Cool Glossy-3D text with GIMP part-2
First of all install the following gradient in your GIMP. (Put the downloaded file in C:/..../<gimp installation folder>/gradients. Start gimp:) The name of the gradient is sessbean.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/r68dkzmmr3yrfuv/sessbean.ggr
Reopen what you have saved. Here is the link to Part 1 of this tutorial.
http://haritha-g.tumblr.com/post/6755982343/gimp-tut
1.Select “session#1” in layers dock and duplicate it. We have a new layer "session#2".
2.Rightclick on "session#2" and click "Alpha to selection". Grow this selection in "session#2" by 20 pixels(Main Menu->Select->grow). Keep the layer "session#2" selected and apply the sessbean gradient to it. Drag the cursor from top to bottom of the selection. The outcome should be as shown below:
3.Duplicate the “session#1” layer in the dock. You will get session#3. Move it up in the dock so that it is placed above the rest of the layers. The layers dock and outcome should now look like this:
4.Make a new layer “glossy2” and place it above "session#2" layer. Select the "glossy2" layer in the layers dock. Choose ellipse select tool and set the mode to subtract. Draw an ellipse that coincides with the previously drawn ellipse(in part 1 of this tutorial) and press "enter". The session#3 layer serves as reference to previous ellipses’ position. Refer to the following picture.
5.The upper part of the word session is selected as before. Now delete the "session#3" layer from the layers dock. You will see the following outcome. As you can see, our present working layer is still “glossy2”.
6.Now, set the foreground color to white and use bucket fill tool to fill the above selection with white. In the following figure, I have hidden all layers except "glossy2" so that you can know what "glossy2" really looks like. To hide layers, click on the “eye” icon against each layer in the layers dock.
7.Now, make all the layers visible again. Move the "session#1" layer up in the layers dock so that it is above the rest of the layers. You will get:
8.Select "glossy2" layer in the layers dock and adjust it’s transparency to around 29%. Select none. You will get:
9.Select "session#2" in layers dock and set it’s opacity to 0. You will get the following out come:
10.Right click on "session#2" and choose “alpha to selection”. Rightclick "session#1" in layers dock and choose “merge down”. Then rightclick on "glossy2" and select “merge down”. Delete "session" layer. Now we have two layers: "session#2" and "background" as shown below:
Note: During merging, the selection we made in "session#2" before merging must be kept active.
If you don’t need the 3D effect, follow the rest this post. Else, save your work in .xcf format(keep the selection active while saving). The 3D effect will be explained in next part of this tutorial.
11.Right click on "session#2" and choose “merge down”. Now you have a single layer “background” in the dock and the selection is still active.
12.Now, create another blank image. Simply cut the selection from the previous image and paste it on the new blank image. Anchor the floating layer onto the background of new blank image.
Refere these images.
13.Now we have what we want on a plain white background. Go to main menu-> Layer->Transparency-> Add alpha channel.
14.Choose the fuzzy select tool, click with it on the white background. Press “delete” key. All the white background is rendered transparent. Now go to main menu-> image-> Autocrop image. Select none.
15.We are done. Save the image in .png format.