So this is GIMP. It has loads of options, menu drop downs, and other features, but I won't be covering nearly all of that. I'll mostly just cover what is necessary to actually start making textures.
These two images are the toolbox (you only get one on the GIMP screen, I've copied them to emphasize the similarities in the two different tools)- which is where you can get just about everything you need to actually make a texture. Selected here is the Brush tool (left) and the Pencil tool (right)- both are great for creating images. The pencil uses a fixed color that you select, and the brush effects surrounding pixels* depending on the settings you use.
You'll notice that, as you select different tools, different properties appear in the bottom half of the tool box. These are specific controls for the tool, and most of them are fine just the way they are for our purposes. However, for the Paintbrush and the Pencil tools, they are pretty important, almost identical, and we'll cover them.
* Pixels are what GIMP actually edits: They are the numbers that define a texture pack's size (16x, 32x, 64x) and are the individual blocks of color in the image. Each individual block texture in the terrain.png in stock Minecraft is 16 pixels by 16 pixels. We'll see them more in depth later.
This image shows the transparency "Mode" drop-down menu and it's options. This is important because it determines the type of transparency the pencil/brush is using. Think of transparency as the strength of the brush that is being applied - 100% will cover anything under it up, 50% will shade it, and 10% will barely make any effect. The different modes are different types of effect- I've highlighted the 3 basic types. Normal will just apply the color you've selected at whatever strength you decide.
Multiply will apply the color multiplied by the color underneath - meaning it will usually end up making your colors darker. It's great for adding shadows and bevels on your textures.
Divide will apply the color divided by the color underneath - just the opposite of Multiply. It will almost always end up lighter than the original color. This could be used for adding highlights.
This image shows the brushes for your tool; these are different from the brush tool though - they (combined with the scale slider - that should be self-explanatory) create the shape of the brush or pencil you are using; and thereby, the shape the pixels will be in when you click your mouse with the tool.
This is the only filter* I'll be showing you. It can be found under "filters/noise/HSV noise...", and clicking it will bring up this window. You adjust sliders (with the preview box checked) and it will change the amount of speckling or "noise" in the image. It's just like the random static from bad TV reception. This is important because no texture in stock Minecraft is all one color- it has slight variation. This applies that slight variation. Even if you were making a "simple pack," I'd recommend doing some (very slight) noise so that the colors look less stark.
The different sliders work like this:
Holdness is the amount of strength the original image gets- higher holdness, clearer image. Lower holdness, fuzzier image.
These next 3 are part of the color theory used within the computer:
Hue changes the color based on the current hue value. Higher numbers result in greater variation from the original hue in degrees (+/- 180 degrees being the maximum).
Saturation changes the amount of color or gray in an image - lower numbers keep the original amounts and higher numbers create variation in saturation but not hue (You'll change blue-gray to bright blue, for example)
Value changes the lightness/darkness in an image. This is different from saturation because it is a straight white/black application to the existing color, while saturation actually removes color.
Since I can't possibly explain it all properly, here's a link to Wikipedia's article on HSV/HSL color theory. It's a good idea to look through it if you're not already familiar with how color works on a computer, since you'll need the information frequently to make highly colorful texture packs!
*Filters are complex algorithms that have been included in a program for you to use that automatically preform certain, often complex or otherwise difficult, functions. Play with these as you want, some of them are quite useful, but I'm only spending time telling you about this one :P
These last 2 images are of the "file/save as..." dropdown menu (which you should always use- you don't want to save over your original working files do you?). Normally, I'm sure you're very familiar with this type of menu, but GIMP does some things differently. First, your file's name is at the top of the window (The highlighted "Untitled" in the first image). Second, your file will not give itself an extension. This is because GIMP can handle so many file extensions, and can't read your mind to decide what kind you'd like it to use (The second image expands the file types handled).
Don't worry though, it's not that hard to know what you want - Minecraft uses "*.png" and GIMP uses "*.xcf" as it's own format. So those are the only two you're going to need for this project. Keep in mind, I reccommend using a ".xcf" file for your working files, and using "save as" to make your final ".png" files in another location.
*Phew*
That was a ton of information, and I hope you could absorb it all. In the next segment, I'll show you how to get started making the actual textures.
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