04-15-2019, 01:46 PM
Ditto on the challenge of following your thought train without seeing your components, but here's one way I'd do speech bubbles in GIMP. This method avoids the need for a third file, although if you plan to use that speech bubble more than once, using Blighty's method will save time and work.
1. Open the larger image as Layer 1.
2. Add a path to define the shape of a speech bubble.
3. Add a transparent layer, Layer 2.
4. Select Layer 2 and fill the path with (white). Move it into position if needed.
5. From the File tab, open your png as a layer (Ctrl+Alt+O), adding Layer 3.
6. Position Layer 3 within the speech bubble and scale to fit.
If you have a speech bubble shape you like, you can trace a bitmap or just create it from scratch in Inkscape, which has slightly better path tools. Save as an SVG file. In your GIMP image, open the Paths dialog, right-click within the dialog, and import the SVG file there. This route preserves scalability all the nodes and lets you edit the path. Opening an SVG as a new image or layer imports it as a raster image ─ a situation that took me a frustrating while to finally comprehend.
1. Open the larger image as Layer 1.
2. Add a path to define the shape of a speech bubble.
3. Add a transparent layer, Layer 2.
4. Select Layer 2 and fill the path with (white). Move it into position if needed.
5. From the File tab, open your png as a layer (Ctrl+Alt+O), adding Layer 3.
6. Position Layer 3 within the speech bubble and scale to fit.
If you have a speech bubble shape you like, you can trace a bitmap or just create it from scratch in Inkscape, which has slightly better path tools. Save as an SVG file. In your GIMP image, open the Paths dialog, right-click within the dialog, and import the SVG file there. This route preserves scalability all the nodes and lets you edit the path. Opening an SVG as a new image or layer imports it as a raster image ─ a situation that took me a frustrating while to finally comprehend.