Swirled Text

This is another tutorial that was at http://www.wingimp.org/tutorial/g/g.html and the website is no longer accessible. I don't know the author's name so I can't give deserved credit for the tutorial. The tutorial was called, "g."

1. Download the attached black-&-white.ggr gradient file below and copy it into the /.gimp-2.x/gradients folder. Refresh the gradients or close and re-open GIMP.
   
2. Create a new image, 400x400px, fill with white and rename the layer blur.
   
3. Make a new layer and put some text on it.
   
4. Use the Move Tool to manually center the text as best you can. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just make sure there is space around all of it.
   
5. Right-click the text layer and select Layer to Image Size.
   
6. Right-click the text layer and select, Alpha to Selection.
   
7. Ctrl + I to Invert the selection.
   
8. Select > To Path
   
9. Ctrl + Shift + A to unselect.
   
10. Right-click the text layer and merge it down to the blur layer.
    
11. Filters > blur > Gaussian Blur. Make both of the settings 30.
    
12. Create a new layer and name it stripes.
    
13. Select the Blend (gradient) Tool and select the black & white gradient you downloaded.
    
14. Use these settings in the gradient dialog:
    
    • Shape: Bi-linear
    
    • Repeat: Triangular Wave
    
    • Check Adaptive supersampling and use the default settings.
    
15. Fill the stripes layer with a diagonal gradient. Press the Ctrl key and check the size at the bottom of the image. 4, 4 to 6, 6 make nice sized stripes.
    
    
    
    
    
16. Filters > Map > Displace. Use the default settings and choose the blur layer in both dropdown lists.
    
    
    
    
    
17. Click OK.
    
    
    
    
    
18. Select > From Path
    
19. Select the blur layer and press the Delete key.
    
20. Select the stripes layer and press the Delete key.
    
21. Change the layer Mode of the stripes layer to Difference.
    
    
    
    
    
22. Merge the stripes layer down to the blur layer. You're finished.

This looks nice done in other color gradients too.



Note: In Step 21 experiment with the various layer modes when using multicolored gradients. Grain Merge makes the text much brighter.


Download a pdf file of this tutorial below.

Nice tutorial...
It looked fairly quick, so I tried it out and it worked a charm! It took a minute to find the little size numbers to make the stripes the right size, lol.

Very nice, 2-ton. I like your purple flare behind it.

Thanks for trying the tutorial!

Well, I forgot to save it as a gfx file, so I tried to get rid of the purple and do a different background...fail, lol. I can see the little bits left behind...I should have erased just to be sure but it didn't show until I posted it on photobucket...live and learn!

Pretty soon you won't have to upload to PhotoBucket anymore. There will be buttons in here to upload images directly in here. A great feature.

Your picture is still nice. Just need to put that eraser tool to work.

If you select fairly closely around your black and white text with the paths tool, you can do path to selection, invert the selection and press the delete key. Poof! Gone stray pixels.

I do like the purple flare though. It's pretty.

direct uploads will be awesome!

very nice 2-ton. woo hoo. you are on a roll.

here is mine that I did a while back from this tute.

Looks good everyone. Direct uploads and attachments are now available.

good find O
the effect is really cool,and should be usable not only for text

I tried another...with background and some lighting. I was trying to do it with a non-text image (render in black on a transparent layer) and the displace filter would not give me the blur layer as a choice. Then I did this and it worked fine. Wassup?

btw, any clue as to why my template drop down box has become disabled when I open new file, or how I can check on it to see what's up?

Did you make a blur layer with the black render? If not, that may be why. You would need to duplicate your black render layer, merge it to a white layer and blur it. Name the blurred layer blur.

Your question about the templates drop down might get more response and be more viewable in the Gimp Help forum here.

Well, still no answer about templates, but this swirled text process has been all sorts of fun...I actually can do it now without following the tut! Yay me, lol. Anyway, I have a question about the blurring. Does more blurring make the object end up mapping more roundish/more depth? Is there a point where the blurring is too much to work well in the mapping? Is the different shades of grey what gives depth in mapping?

Since I didn't know the answer to your question about the blurring, I made three different blurs, including the 30px blur in the tut, to try it out. You can judge for yourself about the difference.

thanks! I guess the answer is sort of a yes! The higher the blur, the rounder the g looks. At 20, it looks flatish across the top with rounded edges while at 40, it looks pretty much totally rounded. Nice to know!

2-ton you got me playing with this tutorial. I've come up with some interesting side effects using extra layers in it.

After the stripes layer has been put through Displace and the stripes layer set to Difference mode, make a new layer and put it between the blur and stripes layer. Fill it with a color. The middle layer was filled with the lime green, then the path selection was done and all layers were cropped.


And yet another variation.
Do the same as above but use a multi-colored gradient slanted the opposite direction of the stripes in the middle layer. Do the cropping. If you want to change the gradient in the middle layer, lock the transparency and try various gradients.


If you want to check out the layers in the xcf file for the multicolored one you can download the attached one.

fascinating!

too cool, the xcf really helped learn that fast!

very nice toni........

Technically, you do a blur with a radius about the size(*) of the widest character part, so that after the blur, the blurs from each edge meet in the middle.

(*) Experimentally, if the optimal value for the blur is 63% of the width...