reflective 3D like text in the GIMP

Inspired by Nicu’s GIMP tutorial - make your subject pop out i decided to publish my lame tutorial on my blog. i know its a simple process that almost evryone knows, but in case you dont, here is how i do this…

This Tutorial shows you how so make simple 3D like text with a refection on the ground. Enough of me trying to describe it… here is what you are aiming to do:

Step One:

The first step is to write the text that you want.

Step Two

What to do next is to create the 3D look for your text.

1. Create a new transparent layer underneath your text

2. Select the outline of the text -> make sure the text layer is selected -> right click on the text layer in the layer dialog -> choose “Alpha to Selection”

3. Grow the selection out (i did it by 2 pixels) Select Menu -> Grow…

4. Select the new transparent layer that you created

5. Change the colour to one slightly lighter or darker than your text colour

6. Fill the selection with the bucket fill

7. Cancel the selection and bevel the edges Script-fu->Decor->bevel edges

it should look something like this:

Step Three

Now we need to create the “reflection”.

1. Merge the text down into the other layer.

2. Duplicate the layer by right-clicking on it in the layer dialog box and choosing “Duplicate Layer”,

3. Mirror the newly duplicated layer by choosing Layer->Transform->Flip Vertically

4. Move the reflection layer into place under the normal text.

it should look something like this:

Step Four

now we have to make the reflection look a bitmore like a reflection…

Here i put a background layer of white behind everything…..

1. Select the reflected text layer and magic wand the background

2. Invert the selection (Select->Invert)

3. Create another transparent layer on top of the layer that contains the “reflected” text

4. Set the Foreground colour to white, and choose the gradient FG to Transparent.

5. Gradient fill the new layer you created, to create an effect like the text is fading out to the bottom.

it should look something like this:

Step Five

After this, i added a simple Black to White gradient from the floor-up to add a bit more perspective….

FINISHED PRODUCT:

This Tutorial is:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License

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