Gimpdome

This is one of those tutorials that is really simple to do, has a great outcome, and, for some unfortunate reason, just slipped through the cracks.  Gigatwo created it quite awhile ago, but it was pulled from the forum because the links to the pictures were broken.  HiTech_HillBilly brought it to my attention and asked if I would convert it into a script.  Well, since I had never tried the tutorial, I figured I'd better do that first.  I contacted Gig and asked if it was ok for me to update the images and do a script....he indicated it was.  So, here's the tutorial with new images.  Most of the text is identical to his original...I've only modified/deleted things that are no longer valid (like references to the xcf file, menu locations, etc.)  This is a great tutorial!  Enjoy!


1) Make your background.



2) Type your text



3) Pick two shades of the most dominant color on the bg (one fg, one bg)



4) Check the "keep transparency" box on the text layer.



6) Fill the layer in with the gradient tool with the lighter shade on top and the darker on the bottom.





7) Click "layer>transparency>alpha to selection"



Invert the selection (ctrl+I) or



Result:


9) Go to "Filters > Light and Shadow > Drop Shadow" (in GIMP 2.4.x) or "Script-Fu > Shadow > Drop Shadow" (in GIMP 2.2 and before)

10) Set the color to white, the x axis to zero, the y axis to 2, and the blurring to 2



Result:


11) Apply another drop shadow, but use black and set the y axis to -2



Result:


12) Once again go to "layer>transparency>alpha to selection" (no screenshot here...I believe you have that down!)

13) Apply another black drop shadow with the y axis at 2 and the blurring at 4



Result:


-you should have your beveled text by now (do not merge the layers)

14) Sset the gradient text layer to hard light



15) Duplicate the layer and set it to addition (see screenshot in Step 16)

16) Uncheck the "keep transparency" checkbox



17) Blur the duplicated text layer by a good amount of pixels (I did roughly 30 in this image) there should be a soft glow with a decently large radius around the text area



Result:


18) Pull another "alpha to selection" on the hard light text layer (no screenshot here)

19) Invert the selection and click on the blurred layer (no screenshot here)

20) Clear the selection (delete key in GIMP 2.4.x or ctrl+k in GIMP 2.2 and before)

Final results!



Edit October 3, 2008: For a cool transparent text effect, turn off the Addition and Highlight layers.

Thanks, gig!  Now on to making the script! 

EDIT 2/12/08: Script can now be found here: [Script-Fu] Gigatwo's Glowing Blended Text

Quite a wierd effect, it's nice, i liked the look of it, the only problem i had was with the first drop shadow effect, it dropped the bottom of my background with it.

Here is my attempt at this. I combined it with one of the grunge background tut's here.