Glass Font How to with Gimp

[falldown]

**This is my first Tutorial so if I make a mistake Please be kind and ask questions**
**This is just a tutorial and the settings that I am using to make this specific image**
My process can be used for not only fonts, but any shape or outline.

The settings can be changed for your specific needs.. so experiment!!

Step1
First off you need to open Gimp and Create New using these settings..

Keep this layer named background and fill it with black.

Step 2
Now we need to select our Text tool.. selecting the font I provided above and use the setting here
Make sure to apply the 5.0 gap and beside Justify: select centered.. and be sure that white is selected as well

**For this Tut I decided to use a Member of the community that I think we all respect and Value**

In your text box type your chosen name, word or phrase.. once finished with your text center it by using
your Alignment Tool and merge this layer down to the black background. Should look similar to mine This will be our Bump Map.
For the Final part of step 2 we will go to Filters/Blur/Gaussian Blur and do 7 for both settings.
Should have a slight blur to your Bump Map now.


Step 3
Now select your Fuzzy Select Tool (or magic wand) and we need to select our text by clicking the black area outside and the inside black areas of our Bump Map layer.
With the selection still active create a new transparent layer.
Now select our Blend Tool and change our foreground and background colors to these.

Foreground color "cecece"
Background color "9e9e9e"
With our outline selection still active go to Select/invert click to invert our selection.
Now on the newly created layer take the Blend tool and start at the top of the selection and go straight down to the bottom of the selection as shown
Go to Select/none and click it to remove the outline selection.

Step 4
Now lets use our Bump Map.
Still on our new layer with the Gradient gray text go to Filters/Map/Bump Map and select it.
Use these settings for the Bump Map filter 
Make sure to select your original Black and White layer for the top option
Click ok and your gray text should look like this.

With some nice depth added to our text.
Lets turn off the visability our Original B/W Background layer by clicking the eye out to the side of the layer.. because we are done with it..

Step 5
This step is one of the coolest in my opinion. You get to see some of the power that Gimp has!!
Go to Color/Curves and select it.. In the Curves setting window move the slider into an S pattern as I have Click ok and now it should look like this

Now you have a really cool looking Chrome effect text and could actually stop here, but we will go a bit further

The dimensions of your project will determine what settings you use for the next 2 steps
**smaller font = lower settings / larger font = higher settings**

Step 6
Now lets duplicate our chrome text layer and turn off the visibility of the copy as we will work with it later.
Go to Layer/Transparency/Alpha to Selection which will select our text.. Now go to Select/Shrink and use 5 for the selection.
Now go to Select/Feather and use 5,000 and click ok. Finally go to Edit/Clear and click.. then Select/none.. Now This Text layer should look like this

Step 7
Now for the inside of our text.
Now select the copy from step 6.
Go to Layer/Transparency/Alpha to Selection and then Select/Shrink and do a selection of 7 this time around.
Now we need to Select/Invert then Select/Feather and chose 7,000 for this one.
Edit/Clear and Select/none.. now you should have this
Now lets Merge the 2 layers together and you should have this..

Step 8
This is our Final step..
This is how we get our "transparent" Glass effect.
Go to Layer/Transparency/Color to Alpha.
Lets select a gray that is the middle of the gradient that we used earlier so we will select "d4d4d4" and click ok.
Low and Behold!! We now have a very cool Glass looking text!!




Have fun with this and experiment!! You can use different colors for the Gradient.. just try different settings.

Sector11 I hope you don't mind that I used you in this Tutorial

**Like I said earlier this is my first time trying to explain my techniques in Gimp so I am sorry if I left something out or if I didn't explain something well enough**

EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT LAYER TYPEs

[lwfitz]

NICE! Thank you for this falldown.

[VastOne]

Very nice falldown... I am going to be this same forum for a couple of schools and a golf course, so this will come in handy.  Or I will just say Hey falldown, or jst_joe... HELP!

Thanks for posting this, it should get a lot of traction!

[falldown]

Thanks guys!

Just yell when you need some help with anything VastOne.

[jst_joe]

Great how to falldown, you know I have used it.
I changed the links in my other posts to point here. 

[Sector11]

And he said:
Sector11 I hope you don't mind that I used you in this Tutorial

¿Mind? --- I'm honoured!

I remember the first time I tried this I got so frustrated.

I changed the font size and it really messed things up and gave up.
This is what falldown made for me:

Actually I think maybe falldown might have left the transparent Sector11 .png laying around someplace and I just "jedi'ed" it into place.

I really should try again, I see other's have made some really sharp stuff!  Like jst_joe's Planet VSIDO! for one. <<-- but not limited to that!

Get ready for questions falldown.

[Sector11]

This is confusing for me, broken down into sentences:
Step 3
Now we need to take our Fuzzy Select Tool (or magic wand) and we need to select our text by clicking the black area outside and the inside black areas of our Bump Map layer.

With the selection still active we will create a new transparent layer.
-----------------------
     When do we do this?
     I created a "transparent layer" at this point but I still see the black background.  It reads - we will - future....
-----------------------
Now we need to select our Blend Tool and change our foreground and background colors to these.

Foreground color "cecece"
Background color "9e9e9e"

With our outline selection still active we need to go to Select/invert click to invert our selection.

Now on the newly created layer take the Blend tool and start at the top of the selection and go straight down to the bottom of the selection as shown
---------------------
     I still have a black background when I do this right?
     Even though I created a transparent layer above.
---------------------
Go to Select/none and click it to remove the outline selection.
---------------------
     grey text with black background?
---------------------

Step 4

When you start #4 I see "Se" with a transparent background.
    mine is still black.

Then an image with a black background, and then another with a transparent background again.

Obviously there is something that does not compute between my ears. 

[falldown]

I will help you with this in a bit S11.. out the door to get the lil ones. 

[Sector11]

   I'll have the coffee ready when you get back.

[falldown]

Coffee cup full.. (it is snowing here)

I did some editing in first post S11.
Lets see if that clears up the when issue.

[Sector11]

Enjoy your coffee - wife and I are out of here in minutes.

I'll be back tomorrow.  Thank you!

[VastOne]

Hey falldown,

I am working on this but am stuck at this step

"Lets turn off the visability our Original B/W Background layer by clicking the eye out to the side of the layer.. because we are done with it.."

Where is this eye?

Thanks

[jedi]

Hey falldown,

"by clicking the eye out to the side of the layer"

Where is this eye?

Thanks

I'm no falldown but I know where the 'eye' is!  It's in the Layers box on the top right hand side of your Gimp.  When you click the eye it will 'turn off' the layer the 'eye' is next too...



Hurry back falldown!

[VastOne]

Thanks mate...

That got it, I did not realize you had to click to the Layers Dialogue

Appreciate it!