Telescope Reviews: Supernova

How to make a nebula in Gimp:

1) create a new transparent layer

2) use a light gray color, a fuzzy round brush, the airbrush tool (set opacity at 10%), and start drawing your nebula. Don't paint in the brightest part of the nebula yet because the brightest part is done in a separate layer. Once you are satisfied with what you have so far do -> Layer - Colors - Colorize... and give the nebula the desired color.

3)create a new layer and do Filters - Render - Clouds - Plasma. Set the turbuence to around 5. Then do layer- Colors - Desaturate. Set this layer's mode to dodge. Now your nebula should have a grainy appearance.

4)Use the eraser tool and start erasing where you don't want the graininess to be at, or you could simply move the layer around. This layer makes part of the nebula appear much brighter.

5) Create a new layer and do Filters - Light Effects - GFlare. Render a flare of your choosing, and then move the flare where you want it to be in the nebula. If the flare is too big simply do Layer - Scale Layer... and shink the flare to the desired size.

6)Repeat step five as many times as you want.

After reading this it may seem very simple to create a nebula, but to create a nebula that actually looks good is extremely hard. Have a lot of patience and time.

A good place for tutorials is at http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/tutorials/?order=9&startts=&endts= . Though they are for photoshop and not for the gimp, these tutorials can be useful if you are willing to experiment quite a bit. I used one of these tutorials in creating the planet (the planet was originally much larger).