Category: Tutorials

In today’s tutorial we will be learning to create some astounding vibrant tessellated backgrounds in GIMP using the default GIMP filters and some GMIC plugins. The GIMP version i am using for this tutorial is 2.8.14 Windows version and the GMIC plugin is 1.6.0.3.

This is a very simple and detailed tutorial , anyone with any level of skill-set can be able to easily follow the tutorial , if you have any difficulties following please let us know in the comments.

You can download the latest GIMP from here and the latest G’MIC plugin for GIMP from here

Step 1: Create a new document in GIMP with the size as 1980 by 1080 px.

Step 2: Render Plasma Clouds by going to the menu Filter -> Render -> Clouds -> Plasma

Step 3: Accept the default settings in the Plasma clouds filter as shown in the image, it may vary from machine to machine.

Step 4: After applying the Plasma clouds the image will look like this.

Step 5: Apply GMIC – Polyganize filter by going to the Filters menu. Filter -> GMIC -> Artistic -> Polyganize [delaunay]. A note about this filter: it requires at least version 1.6.0.3 of the G’MIC framework to run (i.e. Latest stable). Please see the note here.

Step 6: You need to bring down the opacity of the Outline color to zero as shown below.

Step 7: Now you will get some beautiful tessellations on your design like this. Now its time to spice up the design for the final touches.

Step 8: Duplicate the current layer and use the Edge Detection Filter by going to Filter -> Edge-Detect -> Edge and use the following settings as shown below.

Step 9: Now the design will look like this after applying the Edge Detection filter.

Step 10: Now desaturate these edges to get a monochrome edge appearance which we will place on our original design. Go to Colors -> Desaturate and choose the following settings.

Step 11: Now change the blending mode of this edge layer to Screen to nicely overlay our edges on top the tessellated background.

Step 12. And adjust the opacity of the layer to about 50% to get some nice subtle edges not so thick or bright.

Step 13: For the final touches, merge all the layers by pressing Ctrl + M to merge all the layers and choose the default settings as below.

Step 14: Now use the Sharpen filter to highlight the details in our background by going to Filters -> Enhance -> Sharpen.

Give some 25 to the Sharpness value as shown below. Don’t apply too much Sharpness or otherwise it will bring some unwanted noise or grains in our design. Keep it to a minimum or optimal value.

Now this is our final wallpaper, a beautiful, colourful tessellated background which can be used as a nice wallpaper for your desktop.

Download the GIMP file