Richard, don't know if you can change the color of the cross hair on the free select tool.
What I do know is you can change the cross hair into a pointer as in previous versions of Gimp.

Wallace made a tutorial about it.

Richard, good to hear some more news from you.
Especially to read there's some progress.
Keep believing in yourself and your strength.
And hopefully you also have the support of family and friends.
Take care.

Ella

Or maybe there's a plug-in that needs to be unzipped ?

Hi Richard, very happy to read something from you again.
What a pity your mental health isn't going so well at the moment.
I hope you get all the help you need.
Take care and hopefully you'll come back (in a few months) with some positive news

Leopardo, I love it

Thank you, Mapsking, a useful tip



And If you always want an alpha channel on your imported images you can check this box at preferences:
"Add an alpha channel to imported images"
And don't forget to press the OK button to confirm ...

Thank you, Issabella and Pat, but without a detailed tutorial I couldn't make such delicate and smooth effect.
My satisfaction is to find a suitable music to accompany the animation.

Thank you, Richard and Pat.



With another tutorial I made this animation.
Took a few days to render

@scruffycc Maybe you could try here to increase the resolution to 300.



And welcome to Gimp Learn