GIMP Version: 2.7
Operating System: Linux
OS Version: Kubuntu 11.10
GIMP Experience: Beginner Level

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Hello. I am experiencing with GIMP 2.7.4 to draw ribbons with color bands. To do this I created a colored rectangle to use as a brush from the clipboard.
I think the best way to explain what I've done is showing this image:
http://www.image-share.com/upload/1062/235.png

I've used in the two ribbons from top the Paths Tool and then the Stroke Path (Pencil) with Brush Dynamics (Track Direction and Velocity Tapering). The three ribbons that are below, I've drawn by freehand and different dynamics.

Now, the problem and reason for my question is that as you can see in the picture, the results are not good. There are imperfections mainly in the central band, and the problem is most evident when using Track Direction. Also, imperfections even more noticeable when applying filters or effects.
Is there any way to get better results (smooth edges), especially using Track Direction?
Thank you. (Sorry for my English)

Hi there!
Welcome to Gimp Chat.
Something like this would be great for mimicking Flame Painter.

Have you tried a softer brush?

Thanks!
But I can not figure how I could use a soft brush to draw ribbons with colored strips like the ones I put in the image. Sorry.

Rod! That has some desktop wallpaper possibilities! How'd you do that?

Never mind .. I found it .. $15 isn't that bad.

Instead of the pencil, try the paintbrush. The pencil brush has no antialiasing and all curves come out jagged.

It is the same using the paintbrush, mainly in the central band. I think antialiasing works only in external edges.
I begin to think that the problem is to use that rectangle from clipboard as a brush, but I do not know why imperfections are so noticeable in some parts.

I didn't have any better luck than you did. I'm using gimp 2.6.11.

I made the brush first; 5x15px image, zoomed in, made the grid 5x5, snapped to grid and showed the grid.

Then rectangle selection tool, fixed size 5x5.

Used the rectangle to fill the 3 5x5 grid squares. Enlarged the canvas 20x20 so I could rotate the brush -45°.

In the rotation tool dialog I changed the interpolation to none.

Using the brush, I spaced it 1.

Before and after rotating - zoomed screen shot


My results

You mention using a Track Direction. So I'm wondering - Where is Track Direction? And what about Velocity Tapering? I don't see anything in the GIMP 2.6 program where these things are avaliable.
They sound like something I would like to play around with but I don't see these functions anywhere. Do you use a wrighting tablet or something. I don't know.

They're not available for stroking with a path in my version of GIMP either.

Alan

These brush dynamics settings are available from the GIMP 2.7 (will be in GIMP 2.8).
Regards.

As mentioned my path blend script viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4066 can be used to draw ribbons:


The one on the right was done simply by creating a path and then duplicating, scaling and moving it down a bit, then running the script.

The one on the left took more work, as I had to use Inkscape to get the two offset paths, using Inkscape's live path effects (pattern along path), converting that to a regular path and saving as svg, then importing the svg into Gimp.

-Rob A>

I decided to play around with O's brush idea.
The brush is red, white and blue so i made the bg black.

Nice Rod.
But if you see the result, there are those imperfections which I commented before. The band edges (especially the central band) are imperfect, pixelized or with steps. Obviously, working with a rectangular brush can cause these problems, but the imperfections are noticed very much.
I wish that Gimp could do a fine and better job about it.