Whenever I paste in my picture from paint onto gimp it is including the white background. The file is saved as a png too . I'm completely new at this so chances are I have done something extremely stupid...

By paint you mean ms paint ?
And with ms paint theres no opacity possibilities
You should use some pre-rendered pictures to start
www.planetrenders.net/
Make a account and don't COPY & PASTE picture, SAVE THEM TO YOUR COMPUTER
Else it won't work.

Hope it helped

I wanted my own render and was too impatient to wait for it too upload... after much frustration I managed to figure out how to make one on gimp .

New question... how do I add a light source or something like that on gimp?

Google it , i'm not a gimp expert ;D

best way to add a light source is to either take the Dodge or Burn tool and use that on your pic oRRRRRRR take the paintbrush and find the brush that looks like a sun

dont go around giving tips when you yourself are stil in the really really early beginner stages.

dodging and burning is used to enhance your lighting and give depth to the sig, using the sparks brush for pretty much anything besides displace maps will give you a result like your current sig which is definitely not a good thing. Soft brushes can be used to enhance lighting or in cases create a light source but it takes some skill and knowledge of blending to do itt it right, but its probably the easiest way to create a light source even if it looks shit

the other way is using effect c4d renders and lighting stocks on different layer settings with parts erased etc

in this case, there would be very few people who can actually give out any tips around here. it doesn't include me or you or any other newfags

doesn't matter if the guy's been breaking crayons in a coloring book; if the guy gives good tips, it's good tips.
theres a million ways to create light sources, and a million different ways to use tools.

don't be so narrow-minded, brah.

notice the "very very early"

what i meant was that people who have only made 5 or 6 sigs and have never followed a tut shouldnt really be giving advice especially if its the wrong advice.. and yes i kno theres plenty of people that have experience with other types of art that are more than capable of giving advice, i was just talking about a single person here o.O

but yeah i fucked up a lil, my bad

This post was edited by mamllee on Jul 3 2010 05:34am