I know it's been a while, but I just thought of my old plugins, and I figured to update selection bevel. It had an annoying bug that crashed it if the width was 1px, and the rendering code had become needlessly complex so I simplified it. It was easier than I thought so it didn't take long.

While doing this I also added a new, nifty feature. You can now set the bevel width and height independently: this means, that the bevel's top and bottom edges can be different width than the left and right edges.

Well, picture says more:



Download the script from the registry here: http://registry.gimp.org/node/25199
The plugin installs itself to: Filters > Distorts > Bevel

If you have earlier versions of my selection bevel, you have to remove them first. Remember to set the x flag if you're on Linux.

Quick description of plugin parameters.

Layer mode - pretty self-explanatory. The layer mode in which the resulting bevel layer will be set at.
Direction - whether the beveled object is inset or outset. Does it pop up or sink down.
Bevel type - inner or outer. Inner bevel is set on the inside edge, outer on the outside edge of the selection.
Bevel width - the width of the bevel in the horizontal direction
Bevel height - the width of the bevel in the vertical direction
Shape curve - modifies the edge contours. 0 means a straight diagonal edge, negative values create a concave edge while positive values create a convex edge.
Pre-emboss noise - adds grungy texturing on the bevel.
Light angle, light elevation and depth - these correspond to parameters in the emboss plugin and act the same way. The default values should be useful for most common cases. There should be no need to modify these unless you know what you're doing.
Post-emboss blur - softens the contours of the bevel. This can be helpful to reduce artifacting and also to give a rounder, smoother effect.
Opacity - the opacity of the resulting bevel layer.
Gloss - applies a glossy, chrome-like effect to the bevel. Most easily noticeable when the bevel edge is wide enough (width/height >10 or so).
Intersect with alpha - intersects the selection with the alpha of the active layer before applying bevel. This can be useful if you want to bevel only a part of a layer.

What menu would you find this script?

Filter/Distorts/Bevel i believe.

Thanks dd!

That's correct Rod, and you're welcome.

Here's another example of things Selection Bevel can do now:

Fantastic examples. That smiley sure is frightening.
By the way it's good to see you again dd.

Oh, thanks! Nice to be here again

Thanks Rod, I was looking under Decor menu. I checked the scripts code and couldn't find the menu registration.

Thank you dd, this is one of my favourite scripts.

Come to think of it, Decor menu would make more sense, but now I don't know if I should change it when everyone is already used to finding it in Distorts... I think I originally placed it there because Emboss is there and bevel uses emboss...

Someday, I'm going to write an extra-premium version of SB that uses Lighting effects instead of emboss... there will be even more sliders!

(You're welcome Erisian, glad you like it.)

Thanks for the update.

Script updated on Gimp Scripts, as well.

DD thank for the update !!


Cool i prefer from gimpscript ,i found somehow irritating the actual registry layout
while on the other hand i want include the script in the incoming GIMP-PhotoComix_Lab , and the gimpscript page for me is a useful resource for document the included add-on,
i much appreciate that there is not only author name and website (if any) but also the link for the support thread on GC

Every day I use this plugin.

You're welcome, everyone.

One change I forgot to mention: the bevel width(s) now accept subpixel accuracy, which - along with the fact that the plugin no longer crashes on <2px bevels - makes it easier to do very small bevels accurately, for pixel graphics and such.

There are still some optimizations that can be made, although I don't know if the speed can be improved hugely - there are already some steps that are ignored if the value is at 0, such as prenoise, postblur and gloss, which means that the plugin runs faster if you don't use those options. So anyway, there might be another update in the future, but I don't want to rush it - I'll also welcome any feedback from real-life usage, if you run into any problems (or even bugs) I haven't foreseen, I'd be glad to hear about them.


I've also been thinking about an option for doing really small bevels: currently, the error margins in the steps pile up in very small sizes, which means that the bevels can get sort of messy at small sizes, especially for complex, delicate shapes. The idea is to do it in a way that the heightmap would be scaled up before processing, this would need to be done in a new temporary image, then scaling it back down after the emboss and post-processing steps but before cutting away the excess. Question is, should this be a part of selection bevel, or would it be better to put it in its own plugin (or at the very least its own menu entry)?

Thanks DD, love the font Carlos

You're welcome, Molly.

Ok, on the topic of creating a special version for bevels for small shapes... I think the idea has merit, as regular bevels can look messy especially for thin texts and other small things. However it seems it's a bit more complex to implement than I thought, not impossible by any means but takes a bit of time and planning. Especially, since I'd also have to maintain the plugin (not that I've done a very diligent job of it for the main plugin, 2 years break in updates... hehe, but I digress... )

What I'm getting at is, I'd like to gauge whether this is something that is worth doing, ie. is the result worth the trouble? So I made a mock-up: the top one is done with regular Selection Bevel as it is now, and the bottom one is manually done with the kind of method I was planning to implement for the Small Bevel version. The difference is not much... I think the bottom one looks somewhat better, but is it better enough to create a new plugin for it?

You decide:



2x Zoomed in:

I can't see much difference but on the last two letters, it looks smoother to me. Look at the bottom of the small t and the one above it, On the i, it such a small difference it is hardly noticeable.

I really do not see much of a difference other than the manual bevel seems lighter in color. Most folks won't see a difference either i do not think.
They both look equally as good to me.

Hm, maybe I'll just focus on optimizing and replacing deprecated functions for now, then. Thanks for the feedback

Hmm, a new update might be arriving sooner than I thought...

I've been fiddling with the algorithms today. I've rewritten both the shape curve and gloss algorithms, they seem to work much better now, gloss no longer makes the "unbeveled" area darker and the shape curve seems to give a more natural looking response.

I have to test this a bit further though to make sure there aren't any unforeseen consequences or bugs... I'll be posting an update soon though, probably tomorrow or so...



more teasers...



edit. as you can see from the second example, there's still a problem which I'm not sure how to solve - when applying a large bevel to a shape that has parts of varying thickness, some of the thin parts may not render properly... the only way to counteract this for now is to do two bevels, one small and one bigger.