needed on it.




As in the previous exercise, use Inkscape to trace all the characters (you will need to break apart the object like in the previous exercise as well so that you can edit individual characters so they match the playfield text (ie, the 10 is larger than the MIL) as well as fixing like we did before all the characters that have white cut out of them). This is how your tracing should look after you fix all the holes that need to be cut out:




Lets start out with the 10 MIL light. Go ahead and copy those characters and paste them into a new Inkscape document (make a selection around them, hit CTRL-C, go to the file menu and select new, then default, then hit CTRL-V to paste):




Make a selection around the text MIL and scale them down 80% by dragging inward one of the corners and holding the CTRL key so that they scale proportional. Now move them down below the numbers 10 and center them:




Now with the MIL still selected, on the right side grab the center and move to the right to scale to 170% (we are stretching the width):




Now make a selection around the 10 and stretch it to the right to 130% and then center it above the MIL:




I think the MIL needs to be a little shorter. Make a selection around MIL and drag the top center down to 80%:




Save this as 10 MIL.svg

Now repeat for the 20 MIL. When done it should look like this:




Now for the INCREASE JACKPOT, make a selection around them and paste them into a new document. Select just the JACKPOT and move it below INCREASE and center it:




Do the same for EXTRA BALL:




For the Roswell 1947, copy the characters into a new document and then move the 1947 below Roswell. The 1 should be between the w and e:




In Part 2 we’ll go over the necessary steps of using The Gimp (mostly changing the colors of existing light insert images for what we need for these 7 lights).

[wtiger]

PART 2

Light 20 – 10 MIL
Light 21 – 20 MIL
Light 28 – INCREASE JACKPOT
Light 33 - 10 MIL
Light 34 - 20 MIL
Light 36 - Roswell 1947
Light 46 – EXTRA BALL

Now that we have the text needed for the lights above we will switch over to The Gimp. Start up The Gimp and load your playfield in.

We’ll start out with Light 33 – 10 MIL




Load in the 10 Mil.svg file you created in Inkscape and use the default importing options. Using the Rectangle Selection tool make a selection around the text:




Copy it and paste it into your ID playfield image as a new layer. Scale it down and rotate it to match the size and angle of the existing 10 MIL text. Rename the layer to Light 33 text:




Now cut out the inner part of the light area:




Copy the Light 35 layer and rename the copy as Light 33 and move the image into the position where we just cut:




Go to the Color menu and then Hue-Saturation. Adjust the Saturation slider all the way to the left at -100. This will give us a white/gray insert color. Now go back to the Color menu and select Brightness-Contrast. Adjust the Brightness slider to 78 and the Contrast to 68:




Now simply move the Light 33 text layer image into position on the playfield image.

Repeat the same process for Light 34 – 20 MIL. When you make a copy of the Light 35 (red insert image), to make it green adjust the Hue to 119, Lightness to -91. Here’s the completed Light 33 and 34:




For Light 20 (the other 10 MIL) you can simply make a copy of the Light 33 and Light 33 text layers and rotate each copy. For Light 21 (blue 20 MIL) make a copy of the Light 35 red insert image and adjust the hue to -145.

Light 20 and 21 completed:




Light 28 should be fairly simple. Import in your Increase Jackpot.svg file, paste it in as a new layer, scale and rotate it. Cut out the circle in your playfield image and make a duplicate of the yellow round insert image from Light 38.




Light 46 Pretty much the same deal. This time make a copy of the image from Light 42.




Lastly, for Light 36 use the image from Light 47




I think that’s all 7 lights!

[wtiger]

This go around we’ll do a few more lights.

