Tutorial: Rays of Light (behind text)

Written by devvv (07 Oct 2006 11:07 PM)

I bet you all know this effect where cool rays of light can be seen behind some text. In this tutorial I'll show you how to make such an explosion. This effect is also very often used by gaming companies.

1. - New file: 900 x 900px. Black Background.
   - add three text-layers: "The" "ULTIMATE" "Source".
   - Take a very bold font, that gives us a better look.
   - "The" and "Source" should have a size of 35, "ULTIMATE" has a size of 55px.
   - Move the 3 text-layers together (as seen on the picture below).
   
   click to enlarge
2. Merge these 3 layers. To do this select (in the layers-dialog) the text-layer thats on top of all the text-layers. Right-mouse-click and choose "Merge Down". Repeat once.
   
   Now the whole text should be on a single layer.
   Move the Text to the very center of the picture. To do this you can either use the Alignement-Tool or just use guides. Go to Image / Guides / New Guide: Choose horizontal: 450px - then click OK, same again with a vertical guide. Move the text-layers "M" (from the "ultiMate") to the point where the guides are crossing.
   
   Go to View / Show guides (Deselect).
   
   Now go to Layer / Layer to Image Size. Duplicate this layer. Now merge the layer thats above the Background-layer down with the Background-layer.
   
   Name that text-layer "Source" and the Background-layer "Strahlen" (which is the german word for "rays").
   
   Click the Eye-Icon for the "Source"-layer in the layers-dialog to make it invisible. After this long step your layers should look like this:
   
   click to enlarge
3. - Make sure that the "Strahlen"-Ebene is active.
   - Go to Filter / Distorts / Polar coordinates and take the values from the picture below.
   
   click to enlarge
4. Go to Image / Transform / Rotate 90° clockwise
   
   click to enlarge
5. Go to Filter / Distorts / Wind and choose the options from the picture below.
   
   click to enlarge
6. Repeat the filter once but now choose "Left" as direction, the other options remain unchanged.
   
   Go to Image / Transform / Rotate 90° counter-clockwise. After that apply the polar-coordinates filter again. Click the "To Polar"-option. The text should look like this now.
   
   click to enlarge
7. Choose the Rectangle-Select-Tool and draw a selection around the rays.
   
   - Select / Invert.
   - Choose black as FG-color.
   - After that: Edit / Fill FG-color.
   - Select / None.
   
   click to enlarge
8. The rays look pretty bad... To change this go to Filter / Blur / Motion Blur and choose the values from the image below:
   
   click to enlarge
9. Click the Source-layer in the layers-dialog and choose "Alpha to Selection". Create a new layer, name it "Glühen" (german word for glow). Activate the created layer.
   
   - Select / Grow: 2px
   - Fill the selection with white.
   - Press CTRL+SHIFT+A to deactivate the selection
   - Filter / Blur / Gaussian: 10px
   - Choose "Screen" as layermode (you can find the layer modes dropdown-menu in the layers-dialog above the transparency-control.
   
   click to enlarge
10. - Move this layer between "Source" and "Strahlen", in case it is not already there.
    - Click the Eye-Icon of the "Source"-layer to make it visible. Go to Colors / Invert. (in Gimp 2.2 this option is under Layer / Colors / Invert).
    
    click to enlarge
11. Choose the "Strahlen"-layer and go to (Layer /) Colors / Color Balance
    
    For a blue shine take these values:
    ------------------------------------
    Shadow 0 | +30 | +40
    Midtones: -70 | -35 | +30
    Highlights:-85 | -25 | -50
    
    For a gold shine:
    ---------------------------------
    Shadows 100 | +50 | -50
    Midtones: +70 | -30 | -100
    Highlights: +20 | 0 | -50
    
    Done ;)
    
    Tip: If you want your rays to shine even more, duplicate the "strahlen"-layer, blur it with gaussian blur and set the layers mode to "Screen".
    
    click to enlarge

This work is licensed under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Austria.

Discussion / comment this tutorial

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From: eNeRgy (30 Apr 2008 08:09 PM) – Send a private message

Cool..
Kann mir das jemand in Deutscher Sprache erklären???

Wäre nett..
Good bye

From: furion (27 Apr 2008 10:15 AM)

Thank you.

From: devvv (27 Apr 2008 01:44 AM) – Send a private message

yes, you can. the license says that you have to add the linkt to the original tutorial and also please drop a note to the authors name (in this case this is me ;)) thank you!

From: furion (26 Apr 2008 10:07 PM)

Hello! I have a question: Can i translate this tutorial for polish forum about GIMP - www.gimpuj.info? In a tutorial will be added link to this page and the author's nick. If you answer my question, i will be happy.
PS. Sorry for my not good english.

From: arikel (25 Mar 2008 12:30 AM)

Va donc apprendre l'anglais, t'en reviendras pas de tout ce que tu loupais (y'a sérieusement trop de bouffons).

From: Lineman (21 Mar 2008 08:49 AM)

Very nice tut.

From: rogle (20 Mar 2008 04:03 AM)

SWEET! This is probably the best gimp tutorial I've found! Easy to follow...conversions from German to English...and uses the current verison of GIMP. Keep up the good work!

From: Oliver (18 Mar 2008 06:48 PM)

thx

From: stingerman (14 Mar 2008 09:34 AM) – Send a private message

Hmmm...my glow is not as big and spread out as yours. I used a different font and different words. Could that be it? I think your step 9 looks a lot "bigger". I also did another strahlen layer. I like the effect, good job.

From: devvv (04 Mar 2008 12:53 PM) – Send a private message

where is the problem? please specify

From: ice rose (04 Mar 2008 10:37 AM)

*cry* i can't get it to work!!! my pic looks horrible, nothing at all like the display!!!

From: Lag (09 Feb 2008 03:07 AM)

you could try changing the position of the motion blur by 1-10 pixels on the X and Y axis, that would give you 100 variants, use those to make the gif? Not sure if that would actually work but I think its worth a try...

From: cool (17 Jan 2008 12:28 PM)

Does anyone know how to animate this?

From: lawl (13 Sep 2007 09:10 AM)

lawl naab :p

From: somaraju (25 Aug 2007 10:33 AM)

good work,

From: mauro (07 Aug 2007 03:03 PM)

amazing effect... i will use it on my website

From: dch (07 Aug 2007 08:45 AM)

I LOVE this.Now I can show off to my friends.lol

From: Mathy (24 Jul 2007 07:52 AM)

very nice !, I love the effect , thank you

From: anomymous (21 Jul 2007 03:35 AM)

Thanks Very Helpful

From: marv (06 Jul 2007 01:57 PM)

very clever! Thank you

From: moi (02 Jun 2007 02:00 PM)

superbe mais vous pouvez faire un site en francais aussi :) ( il faut en faire profiter les autres :p )

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