is a bevel just a bump map ?

Not sure if that's what you want but.. The more "manual" way to get a bevel effect might be to use the burn tool, and burning only the edges hit by your lightsource.

When I studied photography we learned how to make a bas relief. In Gimp you can do this by making a duplicate layer, inverting the colours on the top layer, reducing the opacity of the top layer to 50% then moving the top layer around a little.

I have this way to make bevels.

Erisian - just had a little play and results are good.

you aren't looking for easy ways, Esper, are you?

I've tried two suggested techniques, both are good.
Then compared to the layerfx script. bingo!

anarkhya:
using the burn tool is an interesting option, but i was looking for something a bit more "structured" and repeatable

Erisian:
thats very useful info - close to what i want to know

jamac4k:
thanks for the pdf, unfortunately thats the bump map technique and not what i was looking for

K1te:
my curiosity and appetite for detailed information is one of my biggest strength and at the same time my biggest weakness
i want to know how to create a bevel or how the layerfx script creates the bevel

fiddling around with script values is one thing but understanding "the wiring under the board" enables me to make even better stuff

the funny thing is, i googled several times for a bevel technique and was unable to find one so far

also, after experimenting with PS tutorials and PS CS2 i realized that there are a lot of things i cant recreate with Gimp (yet)
so if the Gimp layerfx script doesnt let me do the things i need to follow a PS tutorial, i need to find other ways to do it

I made my own from a tutorial some time ago and the results closely follows the one in layerfx and from iccii and it always comes in handy but I do not remember where the tute was from(head scratch)

Graechan, what is iccii ?

graechan: i hope you find that tutorial, i'd like try that too!
my biggest problem with the methods described so far is that they don't make good transparent bevels.

Esper, Iccii is a script author, check this wayback link.
http://web.archive.org/web/201009130825 ... ts_en.html

On this image I was able to get a deap bevel effect by taking a selection of the colored A figure making a new layer and setting the selection to a mask. Then filled the selection on the canvas of the layer with 50% grey and then blured it. Then I used the Filter-Distort-Emboss filter on it and blurred again. Then sett the layer to grain merge. I kind of airbrushed in a little darker red at the bottom of the first red layer.

Probably the oldest layer effects collection I know of but not working in 2.8. though it works in 2.6

Heres a heightmap file I made and then used the emboss on the whole thing before colorizing it a little. Emboss gives a 3D kind of look to gradients.




Alan

Very nice PegLeg44

the problem with a bumpmap is this:
when you use layerfx or the emboss filter you get two layers
one for the highlight and one for the shadow

when you bumpmap an object, highlight and shadow become part of the final effect
thats why i think bumpmapping is not what im looking for

also, when you bevel something with layerfx, and use a big number for the size, you can see, the process of bevelling
and what you can see for a brief moment, is that the bevel applies a layermask

awesome Graechan !

please, please share