3d floating text

8/13/2019 3D Floating Text

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3-D Floating LogoText and images Copyright (C) 2002 Mel Boyce and may not be used without permission of theauthor.

Intention

This tutorial is aimed squarely at the novice GIMP user. The more experienced user may findsome techniques here useful. This is the same procedure I used to create the logo on myhomepage, albeit with slightly different settings. I'll point out the differences as I go along. I'vetaken a lot of screen shots to support this tutorial, so enjoy :)

Step 1

Fire up GIMP and create a new image. I used a white background at 500px by 200px. I feel thissize it adequate as my website at the time of writing uses 500px tables.

Step 2
mailto:syngin-at-gimp-dot-orgmailto:syngin-at-gimp-dot-orgmailto:syngin-at-gimp-dot-orgmailto:syngin-at-gimp-dot-org


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Duplicate the text layer (text) twice. One for the highlight effect (highlight) and one for theshaded part of the effect (lowlight). The highlight layer needs to be white, so select that layer,check the Keep Trans. box on the Layers, Channels, & Paths dialog, and fill it with white. Youcan do this easily by dragging the white color swatch from the toolbox over to the image(assuming that the highlight layer is currently selected). Keep Trans. means "KeepTransparency"; this will ensure that any transformations or fills made to that layer will onlyaffect the non-transparent part of the image.

Step 4


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Duplicate the text layer again and move it to the top of the Layers stack (use the little up facingarrow head on the Layers, Channels, & Paths dialog). Make sure that Keep Trans. is un-checkedand then blur it. I used Gaussian Blur (RLE) at 10 pixels. When I did the original logo, it was setlower than this to make the effect less rounded.

You will need to make sure that the layer boundary is larger than the layer so that the blur canspread nicely. Step 2 mentions this.

Step 5


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Duplicate the blurred layer once (tmp1 and tmp2). These layers are used to create the edgelighting for the text.

Step 6

Nudge one of the blurred layers (tmp1) down and to the right about 5 pixels. The precise numberof pixels depends on how blurred and thus how round the text will appear to be, so use your best


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judgement. You can nudge layers my using the Move tool and the cursor keys on your keyboard.It doesn't matter which of the blurred layers you use in this step, as long as you know which oneyou didn't move \x{2013} you'll be needing to do a very similar thing to that one soon.

Step 7


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Now create a selection using the blurred layer (the one you moved in step 6) using Alpha toSelection. This selection is a precise selection based on the layer and includes alpha(transparency) information. Handy stuff. You'll notice that I've turned off the layer below (theother blurred layer). This was done to make sure I could see how far I moved this layer duringstep 6.

Step 8

Now that the layer is selected...

Step 9


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Select the highlight layer and...

Step 10


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Cut (edit/cut or CTRL+X on PC or Command+X on Mac). This will remove the blurred layersselection from the highlight layer. You could do this with channel masks, but I'm a man ofsimple needs and wants. There's another step after this that I haven't documented, but that's

because it's the same thing again (steps 6-10) but with the other layer (tmp2: see steps 5 and 6).Move (nudge) that layer in the opposite direction (up and to the left about 5 pixels), then make

the cut from the lowlight layer. Once you're done, delete the two blurred layers (tmp1 and tmp2).

Step 11

I like to take quasi-breaks while doing some images, and this is one of those times. A good timeto roll a cigarette or grab a cup coffee. I also tend to clean up temporary layers occasionally.

Step 12


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Now we'll add the first elements of 3D-ness to the logo. The original text layer is the base layerfor any color you want to add. I'll use grey70, but you could just as easily use any old color youlike. It's a good idea to play with this as you can get some funky plastic logos too. Make sureKeep Trans. is checked when you fill the layer.

Step 13


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As you can see, it's starting to look like something now.

Step 14

Click the blank piece of paper on the Layers, Channels, & Paths dialog and make a newtransparent layer called outline. Move this new layer down the layers stack until it's underneaththe original text layer.


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Step 15

Select the original text layer (the one you added some color to) and do the Alpha to Selectiontrick again. Right click on the image and use Select -> Grow. This will make the newselection larger by a number of pixels - I used a value of 2 pixels. Once you have a selection, besure to reselect the new layer (outline) so that you can fill it (step 17). And below is what it lookslike.

Step 16


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And this is what it looks like.

Step 17

Fill the layer with black and deselect ( CTRL+SHIFT+A on PC or Command+SHIFT+A on Mac). Asyou can see, the image now has more background contrast. Now, duplicate that layer and lowerthe copy below the original outline layer. Make sure that Keep Trans. is not checked, and blur it.I like soft shadows, so I used a Gaussian Blur (RLE) of about 30 pixels. Drop the Opacity of thelayer down to about 50 and nudge it to the right and down until it looks okay.


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A nice way to fill selection areas or layers that have Keep Trans. selected, is to simply drag thecolor from the toolbox color swatch to the layer.

Step 18

This is what the Layers, Channels, & Paths dialog should look like.

Step 19


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I've duplicated the highlight and lowlight layers and made them all blend with the lower layersusing the Overlay mode. This helps to make the edges more 3D.

Step 20


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Create a new transparent layer called rust and select the bezier tool (shown here as the depressed button).

Step 21

Rust isn't uniform and I've decided to only worry about the lower half of the letters. Use the bezier tool on the new rust layer to start a selection that looks like...

Step 22


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This. Click inside the bezier path once you close it (close it by clicking one the first node). Thiswill create a selection. Use Select -> Feather to feather (blur) the selection. I used avalue of about 10 pixels.

Step 23

Pick a nice bright orange or brown color for the rust. My site logo used a reddy-borwn color, buthere I've chosen a bright orange. Fill the selection with it. Using the famed Alpha to Selectionmove, get the selection for the original text layer. Once you have that selection area, click the


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The image should now look a little like this. Don't worry, it'll look better soon.

Step 26


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With the rust layer selected, add a Layer Mask.

Step 27


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Making sure that you reset the color swatches on the toolbox, use the gradient tool to make agradient in the Layer Mask so it looks like this.

Step 28


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The image should now look like this.

Final

With a little playing around you can get to this. I duplicated the rust layer and moved them (theoriginal rust and the copy) down the stack until the highlight and lowlight layers were abovethem. I also duplicated the original text layer, switched on Keep Trans., and used Render -> Clouds -> Solid Noise to add a bit of interest to the layer. Try using the Curves tool to


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help with this. You may also notice that the outline layer is blurred. Sometimes this can help.The idea is, try stuff and find out.

Well, thats it. Hope that taught you the power of selections and layer modes to some degree.There are many people who tout the use of channel masks, but don't under estimate the power of

selections to do your dirty work.

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