Development PHP: Combine Multiple Image with GD?

Alright guys, I am in a little bit of a bind. I need to combine 5 images into one, but I can't just make them together, because one of them is dynamic, but in the end they need to be one image. I decided that the GD Library is what I need for this, but I don't know how to call multiple images into the script for it.

Here is my current code, which currently only loads 1 of the 5 images, and it is the one that needs to be dynamic:

PHP:

<?php

header("Content-type: image/png");
$im=imagecreatefrompng("http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/bg/type/1/blackburnperson.png");
imagepng($im);
imagedestroy($im);
?> 

I want the end result to be one image that looks like this:
TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP TOP
LEFT CENTER CENTER RIGHT RIGHT
BOTTOM BOTTOM BOTTOM BOTTOM

In other words, very much like: This

 

Look at the imagecopy function for merging multiple images, i use it to dynamically add copyright to my images when hotlinked

 

Yeah, the imagecopy function is what you need, though I had some difficulty using only that - for some reason. The imagecopyresampled function seemed to work better - also try looking at imagecopymerge.

I used them functions to create http://www.sweeto.org/site/vs.php - the code looks fairly simple, though took me a while from what i remember

edit: thats 3 images merged into one by the way - 2 pictures have their transparency altered and two are .png's and one is a gif iirc.

 

Mind posting your code Bogomip so I can get an idea of how it is done?

EDIT:I have offically gotten it to work, below is my code

PHP:

<?
header ("Content-type: image/png");
$src = array ("http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/5175/toprb3.jpg","http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/9056/leftij4.jpg","http://miniprofile.xfire.com/bg/bg/type/1/blackburnperson.png", "http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/4786/rightnt1.jpg","http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/4891/bottomtp5.jpg");   
$imgBuf = array ();
foreach ($src as $link)
{
   switch(substr ($link,strrpos ($link,".")+1))
   {
       case 'png':
           $iTmp = imagecreatefrompng($link);
           break;
       case 'gif':
           $iTmp = imagecreatefromgif($link);
           break;               
       case 'jpeg':           
       case 'jpg':
           $iTmp = imagecreatefromjpeg($link);
           break;               
   }
   array_push ($imgBuf,$iTmp);
}
$iOut = imagecreatetruecolor ("450","131") ;
imagecopy ($iOut,$imgBuf[0],0,0,0,0,imagesx($imgBuf[0]),imagesy($imgBuf[0]));
imagedestroy ($imgBuf[0]);
imagecopy ($iOut,$imgBuf[1],0,54,0,0,imagesx($imgBuf[1]),imagesy($imgBuf[1]));
imagedestroy ($imgBuf[1]);
imagecopy ($iOut,$imgBuf[2],15,54,0,0,imagesx($imgBuf[2]),imagesy($imgBuf[2]));
imagedestroy ($imgBuf[2]);
imagecopy ($iOut,$imgBuf[3],292,54,0,0,imagesx($imgBuf[3]),imagesy($imgBuf[3]));
imagedestroy ($imgBuf[3]);
imagecopy ($iOut,$imgBuf[4],0,117,0,0,imagesx($imgBuf[4]),imagesy($imgBuf[4]));
imagedestroy ($imgBuf[4]);
imagepng($iOut);
?>