Bumpmapping is probably the classic way of bevelling text (the "modern way" is using layereffects).

One thing that always seemed a bit unrefined is that the blurred bumpmap spreads the bevel outside the text boundaries.

But there are ways to take bumpmapping to the next level, and reading the WOW Book just made me remember a few tricks.

1.) For the first example we bumpmap text into a grey (#8080808) layer.
The values im using are 120 for the Azimuth and 30 for the Elevation.

The bumpmap has a  Blur of 1px and im using a Depth of 3. We are getting an emboss effect.

   

2.) Here im using a Depth of 8 and an Ambient of 100. The bumpmap has been blurred 8px.
This is your basic bumpmapping technique.

   

3.) Now we are getting a bit clever and trim our edge. We are still using the 8px blurred bumpmap, but now we are calling up a selection of the original text, invert it and fill with black, so that we get a hard edge. On top of that we apply another Blur of 1px to smooth things out.
Heres what it looks like:

   

4.) For a chisel effect, we use our trimmed bumpmap, call up the original text selection and shrink it (i used 3px), then fill with white. This gives the blur an edge.

   

5.) For our final trick we apply a curve to the bumpmap, blur it by 4px to smooth everything out, and get this contoured edge:

   

Not really a new baby, since it is an improvement on my previous path-ladder script, but it comes with some interesting new options. Basically, it draws lines (in orange, below) between two paths.

   

Available at the usual place.

Enjoy.

It never ceases to amaze me that my most downloaded (and by a huge margin) script (outside the path ones) is ofn-file-next. 20-30 downloads a week and counting. And the only use of the script is processing manually long sequences of images. WTF are so many people doing with it?

So i was thinking about selling stuff for Gimp and Inkscape in the future.

Do you think it is against the spirit of open source programs and the Gimp community ?

I was thinking about special tutorials, including gradients, brushes, vector elements, etc.
Of course all stuff i made myself.

Chris Hildenbrand from 2dgameartguru.com seems to have some success with it considerig the feedback he gets.
I have donated a few bucks here and there for people like him and i think its fair to give something back for all the free stuff he is sharing.

I'm considering repackaging together a bunch of small scripts that perform rather simple operations on paths: delete strokes, decompose the path, splice strokes, etc... to make a simple path edition toolbox.

The goal is to include simple editing steps

• that don't require dialog input
  
• that perform tasks that are either impossible to do by hand and that can do them significantly faster (cut-off point would be 3-4 clicks without a script)
  

• delete strokes: delete strokes with an end in the selection.
  
• extract strokes: keep strokes with an end in the selection.
  
• reverse strokes: swap stroke end to end (no visible result but often useful).
  
• splice strokes: connect together strokes with end points sufficiently close.
  
• cut strokes: cut strokes on the anchor point in selection (this is the opposite of the "splice" above, a stroke with thee anchors will produce two strokes of two anchors, where two anchors will coincide)
  
• intersect strokes: cut and splice two strokes where they intersect. The $64K question is to have a good criterion to determine which of the 4 angles to keep.
  
• decompose strokes: decomposes a path into its individual strokes. Unlike the rest this one would create additional paths.
  
• summary: show a summary of the path information (to check that what you got is actually what you see).
  

Coming from this thread:
http://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-80ies-c...435#pid435

There are several problems with making a perspective grid:
1. for a real perspective you'd have to set up a horizonline and a vanishing point, right ?
2. Also for a real perspective grid, the horizontal lines would need to get closer, the more distant they are.

The perspective tool in Gimp is not a real perspective tool. It doesnt follow any perspective rules, unlike Inkscape's perspective extension or LPE.
Gimp's perspective tool is just a sort of free transform.

So lets say we throw that out of the window and make a fake perspective grid instead.

Im using a 640x400px canvas and with ofnuts' Path-grid plug-in, i set up a grid 36x36px.
I also set up guides around the edges of my canvas, and at 50% horizontally.

   

Heres the first problem:
i cant put guides outside the canvas, which i need as guidance and for snapping. If i want to stretch out the grid at the bottom, i have to extend the canvassize.
The perspective tool doesnt seem to give me any help with the coordinates.

So im setting up two additional guides 200px away from the edges of my original canvas after i extended my canvas.

   

Next problem: when i use the perspective tool in path mode, its applied to the whole canvas.
Im fixing that by alpha selecting my original canvas size.

   

After i applied the fake perspective to my path grid, i stroke the path on a new transparent layer.

   

Comments ?

Was trying to get a grid in perspective and almost went crazy.
First attempt in Inkscape, but using the new Perspective LPE almost crashes the program.
Next watched a few YT tutorials
So made a grid in Inkscape, imported the svg into Gimp and behold: with a bit of trial and error of the Perspective Tool, is much easier !

Question: why can i move loads of nodes easily within Gimp, but not in Inkscape ??

I bought a book, called the 'WOW Book 4' for 2€'s.
Its from 1998 and teaches how to use Photoshop. Included are some interesting effects and a CD with images, actions, goodies, etc.

Im very interested in this stuff, because of all my old electronic music record covers that i have from the mid-late 90ies.
A lot has changed since then.

Interesting fact: apparently PS had no layer effects back then. All the texteffects are done with 'Lighting Effects' which looks very similar to the same filter we have in Gimp.
Also with every lighting effects tutorial, there is a warning that you need a lot of RAM to use it

A lot of the images on the CD are quite small, by todays standards, which makes me wonder how they printed.
All the illustrations in the book are small. Sometimes it makes it hard to read.
Also all the steps for every tutorial are written for beginners.

Some of the shiny effects for crystal, chrome and metal are done with the Plastic Wrap filter (there are a few scripts on the net for doing that in Gimp...or G'MIC Relief Light).

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-pa...s/scripts/

Its getting a bit hard to keep track on which board i can find the relevant information

Is there a documentation page ?

What does 'Accuracy' and 'Guide Path' mean ?

Can python plug-ins that work with paths in Gimp, be modified so that they work in Inkscape, or is that a complete different approach to writing code ?

Im asking because trandoduction wrote the 'Select Area Between Paths' plug-in and it would be great to have something like this as an extension for Inkscape.