Shadow GIMP Tutorial

Okay, now all you people are going to learn how to make something sexy like this.



Hawt, right?

1. Paste in your (un-scaled) render until the whole layer is filled. Then, smudge it back and forth in the direction you want the flow to go. I set the rate to 20-22%.

2. Duplicate this layer and go to Blur- Motion Blur-Linear Blur. Set the angle so it follows the flow and the length to about 20. Set this layer to soft light. You should get something like this.



3. Here's where it gets a bit tricky. Paste in your render and scale it to your liking. Duplicate this layer and hide one of them. Then, set your brush spacing to 1 and set your smudge rate to around 50-90 and smudge outwards so this layer covers the whole canvas. Then, take a 7 px brush, set the spacing to 1, and the smudge rate to 50, and smudge until you get something like this ( one side of the sig looked a little empty, so I duplicated the new smudge layer and merged it down).



4. Unhide your render layer and new layer from visible twice. For one layer, smudge back and forth with an 11 px brush in the direction you want your flow. I set the smudge rate to 22% and the layer to soft light at 100%. For the other layer, go to Filters-Noise-Pick and set it to maximum. Set this layer to normal at 30%.



5. Duplicate your render layer and smudge it so it follows the flow. Set this layer to Grain Merge at 100%. Set this under the render.

6. Here, I might have done a Displace layer or something. It shouldn't have any affect on the outcome. Anyways, new layer from visible once. For this layer, go to Filters-Artistic-Cubism. I don't remember exactly the settings I used, but just make the tile size small and the saturation moderately high. Set this layer to Screen. Then, duplicate your render layer. Do another Pick with the settings at max again. Then, do another Erase Every Other Row. Set this layer to about 70% at Screen.



7. Duplicate your render layer and erase every other row again. Move this layer a little bit in any direction. Make sure it's behind the regular render. Set this layer to Screen at 50%.

8. I added a vine clipping mask here by making a new layer from visible and a blank layer on top of it. I then brushed with the vine on a part of Shadow's hand. Right click the vine layer and go to Alpha to Selection, then go to Select-Invert. Hide the vine layer. Go to the new from visible layer and click delete. It looks like nothing happened, right? If you move the selected area, the part where you brushed over it will move. Neat, huh? Anyways, move it somewhere you like and delete the vine layer.



9. C4d time! Add whatever c4d's/fractals work with the sig and follow it's flow and theme. Mess around with the settings till you get something sexy.



10. Gradient Map time! Make sure to make a new visible layer before each map. I set my colors to orange and purple and set them as a gradient, then I went to Colors-Maps-Gradient maps. Set this layer to soft light at 20%. Then, make a gradient map out of the Gradient called Dark 1. Set it to soft light at 30%. Make another one for Deep Sea and set it to soft light at 20%. Make another for either Incandescent or German Flag Smooth. Set it soft light at 20%. Do another for Romanian Flag Smooth with the same settings. Set the gradient to Full Color Spectrum and make another map. Set this to Color at 10%. Make a black and white gradient map. Go to Colors-Brightness/Contrast and make the brightness either high or low, and the contrast high. Set this map to Multiply at 30%. Phew!



11. Now for lighting. I made a new layer and set my main color to white. Go to gradients and set the gradient to FG to Transparent and set the mode to radial. Stroke from where you want the lighting's center to be, and to where it should end. Set this layer to Overlay and duplicate it twice. Then make another new layer. Set your main color to black and leave the gradient settings how they are. Then, stroke from each corner to where the white light appears to end. Set this layer to Overlay and mess around with opacity until it looks sexy.

12. Final step!!! Make a new visible layer and go to Filters-Enhance-Sharpen. Set the tab so that it looks nice and crisp, almost like it's popping out. You can (I didn't) erase the background so it looks more 3-D. You should end up with something like this.



This tutorial probably sucked, but whatever. Don't be afraid to try it out and post results, comments, and criticism.

Not a bad tutorial at all. A bit hard to read at points, but you got the main points across.

I tried it out, then added a few of my own finishing touches. Looks a bit different from your outcome. :I

Originally Posted by Ece

Not a bad tutorial at all. A bit hard to read at points, but you got the main points across.

I tried it out, then added a few of my own finishing touches. Looks a bit different from your outcome. :I

Wow, very nice result. Yeah, sorry about it not turning out the same, I did it all from memory, so that might have something to do with it.