A few days ago, I created a wish on Open Genie to have a simple change to my profile picture on Hive. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to earn an easy 10 HIVE or more...
So, I decided to become my own genie...
I knew what this would involve and knew it should be easy, but I had my reasons for avoiding it, which I'll explain below.
I guess to accomplish this task, three approaches were possible:
- as an artist, one could've simply created a sketch of my younger self in the avatar, take a picture, and upload it, and that's it
- someone familiar with graphics editors like PhotoShop or GIMP would have used an edge detection filter (that's what I ended up doing)
- anyone else could've asked an AI tool to recreate the first image in the style of one of the provided examples and see if the AI does a good job
Why did I prefer to create a wish on Open Genie instead of doing it myself, if I knew how to do it?
- to use and test Open Genie
- to give a chance to someone to earn some easy HIVE or HBD, if they pay attention
- because I went through some hoops to complete the task myself
I say above that I went through some hoops to make this happen by myself. Here's why:
I have Linux Mint installed on my main laptop and I don't have GIMP installed. Unfortunately, after many failed attempts to fix the problems with the "uninstallable" dependencies, I gave up. Probably a clean install of the OS would fix the issues I have, but I don't have enough time to do that and make the follow-up optimizations and customizations, which I always do after a clean install (and I don't have a snapshot so old, which would also make things easy).
I have GIMP installed on my backup Windows laptop. But when you get used to a faster machine, you don't like to time travel into the past. Eventually, I did that.
If you know what you are doing, the actual process to accomplish my wish only takes a few minutes, at most. It took longer for me because I didn't know what edge-detection filter to use so I checked out more of them and different options. And also took screenshots for this post.
Step 1. Open the Image
I opened my original avatar in GIMP. Not much to show or explain here.
Step 2. Apply Filter
I applied the "Difference of Gaussians (legacy)" edge-detection filter, like in the screenshot below:
It's not the first filter I tried out, but it's the closest to my desired result.
Probably it's not the only way to achieve a similar result, particularly thinking about the "legacy" mention on the filter. I'm not an expert in GIMP, but if I have to, I can find my bearings with some practice (which I don't have for a long time).
Step 3. Change Parameters to Your Liking
In the filter's window, you can play with the parameters to obtain the desired outcome. The preview is in real-time.
Step 4. Get the End Result
Here's where my lack of practice with GIMP showed off. If you apply the filter, what you see in the preview doesn't translate into the actual image. I didn't bother to see how to fix that and captured the end result from the preview instead (screenshot -> crop -> save).
Ending Words
I described the process in case anyone else becomes interested in a similar process. I know I was thinking about it for a long time.
Want to check out my collection of posts?
It's a good way to pick what interests you.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
I didn't know you were in Linux Mint, I just recently installed it to my old laptop. The end result looks nice, just a bit difficult to see the details when it is small. Are there even a lot of users in Open Genie? First time I've heard of it.
PeadD team just released it last Monday as open source. Not a whole lot of people yet, but hopefully more. I find it a project with great potential.
If everything is smaller, you can change the resolution or the monitor scale from here (search display in the OS main menu):
If only fonts are smaller, you can change their default values or the text scaling factor (better in my opinion) from here:
Wow, these are very helpful. Thanks.
I guess if someone with better experience actually did it, then it'll come out better, but considering you're still getting a hang of it. On the flip side, you're getting to keep the 10 hive.
Your original avatar isn't bad though.
I'm sure it can be improved. If I spend some time on it, I'd probably improve it too to some extent. But for my needs is pretty ok, for now.
PS: For the small profile pics, I think I'll need to make those contours more visible.
Have you tried the Flatpack version. It is a larger installation and I believe there is a minor dip in performance. If you are using Mint, Flatpak support is built into the OS.
Yeah, it gave the same error regarding dependencies. In the end, I spent the day reinstalling Mint and that fixed a couple of issues that piled up, plus I could install GIMP without any issues.
That is good to hear. I'm thinking about eventually switching to an Atomic Distro eventually. They make many things easier. Apps will have to be used in the form of Flatpacks or through Distrobox. Universal Blue comes with batteries included.
Yep, I made many experiments with my old installation of Mint. And wasn't even careful to create a few manual snapshots for TimeShift to have rollback options besides the latest automated ones. I don't have reasons to switch OSes, I believe. It was just my poor management.
I have used https://www.photopea.com as a replacement for the bad UX of GIMP. Photopea is a web app and it works very similar to Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes Photoshop tutorials work the same for Photopea.
Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out.
!discovery 30
Thanks!
Wow Buddy first of all did not know you wanted a genie to change your picture for you. But you seem a little good at this... I am waiting to see your new profile...
You are using Ecency. Should be already updated there (it is for me). 😀 The only front end where avatar changes reflect once a day is PeakD, as far as I know.
It seems like a nice tool. I am glad that it makes the entire process easy. Then again, I guess downloading and getting the program running is the hard part.
On Linux, it seems so. But my guess is it's because I had ffmpeg installed before (a requirement for GIMP), a different version than it requires, probably. At some point, my ffmpeg stopped working properly and broke a few other things in the process too (I think it was after an upgrade, but didn't notice it right away to reverse it). I'll have to deal with it. I thought maybe later today if I can bring myself to do a fresh install of the OS, with all the post-optimizations and customizations.
That is really cool!
!BBH
@gadrian! Your Content Is Awesome so I just sent 1 $BBH (Bitcoin Backed Hive) to your account on behalf of @thebighigg. (9/50)
Thanks!
This is very nice. You are good at it.
Thanks! Well, I'm more of an amateur in the design part of things. But at some point, you end up doing many things in life and learn all sorts of stuff.
This is so nice
I may try this someday
Sure, anytime...
Hello @gadrian. Thank you for your experince with Open Genie and GIMP! I logged into Open Genie and will give it a try. Have a good week ahead! Barb !BBH !CTP
@gadrian! Your Content Is Awesome so I just sent 1 $BBH (Bitcoin Backed Hive) to your account on behalf of @adcreatordesign. (1/1)
Thank you @bbhbot 😊