Mimi Barbour

Author

Steps you can print out on how to make a 3D cover! #mgtab

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I just found out about this and I couldn’t wait to
share it with you.
I want to introduce David Henderson · Founder at My eBook and his post: How To Make a Free 3D Cover Image of Your Book.

First, I must explain that his video was what made
it possible for me to write down this information. I’ve watched the video,
followed his instructions and wrote down step by step directions so a person
(me) won’t have to watch the video every time I want to make a 3D image. I’ll
just print out these steps and make life a hell of a lot easier. My brain is so
overloaded; I don’t retain data unless I use it constantly.

After watching many times and carrying out
instructions, I’ve finally hit the jackpot – have a beautiful 3D image of one
of my covers and will be making a lot more.

Instructions: (Watch the video so this all makes sense!! Seriously!!)

  1. Download
    this 3D
    template     for a book cover and save it. (I’ve kept mine on my
    desktop but you can file it where you’ll be able to access it easily.
     
  2. Decide
    which cover you want to use.
     
  3. Download
    Gimp – it’s free – it’s easy and you can install the icon on your taskbar like
    I did for easy access.
     
  4.  
  5. Click
    ‘Open Image’ from computer (2nd choice) and load the template here.
     
  6. Go
    to Layer and select “Open Image as Layer” – get your book cover now. You’ll see
    that it will completely cover the template but not to worry.
     
  7. Now
    go to Edit – and select Free Distort. Your cursor becomes an arrow and you will
    go to each of the 4 little boxes at the corners of your cover and drag them to
    fit over the corners of the template so your image now covers the front of the
    template.
     
  8. Click
    on File and Apply Change – yes! 
    Click on File again and save and when the little window opens, in the first slot, fill in
    the title you want to use for this cover.
     
  9. Important!!!
    In the second option called Format, you must change this to save the file from a Jpeg to a
    PNG. (If you don’t do this, the white around the cover will not become
    transparent.  Once you click ok it will
    take a few seconds and then click save.
     



  10.  Now open Gimp. You might find it a
    bit strange to begin with; I did until I realized that you can move the side
    panels around easily by just clicking on them, holding and tug down so the top
    part is visible.
     
  11.  Click on file and open so you can browse for
    the 3D book cover you just made.
     
  12.  Go to the tool section on left and scroll at
    the top you’ll see one called Free Select Tool. Click on it and then carefully,
    slowly – do not hold down on the mouse
    – click on the corner edge of the cover and then go to each corner and click
    until the book has been circled. You’ll see that there’s like a string it tugs
    along but that’s okay.
     
  13. Once you get back to the first corner,
    the lines will change to a moving dotted line —-.
     
  14.  Now go to Select and click on Invert. Then
    click your computer’s Delete button.
     
  15.  Next
    you want to reduce the size of the canvas (grey area around the image which I
    believe is the transparency) so… Go to Image and click on Canvas size and hold
    down on the top arrow (width) and watch the image shrink. Do the same for the
    bottom arrow (Height).
     
  16.  Now
    we want to reduce the size of the image. If you look on the scale surrounding
    the cover, you’ll see it’s really large. To make it smaller:  go to Image. Click on scale image. And see
    where you like to have yours. I changed the width to 1,000. And everything
    changed with it and then I hit resize.
     
  17.  Now go to File and Export as you’ll want to Export what you’ve created. I opened a
    folder in my documents just for 3D covers.
     
     
    ***See I told you. Easy- Shmeasy~!!!
     
    Hold
    it – There’s one more lesson~
     
    *** If, like me, you close the red
    x’s on the two sidebars in Gimp (don’t ask….sigh!!) this is how to recover them.
    On the Gimp page, click Edit, then scroll down until you see Preferences. Click
    there and scroll down again and choose Window Management. Choose the bottom
    choice: Reset Windows Positions to Default Values and then click on OK.
     
    And – keep your cool!! Have fun…

 

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