1. create your canvas, mine is 800x550 #3e3e3e
2. type your text, i used the font 'akaDora' 230px
(get it here: http://www.fontspace.com/akatype/akadora)



3. alpha select your text and save it to a channel for future use

4. we will start with an Outer Glow
create a new transparent layer, put it under the base text and fill the alpha selected text with blue #1000c0
deselect and Gaussian Blur by 5
reduce Opacity to 43%



5. next the Decor bit
this is an Inner Glow with a twist
create a new transparent layer on top of your base text
activate Channel to Selection
Shrink: 6
Invert
fill with yellow #f9e698
Deselect and Gaussian Blur by 5
activate Channel to Selection again
Shrink by 3 (!)
apply layermask from Selection



to get the arabesque-esque shape we will apply a Contour
use 'Sawtooth' but narrow the top of the pyramid shape from both sides a bit until you are satisfied

if you dont understand Contours, go to this thread and study it first:
http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6518



6. next a Highlight
create a new transparent layer on top of the Base Text
activate Channel to Selection
fill with white
activate the Move Tool and set it to 'Selection'
offset the selection, then hit delete
this is the same technique as you learned in my „Glossy Text“ tutorial
http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=5808
Gaussian Blur by 5 and reduce Opacity to 60%
activate 'Channel to Selection', Invert and Delete to get rid of all thats outside the text boundaries



7. for some funky Highlights create a new transparent layer on top of the Highlight Layer
activate Channel to Selection
fill with the gradient 'Four Bars', set 'Repeat' to 'Triangular Wave' – the angle should be 45°
set Mode to 'Grain Merge' and reduce Opacity to 40%



8. duplicate Base Text Layer for a Dropshadow (its already black )
Gaussian Blur by 5, set Mode to 'Burn' and Opacity to about 50%
Offset (Ctrl + Shift + O) by X:12, Y: 18



9. now some fine tuning:
change the colour of the Decor with your favorite method
i used 'Change Hue/Lighness/Saturation' with the following values, Colour-Curves is another option



10. add some RGB-Noise to the background Red/Green/Blue 0,04
11. apply a Contour to the Outer Glow



12. and you are done !



You can download the xcf-file, if you want to have a closer look at what i did.

did you set the Channel to Alpha, Graechan ?

oh a tutorial! about time, i'm on my second attempt to make "arabian nights paisleys" already.

Esper please,

in "8. duplicate Base Text Layer for a Dropshadow (its already black )
Gaussian Blur by 5, set Mode to 'Burn' and Opacity to about 50%
Offset (Ctrl + O) by X:12, Y: 18"

How i do offset? In my Gimp "ctrl+O" = Open.
I search in menus but can't find the Offset.

Thx

Layer > transform > offset

Thanks you very much Molly!!!!
You Save me!

Esper, this effect really is very beautiful! The tutorial is very difficult to follow for my level yet.
At some points stopped to understand what needed to be done.
In others, there were so many details that kept me from making mistakes if I wanted to.

You pass beyond the technique of PS to Gimp, detailed step-by-step illustration with text and rich!
Generally I can not follow these tutorials, I always lose at some point. I think this time I hit, at least the result pleased me and seemed very similar.

Thank you for your dedication and for sharing this technique with us!

Thx very much!

Nice tute on the Arabian Knight's Esper. I did a PDF if anyone wants it.

Thanks for the tutorial. I like running through these and learning stuff I didn't know, or reacquaint myself with things I'd forgot.
The only thing I got stuck on was when I inverted the white text layer, after the offset delete stage, and hit delete again the whole thing disappeared. So what I did was to move the layer a couple or so pixels to the right until it looked about right.

Just the same you Molly!
Perfect!
It was just what I wanted while doing the tutorial!
Now it will be easier to find this tutorial!

Molly that way I will spend the day just saying "Thank you Molly!"

Lol, People might think I am nuts but I like pdf's cuz I can reduce them down and tuck the left side away with the thumbnails then I have more room for my gimp page side by side. Another reason is I don't have to go digging for them

did you have a look at the "Glossy Text" tutorial, i linked to ?
if you hit delete and everything vanished you probably didnt offset the selection
to be able to offset (=move) the selection, you need to set the 'Move Tool' to Selection
in the Glossy Text tut we do the same but with a path

ah, now i understand, you are talking about this bit
well again, if everything was gone, you probably forgot to invert the selection
what you want is to get rid of everything that is OUTSIDE the boundaries if the text
alpha selected text = everything INSIDE the text
invert that selection = everything OUTSIDE the text

you could get the same result with a layermask if thats easier for you

EDIT: after looking at your result again, it seems there is something else going on
your highlight is outside the text
you probably offset the highlight layer alpha selected the text and when you inverted the selection and hit Del, everything outside the text boundaries was deleted
i think you can do that as well, but then you have to offset (move) the remaing highlight bit again into the text boundaries

instead of using the offset menu you can of course just use the move tool and hit the down key 18 times
and then the right key 12 times

or throw that all out and be an artist and just eye it

EDIT: the Offset shortcut was a typo
its supposed to say: Ctrl + Shift + O

Yeah it was the Highlight layer, sorry about that I couldn't remember what the name was when I wrote my original post.

When I offset the layer there was no amount stated to offset it by so I tried to set an amount that would make my layer look like the screenshot you provided. Not sure if this is where I went wrong but it still came out pretty cool.



This sounds like what I did. I moved it a few pixels to the right and down as I recall.

yeah, i just drag it with the move tool at an amount that looks good

it you want a value, use something like 5-6px down and 4-5px to the side

to illustrate, what you want is to get rid of all thats shaded in the example picture

im posting this here, because i think it doesnt belong to Graechan's script thread

i think it looks pretty good, molly !
you even got the Decor right
and i love the glass bottle green, gives the effect a whole new dimension !





again i see jagged edges - do you perhaps have your antialias turned off ?

No, My antialiasing is on at all times. maybe a little blur might have helped. Thanks, I like the green too.
BTW, that can't be mine that you posted. That one is spelled wrong. .

Oh, I had not seen the result of Molly!
He was very good in green tint, and has tightened the tutorial, it shows how versatile he can be in range of good results!
Very good Molly


Well, now that you mention it seems easy. Then for X up and down, and Y left and right, and every keystroke is a unit.
But I had no idea this relationship.
But thankfully Molly helped me and found the menu and could continue the steps of the tutorial!