It's best to close all images you have open in Gimp.

1. Click Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Patterns and find the Stone pattern. Right-click the Stone pattern and Open Pattern as Image. Close the Patterns dialog.
   About the Stone pattern: You do not have to use a pattern for this. I chose the Stone pattern because it is bundled with GIMP and everyone has it in their patterns. You can use any pattern or any image that isn't a pattern. This tutorial is just to show you how to make the text and you can choose any image or pattern to use as the environment map. Open whatever you want to use before creating a new image for the text.
   
2. Open a new image, 500 x 400, and name the Background layer, bump.
   Fill the bump layer with white.
   
3. Select your Text tool. I used Sans Bold Italic at size 155 for this tutorial. Any font will do - a moderately heavy one works best.
   
4. Click the image window and in the Text dialog type GIMP or whatever you want.
   
5. Move the text with the Move tool to the center of the image.
   Right-click the GIMP layer and select Layer to Image Size.
   
6. Duplicate the GIMP layer. You will have GIMP#1 and GIMP layers.
7. Select the GIMP layer and merge it down to the bump layer.
   
8. Select the bump layer if it's not already selected.
   Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and blur the layer 15.
   
9. Select the GIMP#1 layer at the top.
   
10. Filters > Light and Shadow > Lighting Effects.
    In the Options tab make the distance 0.554 Do not click Transparent background - it will dump your bump layer.
    
    
    
    
11. Click the Environment Map tab.
    Check Enable environment mapping.
    In the drop down choose the Stone pattern image.
    
    
    
    
12. Click the Bump Map tab.
    Check Enable bump mapping.
    In the drop down choose the bump layer.
    Curve drop down: Spherical
    Maximum height: 0.01.
    Click OK.
    
    
    
    
13. Select the bump layer and fill with white so that you can see your drop shadow.
    
14. Select the GIMP#1 layer.
    Filters > Light and Shadow > Drop Shadow.
    X & Y offsets = 6
    Blur radius = 8
    Opacity = 50.
    
    
    
    
15. Merge your text layer down to the Drop Shadow layer.
    
16. Delete the bump layer.
    
17. Close the Stone pattern. It probably won't ask but just in case it got changed somehow, if you are asked if you want to save changes to the Stone pattern, click Don't Save.

Note about the Lighting Effects plug-in. If you use it more than one time and try a different pattern in the current GIMP session you will very likely get an Error message. It doesn't understand what you did with the first pattern you used. Click the OK button to get rid of it.

Here is an example using a gold pattern and a different font.



You can get the tutorial by downloading the pdf document.

OK, got a shiny metallic result. I made it using the gold environment map for the pattern in the tutorial, then thought it could look shinier, so I upped the saturation, upped the contrast, then gradient mapped to the gold gradient.

Toni, that's beautiful! Nice job!

the old peeling paint effect =)

Toni, that is excellent.... love the gold......

Rod, that is a vey nice effect, sure does look like peeling

Rod, that's very realistic-looking old paint - very interesting effect. I like it!

Loving all the result, Toni, yours is very elegant. Rod, like the paint peeling. Molly yours look so smooth.


Played around with the smoothing options of G'MIC and added a bevel and came up with this.

The bevel def gives it a very 3-D look...it almost looks like that effect could be made to look like it was carved out of wood, that pattern reminds me of wood grain.

Molly and Jolie those are very beautiful. Nice.

Jolie, I don't think I've tried the G'MIC smoothing before. Don't know which one you used but I tried the anistrophic smoothing filter. I didn't know what I was doing but moved sliders to see what would happen. The pattern in this one is called greenish stone.

If that was the right blue, it would look like it was made out of torquoise.

That looks very nice O.

I think I used some filter in the middle under the G'MIC enhancement filters to make it look more rough and then Anisotropic smoothing. I usually just play around and don't remember what I did.

I do a lot of that and sometimes wish I had taken a note or two.

me 3

that is really pretty O =)
It is amazing software, and i know i have barely nicked the surface of what GIMP can do.Its very powerful.

Thank you, Rod.

Yes, the more you learn about GIMP, the more you realize what you DON'T know. Its possibilities are endless.

Is that a gif rather than apng? Just wondered because I can see the animation.

I assume you are talking about my sig.

It's a gif. Not too many have the apng plugin yet and some browsers are unable to view them so I'm sticking with gif for awhile on some things.

Yes, I was referring to the new "O". I love your changing "O"s.

I love all those tutorials here

Scrambler scrambled:



Thank you.

Moniaqua, very nice result. I see you are doing many nice tutorials and I like your results a lot. Enjoy them!