Light 58 – Shoot Again

If you don’t already have an image to use for the font, click on the image below and use it to import into Inkscape:




With the image selected, go to the Path menu and perform a Trace Bitmap. Once that’s done you can delete the original bitmap image that was imported. With the traced object selected, go back to the Path menu and select Break Apart. You will now need to fix the letters O and A like we’ve done previously so that the “holes” show. Make a selection around the first letter O which will select the outer path object and the inner hole path object. Go to the Path menu and perform a Difference. Repet for the second letter O and then for the two A letters. Make a selection around the word AGAIN and move it below the word SHOOT and center it. When done it should look like this:




Make sure you save the file as Shoot Again. Start up The Gimp, load in your playfield file and then load in the Shoot Again.svg file you just created using the default import parameters. Make a selection around the SHOOT AGAIN image:




Now copy it and paste it into your playfield image as a new layer. Rename the layer to Light58 Text. Move it to near the original SHOOT AGAIN light and then scale it to the approximately same size. Once you do that go ahead and move it out of the way a bit. On you main playfield layer make a circle selection the same size as the inner light portion of the SHOOT AGAIN light and hit delete to cut it out. Make a copy of Layer46 which is a red round insert image. Rename the copy to Light58. Move this new layer down into place then move the text layer into place. When done your playfield should look like this:




Next we’ll do the left SPECIAL which is light 11:




We’ll use the image below to import into Inkscape:




Trace it, delete the original image, break apart the traced object and fix the P and A. When done it should look like this:




Save the file as Special.svg and then load that file into The Gimp as we did above. Scale it down to the appropriate size. Rename this new layer Light11 Text. Cut out the existing inner light area then make a copy of layer46 for our new insert. Rename the copied layer to Light11. Move the text layer into place. When done it should look like this:




Now for the right Special (light14) simply cutout the existing light then make a duplicate of light11 layer and light 11 text layer and rename them light14 and light14 text. Move them into position. When done it should look like this:




Let’s do two more in this session – Light12 and Light13 which are identical having LIGHT COMBO for the text. We’ll start with Light12:




Use the image below in Inkscape.




Trace it, delete the original image, break apart the trace object and fix the holes. For the letter B, you will need make a rectangle selection around the top “hole” object, then hold down the shift key and click on the outer edge of the “B” shape, perform the Path, Difference. Once you have that done, you can then make a rectangle selection around the whole object (which will now just be two objects – the B shape with the top hole missing, and the bottom hole object). Now perform the Path Difference operation again and your B letter will be complete. Move the word COMBO below LIGHT and center it. Save the file as Light Combo.svg:




Load Light Combo.svg into The Gimp. Make a selection around the image, copy it and then paste it as a new layer into your playfield image. Scale the text down to match the existing text. Scale it down proportionally until you get it the same width as the original text. Then reduce the height.

For the insert portion, you will notice that it is not a perfect circle. For this cutout we will first make a circle selection, then we will subtract a portion of it to make the desired shape. First, make a circle selection:




Now select the Free Select Tool. If you move the cursor below your circle selection and hold down the CTRL key, you will notice a “-“ above the rope next to your arrow cursor. This means that whatever selection we make while holding down the CTRL key it will remove that shape from our current selection. Make a selection like the one in the image below while holding down the CTRL key:




When complete your selection should look like this:




How hit the delete key to remove that part:




Make a duplicate of Light46 layer and rename the copy to Light12. Move it into position:




Go to the Color menu and Hue-Saturation. Adjust the Hue to -145. This will give us a blue insert. Now move the text layer into position. You light should look like this when done:




Now repeat the same process for light13 to make the cutout.




Duplicate the insert image layer and text layer from light12 and rename them as light13 for each. When done your light13 should look like this:



That’s all the time I have for this session. Stay tuned for the next one…

[wtiger]

Sorry once again for the lack of an update. I had all intentions to work on it today but unexpectedly got a phone call to help someone out who got a virus/spyware on their computer and spent all afternoon working on that. I will try for next weekend.

[destruk]

No problem wTiger. I'm still anxious to see this one finished.

[wtiger]

Let’s get the HOLD BONUS light (light 8) out of the way. Click on the image below, save it to your hard drive, and then load it into Inkscape:




Perform a Path, Trace Bitmap and then delete the original image. Save the file as Hold Bonus.svg.

