On the film posters spreaded on the internet, you sometimes spotted posters with the unique concepts. Like the one with the main actor face slide into any direction. Much like a mobile game called “Move the Block : Slide Puzzle” if you ever played it.

Creating this sort of effect is easy enough in GIMP and I will show you how to do so in this tutorial.

First, you need a portrait that is interesting enough to apply this effect. If you don’t have one, you can try exploring free stock photo sites like Unsplash and Pixabay. Let’s get started.

Bonus: Most essential GIMP shortcuts

• Launch GIMP on your computer and open the portrait you want to apply the effect to.
• Use Paths Tool which you can find on the Toolbox panel to select the portrait area (see screncast below).

• Go to Select -> From Path.

• Go to Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel.
• Go to Select -> Invert.
• Go to Edit -> Clear. And you should get a transparent background like the one below.

• To get a smoother result, you can also delete the rest parts of the background using Eraser Tool. You can refer to this article to do so.
• Create a new white layer by going to Layer -> New Layer. Select the White option on the Layer Fill Type section on the appearing pop-up dialog.

• Move the layer you have just created about right below the main layer (layer that contains portrait)

• Go to Select -> None.
• With Rectangle Select Tool selected, choose the first face area you want to slide.

• Select the main layer and press the CTRL+X on your keyboard.
• Press the CTRL+V on your keyboard. This will create a Floating Select layer.

• Go to Layer -> To New Layer.
• Select the Move Tool on the Toolbox panel and click on the selected face area. Use the arrow button on your keyboard to slide this selected area.

• Select the main layer and use Rectangle Select Tool to select the second area of the face you want to slide.
• Press the CTRL+X followed by CTRL+V on your keyboard. This will create a Floating Select layer.
• Go to Layer -> To New Layer
• Select the Move Tool on the Toolbox panel and click on the selected face area. Use the arrow button on your keyboard to slide this selected area.

Done. If you want, you can also change the background color of the image. Following is the example result of this tutorial.

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