Here's the tutorial I promised Esper for this lightning weave sig.



It's a bit more involved than I can fit in a forum post. I hope pdf is okay.

wow EK22, it seems we were both working on our tutorials and posted them almost simultaneously

looks good, from a quick glance !

Great minds think alike. I'll go have a look at yours, from a first glance, also looks good.

I can't keep up with you two

You can do it. I have faith.

me too Odin, the new tutes just-a keep-a-comin, BTW your puppy is going the wrong direction, no wonder you can't keep up

Started the tut but need to go out so kind of rushed the end as its a bit more invovled than I expected, but heres what I got anyways.

Is this better?

soooo cute. yes better.

i made the lightning with the free select tool, that was easier than using a brush and then painting everything black and white

I really like that one, Esper!

Those both turned out nice, Esper and he4rty. It's cool to see people can actually follow my tutorial. Sort of was worried it wouldn't be too clear in places.

ek22: oh i have to try this! it reminds me a bit of the first gimp chat tutorial i ever posted my results to, it was a tutorial on light beams.
he4rty and esper: nice results! looks good with that background, esper.

i stole some gimping time today and tried out some tuts and just played. here's one of my results - not perfect, but getting there. at least i think it is...

i didn't like filling the text with a background and i do so many bevels all the time anyway, so i replaced the bevel and pattern fil with a blur on the inside and a sort of glitter stroke - turned out to be a nightmare to weave the lighning through. i added a background and that looked a bit better. nice signature material, i think!

AnMal, i like the second one but i think there is a bit too much going on
maybe reducing the lightning colors to two and/or put it behind the text without weaving through the letter would look better ?

another idea might be to make the lightning icy ?
here are two tutorials for icy text:
http://gug.criticalhit.dk/tutorials/tomcat12/
http://cbt.k090999.de/gimp_eingefroren.php

I think Icy might look good with your particular background AnMal. I think Esper is on to something good here. I do like your second result though. With this particular method you'll run into difficulty because it's designed to have solid filled letters on a transparent back, if your letters aren't filled you'll run into these issues you've experienced.

esper: i never get enough of snow and ice ice tutorials, thanks for the tip! i don't agree there's too much going on though, i like it the way it is. it's not perfect but what i want to change about it is take away the blur and make a bevelled frame of the letters instead. that will make the weaving of the lightning more obvious. i will keep the glitter stroke, though, i have a thing for glitter as you've noticed .
ek22: thanks. your sig is very intricate and it was tricky reproducing the result even if the tutorial is clear enough, so i will go back to the tutorial when i have time and play with it a bit more. i think you're wrong about the reason for the difficulties, though. it doesn't really make any difference whether the letters are filled or not, what makes the weaving so hard is the blur inside the letters and the fact that the lightning ray is a little too wide along the vertical dimension for these particular letters. i's like to make a new lightning ray using different solid noise settings, taking away more of the vertical noise, and then use it on a bevelled frame with a different font that gives a bit more room for play.

oh and some more ice textures by silver on DA
http://silver-.deviantart.com/art/Textu ... 8559&qo=65

I typically avoid these tutorials due to laziness ...

@Esper, I would like to do this tutorial. Could you please translate it? thanks