from a tutorial on gimp science labs.
i'm fussy about my metals, so i'm not one hundred per cent happy with this, but it's at least better than i had expected. also, the layer fx script left jagged edges in it's wake and i could only trick some of them away with an underlying blurred layer - but i guess you can't always win . the main point is: the effect looks great on paisleys.



edit: just added one if those 1 px strokes esper talked about in some places where it was needed and it looks a lot better. left the old one up for comparison, the new one is right below.

well it does look 100% like real gold, AnMal, and it looks a lot better than mine !!

how did you make the great texture ?

bumpmap with noise ?

i think you would have less jagged edges if you used a bigger size

esper: it looks a lot like gold, yes, but not like my kind of gold. said i'm fussy about my metals! besides, not even clumsy goldsmiths get pixly edges on their gold objects - what kind of magic do you use to get rid of yours? they ruined all my attempts at making lacquer too .
the texture is samj:s couleurs metalliques in a cunning combination of layers and layer modes.

Those are cool AnMal.

molly: thank you!

well as i said, i think you people are using to small canvases for starters

i use these tricks for masking jaggy edges:

1) very subtle 1-2px strokes, blurred by 1-4 with turned down opacity

2) selecting the object, shrinking by 2, invert and then blurring by 2

3) adding subtle inner shadows and outer glows

something i learned from PS tutorials is that very subtle effects can make a big difference, it may only be a hint of colour, that you can barely see, but it changes the overall effect

esper:

too small canvas - not me! my default image is 800X800, but usually i make my images bigger than that. (then i scale down to upload them on gc because the effect of seeing them in full size here is always a bit of a shock, seeing them full size on my desktop isn't nearly as shocking)

thanks for the tips! i think a 1 px stroke with opacity turned down could be a good solution to some of the problems in this image.

AnMal: The Gold paisleys look very good. At the GC magnification (and with these old eyes) I don't see any problems.

Esper: Thanks for sharing those tips... I've not been very happy with the edges on a lot of my text effects.

AnMal, it was great!
Very nice to look at.
The glow, the texture, the colors! Until the font was great, that number 4 was perfect in this set.
You are very demanding, perfectionist!
As much as I try to see what could be better, I can not find where to improve.
That deserves a tutorial!

Looks real to me AnMal. Cool stuff indeed. Very much enjoyed your Paisley addiction; had my own a few years ago and remember running across a tut that used Kai's Power tools and it motivated me to find that tut.

http://ann-s-thesia.com/paisley.shtml

AnMal - Very nice and the gold looks great.

nice with all these positive comments, everyone ! you obviously like this better than i do myself.
jas45: thank you, i think the problems with the jagged edges may not be as clearly visible here on gc as i scaled it down before i posted. but if you take a new look at it now and compare it to my updated version, i think you'll see what the problem was.
akros: thank you very much ! i actually give myself 9 out of then for glow and texture on this and the colouring is realistic enough but not the colour i wanted to make. i started with a reference picture that had the exact colouring i wanted and tried hard to achieve something similar but couldn't. i make jewellery as a hobby and hope to do it for a living in the future and i have worked a lot with metals, so i really am fussy with metal looks and want the right texture to go with the right colours and stuff but apart from that i am far from a perfectionist - if i tell my friends someone thought i was perfectionist they will have a real laugh ! as for the tutorial, i just followed esper's tutorial on gimp science labs and added a little texture and some embellishments. (oh, and the font is lightfoot bold, i think i downloaded it at font river)
lylejk: thank you ! paisleys are an amazing invention and paisley addictions are really fun to watch - i meet others wherever i go. thanks for that link, it reminds me a lot of my "paisley machine" (i posted a tutorial here on gc this autumn) and i also remember seeing and trying a similar one written for gimp a few years ago, i'll have to hunt it down!
he4rty: thank you, brother !

Lovely work AnMal. i love the texture on the metal.

erisian: thank you! i put a lot of work on finding the right texture so it's nice people are commenting on it .

Very nice Anmal

fluffybunny: thank you brother - you really took a good long look at this, didn't you ? i think you're right about the highlights. to begin with, i used layer fx bevels on the paisley outlines to get the volume up on the paisleys. they were all on the same layer so the bevels would get the same lighting. then i made bevels for the flowers on the paisleys by using the emboss filter and i realised when i'd made them that they were lit from almost the opposite side of the bevels, but lazy as i am i just left it the way it was. the highlights on the outer strokes were made with a gradient and they were made completely without thought to any lighting. i followed a tutorial for a text effect on gimp science labs, and it was fun to see how realistic looking my paisleys got, even if they defy the laws of nature .
that said, i do think there is a situation where you would get highlights like these:
be in desperate need of a good picture of some small, shiny objects (for example, silver jewellery pieces) and be in a hurry when you take them. you'll find the highlights in those pictures seem to defy the laws of nature every bit as much as my 24 k paisleys. i just tried to photograph some of my jewellery today, so i speak from bitter experience ...

a lot of photoshop tutorials have texteffects with unrealistic direction of light and stuff, they still look good

Whereas the light source is artificial, the possibility of several focuses of light in an environment, generate multiple scraps and sparkles, is easily understandable.
In a room with multiple lighting (lateral, top, etc), the objects would shine in more than just one of its faces.
I still think the AnMal's paisley is perfect

That's what I thought 2 pages ago. I know how many angles light can deflect and bounce from one angle to another. I wouldn't change a thing on it.