Switch over to The Gimp and load in your playfield image. Now load in the Hold Bonus.svg file. Copy it and paste it into your playfield image as a new layer. Rename the layer as Light 8 text. Scale the layer down to match the size of the existing text:




Now click select your main playfield image layer and use the ellipse selection tool to cut out the left part of the light insert. You can then drag the selection you made to the right side and delete that part too:




Use the rectangle selection tool to cut out the rest:




Click on the image below and save it as Light 8 insert.jpg




Now load the image in to The Gimp, copy it and paste it into our playfield image as a new layer called Light 8. Move this layer and the Light 8 text layer into sequential order in the layer list. When done your light should look like this:




Next we’ll do the 2X, 4X, 6X, and 8X (lights 1, 2, 4, and 5). Click and download the image below:




Load it into Inkscape, trace it. Delete the original image so you are left with the path object. Break it apart and fix the numbers that have inner holes (the 0, the 4, the 6, and the 8). I previously explained how to do this, so I don’t go into it again. Now you need to save out just the 2X, 4X, 6X, 8X, and 10X as individual files. You can do this by highlighting the 2X, Create a new document (File, New then default) and pasting it into the new document. Then save the new document as 2X.svg. Repeat for the rest.

Switch to The Gimp and load in the 2X.svg image. Copy it then paste it in as a new layer into your playfield file. Rename the layer as Light 1 text. Scale it down to match the existing text size. Use the free select tool to remove the light insert portion from the playfield layer that we don’t want:




Click on the image below and save it as light 1 insert.jpg





Load this image into The Gimp, copy it and paste it into your playfield file as a new layer. Rename the layer as Light 1. Move the image into position on the playfield and then move it and the light 1 text layer into sequential order in the layer list. When done it should look like this:




Now repeat for the 4X, 6X, and 8X. When done it should look like this:




For light 3, use the free select tool to remove the light insert portion on the left side of the building, then remove the right side:




Click on the image below and save it, load it into The Gimp, copy it, then paste it into your playfield file as Light 3:




Move it into position and move the layer into sequential order.

When done it should look like this:




I believe we only have three lights left (light 16, 32, and 41). We’ll tackle those next time.

[wtiger]

Light 41 – COMBO

Import the following image into a blank Inkscape document and trace it (the font I used that comes as close as I could fine is called Freeline):

(click on the image to enlarge it before you save it to your hard drive)




Delete the image so you are left with just the path object. Break it apart and fix the two letters O and the B. Make a selection around all the letters and click on the red color square at the bottom of the screen to set the fill color to red:




Now import into the same document the following image:


(click on the image to enlarge it before you save it to your hard drive)




Scale the image proportionally (by holding down the CTRL key) to the same width as our document size:




Start with the letter C – click on it to highlight it. Drag it down to the very bottom of our reference image we just imported and scaled. You will notice that the letter is “under” the image. With the letter still selected, hit the HOME key on the keyboard to move that object to the top (the HOME key is the shortcut for Object menu, Raise to top):

Before raising it to the top:




After raising to the top:




Now scale the object so that is matches the size of the letter from the image:




Now repeat for the rest of the letters:




Make a copy of the letters and move the copy off to the left (this step is not really necessary, but in case we really mess things up we are working with a copy and can delete things and still have our original letter object):




Now select the letter C and rotate it 48 degrees (Object menu, Transform, Rotate tab):




Repeat for the rest of the letter objects (you can just click on the object then click on the apply button in the Transform window on the right side of the screen this is still open):




Now move each letter object into place:




Save your file as COMBO.svg


Now delete the bitmap image and the extra letters at the bottom. Make a selection around the COMBO letters we are keeping and set the fill color to black:




Save your file as COMBO-2.svg so that we preserve the file with the image and extra letters in case we want to do any editing later.


Start up The Gimp and load in your playfield image. Next load in the COOMBO-2.svg file. Make a rectangle selection around the letters, copy it then paste it into your playfield file as a new layer:




Scale it down to match the existing size of the text:




Rename the layer as Light 41 text.


Now select your main playfield layer and cut out the inner portion of the light insert that we don’t want. You can start by using the ellipse selection tool to cut out three circles:




Then use the free select to cut out the rest:




Now we need to make a new white insert. Make a duplicate of the insert image from light 33 and rename the duplicate Light 41. Move it into place, rotate it to match the angle of the cutout then move the layer into order:




Finally move the text layer into order:




That’s it.

[Noah Fentz]

Wow, Gary, you really are putting together an AWESOME tutorial.

KUDOS! .... BIG KUDOS!!!