Alright, so I wanted to share my little adventure from today, or rather, this little project I got myself into: making a ‘tiktok galaxy png’. Sounds specific, right? Well, I kept seeing these awesome galaxy-themed profile pics or overlays on TikTok, and I thought, “Hey, I want one of those, but specifically a PNG so it has that transparent background, you know?”
My Starting Point – The Idea
It all kicked off when I was scrolling, as usual, and this super vibrant galaxy effect caught my eye. I figured, “How hard can it be to get something similar, maybe with the TikTok logo shape, but filled with stars?” I wanted something I could easily pop onto video edits or even just use as a cool graphic. My first thought was, “Surely, there are tons of these online.”
The Hunt and The Slight Frustration
So, I did what anyone would do: I started searching. Typed in all the usual keywords like “tiktok galaxy png,” “transparent galaxy logo,” stuff like that. And yeah, I found some images, but honestly, most of them were a bit… meh. Either they were low-res, didn’t quite have the look I was after, or worse, they weren’t actually transparent. You know, you download it, and it’s got that fake checkerboard background that turns out to be part of the image. Super annoying.
I even tried a couple of those quick online image editor things, but they were either too basic or wanted me to sign up for a bunch of stuff. I just wanted a simple, cool galaxy PNG!
Okay, Let’s Make It Myself!
After a bit of that, I just said, “You know what? I’ll just try and make one myself.” I’ve got GIMP installed on my computer. It’s free, and I’ve tinkered with it before, so I figured it was worth a shot. It’s not the fanciest, and sometimes it feels a bit clunky compared to paid stuff, but for a one-off thing like this, it’s usually fine.
So, here’s what I did, step-by-step, or at least how I remember it going down:
- Fired up GIMP: Waited for it to load, you know how that goes. Made myself a cup of tea in the meantime.
- New Image: First thing, new canvas. I decided to make it square, maybe 1080×1080 pixels, good enough for most things. And crucial part: I made sure the background was set to transparent right from the start. That’s in the advanced options when you create a new file. Gotta see that checkerboard pattern!
- Finding a Galaxy: Now for the galaxy part. I could have tried painting one, but let’s be real, my digital painting skills are not quite there for a convincing nebula. So, I dug through some royalty-free image sites. Spent a good 20 minutes finding a galaxy picture I liked – something with nice colors, lots of stars, you know the vibe. Downloaded a nice high-res one.
- Getting it into GIMP: Opened the galaxy image as a new layer on top of my transparent background. Easy peasy.
- The TikTok Shape (The Tricky Bit): This is where it got a little more hands-on. I wanted the TikTok logo silhouette, but filled with the galaxy.
- First, I found a clean, black TikTok logo PNG online.
- Imported that onto another new layer.
- Then, I used the “Alpha to Selection” tool on the TikTok logo layer. This selects the shape of the logo.
- Switched to my galaxy layer, and then I inverted the selection (Select > Invert) and hit delete. This got rid of all the galaxy texture outside the TikTok logo shape. Or, another way I tried was to use the selection on the galaxy layer and copy-paste it as a new layer, then hide the original full galaxy. Both ways work, just depends on what clicks for you.
- A Little Refinement: The edges looked a bit sharp. So, I played around with a very soft eraser on the edges of the galaxy-TikTok shape, just to make it blend a tiny bit, not too much. Also added a super subtle outer glow, using a layer effect, just to make it pop a little. I didn’t want it to look like a sticker, but also not too fuzzy.
- Adding Some Sparkle: I felt it needed a bit more ‘oomph’. So, I created a new transparent layer on top of everything. Picked a small, soft white brush. Then I just dotted a few extra stars or sparkles around, especially on the brighter parts of the galaxy. Varied the size and opacity a bit. It’s amazing what a few well-placed dots can do!
- The Grand Export: This is the moment of truth! Went to File > Export As… Made sure I named it something like “my_tiktok_*”. Critically, ensured “PNG” was the selected file type and that the “Save transparency” option (or whatever it’s called in GIMP, it’s usually on by default if your background is transparent) was active. Hit export.
The Result and What I Learned
And there it was! My very own, custom-made tiktok galaxy png. I opened it up, and yep, the background was properly transparent. I dragged it into a video editor just to test, and it looked pretty neat layered over a dark background.
Was it perfect? Nah, probably not professional-grade or anything. But it was exactly what I wanted, and I made it myself. Took me, all in all, maybe an hour, including the searching and fiddling. It’s always these “quick” little projects that end up taking a bit more time than you first guess, isn’t it?
The main takeaway for me was just diving in and doing it. Sometimes you just gotta stop searching for the perfect pre-made thing and try to craft it yourself. Plus, I refreshed my memory on how to use layer masks and selections in GIMP, which is always handy. It wasn’t rocket science, just a bit of patience and clicking around. Next time, I might try to animate it or something, but for today, this was my little creative win.
