Creating a realistic leather sign or skin in Gimp 2.6.10
You will need to have the plasma 2 plug-in installed for this tutorial
You will also need the Script Fu - Textures plug-in
download them here -
textures - http://gimp-texturize.sourceforge.net/
plasma2 - http://photocomix-resources.deviantart. ... s-81246453

Create a new document - 550x400 - Fill it with the color Black.
Create a new layer - name it bottom leather - change the fg color to #ffcc99 , and the bg color to #663300.
Make sure your gradient is set to fg to bg RGB
Create a fixed rectangular selection - 460x228 - center the selection
Go to Filters/Render/Clouds/Plasma 2 - use gradient as fill -

select/none
select/toggle quick mask

With a size smallish hard round brush - make torn edges - paint in little ripples
try to make corners more rounded and realistic - should look like this -

select/toggle quick mask - delete.
It should now look something like this -

Go to Script Fu/texture/Texturizer - put in these values hit ok

delete the image the texturizer creates.
Select the leather layer - select the circle selection tool - make 4 holes 1 for each corner - nice and round same size use the key alt/move each selection and hit delete, or edit/clear to make each hole like this


duplicate bottom leather layer - name it top leather and make the top leather layer invisible
select bottom leather layer
Go to Colors/brightness and contrast - set brightness to 70 like this

turn the top leather layer back on
with bottom leather layer still selected select move tool click image move up and to left 1pixel with arrow keys.

Select top leather layer - alpha to selection - select a circle fuzzy brush - set fg color to black - top and left edges
set fg to white - same brush - bottom edge optional step
select/none - merge bottom and top leather layers - rename layer leather


Filters/Distort/curve and bend - put in these values -



Create a new transparent layer - name it folds and wrinkles - create a circle selection from top left hole to top right hole

center the edge corners of the elliptical selection on the nail holes
stroke the selection 30pixels white - edit/stroke
select alt key and move tool - position selection just above and below the white stroke like this

go to edit/stroke - 10pixels black for both selections (top and bottom both 10pixels)
select/none -
select folds and wrinkles layer
filter/blur/Gaussian blur


select layer mode - Overlay, or soft light either will work - to blend in
(you shouldn't need to do this next step but just in case you do)
erase excess stroke area of stroke (outside the layer ), if needed
set opacity to 80 - Your image should now look something like this -

Select the folds and wrinkles layer and the move tool - move the layer so it looks like this



Duplicate the folds and wrinkles layer name it folds and wrinkles bottom
Select the rotate tool from the toolbox and rotate the selection by the center about 180 degrees
move the layer so it looks like this

Select Filters/Distort/Curve Bend (straighten out the layer fold)
Your image should now look like this..


now set opacity for that layer to 75
make bottom black layer invisible - merge all visible layers - make black layer visible again
Now we should have 2 layers - one named leather and one named Background


next step optional -
Select leather layer -
select colors/levels (Input) values - 0 - 0.88 - 229 - at this time check and make sure all corners are rounded-if not use eraser to correct

Were just about done -
Create a new transparent layer named nails - fixed circle selection 22x22 a little bigger than nail holes - color - a2a1a1 - select/none
Add grain texture to nail top (Script Fu/texture/grain - delete the image created - duplicate nail layer 3 times.
Position nail offset from the hole to look realistic.(you want to see part of the hole to look like it's stretching).
Make the background and leather layers invisible and merge all the nail layers rename the layer nails.
darken nail heads with colors/brightness and contrast to taste



bevel and emboss - these values


Create a drop shadow on the nails layer -



if you plan on resizing the image to a smaller scale, sharpen it again to your liking now )Filters/Enhance/Unsharp Mask so it looks as sharp at a smaller resolution.

Change the bg color to whatever you want (instead of black)
finished image -



You can now engrave on it...that looks cool, or just put links on it or just plain ole text.
Have fun with it.Put a drop shadow under the leather if its on a light bg.

Well that's it folks!
Another successful Gimp project taken from a Photo-Shop Tutorial..
thanks for checking it out!

Very nice tutorial, Rod.

It kind of reminds me of pigskin leather. I like pigskin for driving gloves because it molds to my hands well and grips well and lasts forever. I've had a pair for many years and even if they're kind of battered and worn, I just can't make myself get new ones to replace them. I really love them.

I'm a bit puzzled. I have a texturizer plug-in and I believe it came with GIMP. The dialog looks the same as yours. It's in Script-Fu > Photo Effects > Texture > Texturizer.

I got to this part:

What layers? I figured out what you meant but I think it should be clarified in the tutorial.

I really like the tutorial. Nice one, Rod.

I installed the texturizer plugin and it's no go. I do have another texturizer, that is totally different from what you have.

I found it at FX-Foundry > Selection Effects > Texturizer

It took me an extra minute or two, to find filters I don't use frequently. Also my bevel an emboss is very different. In any case, this is my first shot at it.

@ PhotoMaster - You can download a scm named layerfx.scm for the same Python bevel and emboss filter layerfx.py if you do not have Python installed.The only difference in the two is the layer merge and preview options.

The texture filter is a exe plug-in i believe. Not positive about that though. =)

Plasma 2 was created by PC and can be found exactly from that link i posted above.
You can find download links for all at the gimp plug-in repository.

@O - thanks for the heads up it was a long tutorial, and i was writing it out as i went...
Sorry for all the confusion...

I keep thinking that some designs that look like they are tooled in the leather would look pretty spiffing.

Here's a search I did in daFont and the top font looks promising plus scroll down and look at the rest of them. Celtic designs would be very cool.

http://www.dafont.com/search.php?psize=m&q=design

Those would look great tooled into the leather, i like the first one the best.I also have a font called barbed and one called Barbeque, both look like text with barbed-wire through them.Those would look cool too i think. =)

Barbeque


Barbaric


Barbed


Thanks again O!

Good finds on the fonts, Rod.

I used this font for the design on the leather chunk.
http://www.dafont.com/wmdesigns2.font

Just add a few rivets and you have a nice belt. =)

No i didn't code or even compiled the plugin, i just mirror the windows version because were quite hard to find

Very nice tut and very interisting results...

My mistake PC sorry about that. =)
Thank you for the mirror though!

@Rod. I thot I would try your leather tute but I got to the part where you add texture. I don't have script-Fu texture/texturizer.........

Do you have FX Foundry? It's under Selection Effects.

I have pulled down every single menu in GIMP.. It isn't there.. I downloaded the plug-in from Rod's tute and when I added it to my Gimp plug-ins, it said it was already there, so I replaced it with the new one......

Woo hoo....... I found it. I went all through the registry and typed everything in known to man and finally found it, downloaded and installed.
It is in script-fu > photo effects > texture > texturizer

Ok finally, I did the leather but had to fudge a few thingys. One of them is I don't have the grain script, so I used noise....

A few other things I didn't understand, so fudged them too....


Very nice tute Rod. I will post the things I didn't understand below.

I didn't understand is where you said select filters>distort>curve bend (straighten out the layer fold)
What does that mean?

I also don't know what you mean by check and make sure all corners are around. What do you mean by rounded?........

I cannot download the textures or the other plugin because a window pops up saying I am missing something. I would tell you what I am missing but if I type it I won't be able to submit my issue because my response will look "too spammy" for a new user

You won't be able to post any images until your have 5 posts. Try introducing yourself in the Welcome link,

Is there another website with the plugins? my computer keeps saying: "The program can't start because libgimp-2.0-0.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem." when I try to install the plugins. Any advice?