In this tutorial we’ll have a look at how to create some fancy glowing lines and how to make it so that the end of the line will fade nicely. We’ll also have a look at adding glow to objects that are not created from a path.
This is what we will be creating:
Create a new image with size 600×400 and a black background layer.
First let’s make the background a little bit more interesting to look at, select the Blend tool (aka Gradient tool). Set the shape to radial, select the gradient called Incandescent, and reverse the gradient.
Drag the gradient from the exact middle of the image to the bottom edge. (look at the coordinates in the bottom left corner, the exact middle should be 300, 200) Hold Ctrl to get a straight line.
Our image should look like this now:
Go to Filters->Distorts->Ripple
Keep the default settings and just click OK.
Find Filters->Distorts->Whirl and Pinch
Set Whirl Angle to 360.
That should give us this result:
One more thing and the background is done, go to Filters->Blur->Motion Blur
Set Blur Type to Zoom and Length to 150. If you have an old computer like I do this might take 10-15 seconds.
Our background is done and it should look like this now:
Pick a nice color for the glow, it’s nice if the color matches the background. I chose fd4000.
Select the path tool. Create an S like shape similar to the one in the image below:
Now first create a new layer, and then choose stroke path. Make a line 6px thick.
Our image should look like this now:
Now find Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur.
Set the blur to 12.
It should look like this now:
Create another layer, change the color to white and choose stroke path, this time we want a 3px thick line.
After you’ve done that give it a Gaussian blur of 1. (Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur)
A little tip: Remember that if your path disappears at some point because you press a different tool, it’s not gone forever, just doubleclick on it in the Paths Dialog and it will reappear.
Merge the layer with the white line and the layer with the blurred red line together. (right-click on the top layer in the Layer Dialog, then right-click->Merge down)
Add a layer mask to the layer. (right-click on the layer in the Layer Dialog and choose Add Layer Mask).
Make sure you set it to White(Full Opacity).
The layer mask controls the transparency of the layer, but unlike just setting the opacity of the entire layer, the layer mask allows you to set different transparency for different areas in your image.
So let’s put that layer mask to good use. Select the Free Select tool, and draw a selection around the end of the line as in the image below:
First, make sure that it’s the layer mask that is selected and not the layer itself. (just click on the layer mask once in the layer dialog to select it).
Now set your FG and BG colors to black and white, then select the Blend tool (aka Gradient tool).
Choose the gradient called FG to BG (RGB), the shape should be set to linear and the gradient should not be reversed.
Then create a gradient from just before the end of the line and all the way to where the selection ends.
The end of the line should fade nicely like this:
Repeat the procedure for the other end of the line.
We need more than just one line don’t we? Create a new layer and select the path tool. Draw a path similar to this:
Select that red color we used earlier (fd4000), stroke the path with a 6px line. Do a Gaussian blur of 12.
Create a new layer, stroke path with a 3px thick white line. Blur the white line with a Gaussian blur of 1.
Merge those two layers together, and add a layer mask. Make sure the layer mask is set to White(Full Opacity).
Grab the Free Select tool, draw a selection around the end of the line, and create a gradient (make sure your FG and BG colors are black and white first, and that you are working on the layer mask).
Likewise on the other end of the line:
Let’s add a third line, you probably know how to do that by now, so let’s make it challenging and make that third line thicker.
The red line should be 12px thick and have a Gaussian blur of 12, the white line should be 6px thick and have a Gaussian blur of 3.
Here’s what mine looks like:
As you can see we get a problem when the line is so thick, it doesn’t fade as nicely as the smaller lines. To solve this we’re going to use the Iwarp filter to make the end of the line thinner. First click on the layer with the thick line in the layer dialog so that it’s the layer and not the mask we’re working on, then find Filters->Distorts->Iwarp.
Set Deform Mode to Shrink and Deform amount to 0,10. Don’t click OK, we’re going to work with that window on the left.
We’re going to work on the bottom part of the line first.
Think of that part of the line as split into four small pieces like this:
To get a good result, you should click and drag from where piece 4 ends, to the end of the line. This will make our four pieces thinner than the rest of the line. Try to follow the line as best you can while you drag. It’s no disaster if you can’t follow the line exactly though, it’s just that it will move a little bit.
Not a big difference yet, so click and drag from where piece 3 ends, (right where piece 3 and 4 meet), to the end of the line. This will make piece 1, 2 and 3 thinner than piece 4.
Repeat the process for piece 2 and piece 1. Click and drag from where piece 2 ends and all the way to the end of the line. After that click and drag from where piece 1 ends and to the end of the line. Now you can click OK. You should get the following result:
Now do the same thing on the other end of the line.
Now you know a lot about adding glow to lines created by paths, but what about objects that aren’t created by paths? Let’s have a quick look on how that can be done before we finish this tutorial.
Create a new layer, set the color to white, select the Brush tool and grab a large Fuzzy brush and make it even larger. I chose Circle Fuzzy (15) and I set the scale to 10.
Now draw three dots so close to each other that they overlap considerably like this:
Next, change to a smaller brush (Circle Fussy 13, scale 1). Now draw small dots in random places, make sure they don’t overlap, and don’t draw them too far away from the center of the image.
Now do a ripple, Filters->Distorts->Ripple.
Do a Whirl and Pinch, set the Whirl angle to 360. (Filters->Distorts->Whirl and Pinch)
That should give us a strange stretched white dot thing and a bunch of white spark like things.
If any of the sparks look like blobs instead of sparks then just erase them. Sparks like these can also be made with the Path tool the same way we made the big lines, only you need to make them smaller.
Now let’s give them some glow. Duplicate the layer, then lock transparent pixels.
Set your color to that nice red color (fd4000), and color the duplicate layer red. (either by just dragging the color from the toolbox or by using the Bucket Fill Tool). Remember to unlock the transparent pixels afterwards!
Now do a Gaussian blur of 24, so it looks like this:
Now duplicate the layer with that blurred red on it, this will make the glow seem stronger.
Aftewards move the layer with the white dot things to the top.
That’s it, our image is done!
The text is a combination of shameless self-promotion and a teaser for the tutorial about glowing text where you learn to make text like that.
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Vagrant
December 4th, 2008
Thank you really..i have been looking for a similar tutorial for long
yay
December 5th, 2008
I’m glad you found it helpful Vagrant
Mats Halldin
December 5th, 2008
Nice tutorial, thanks for posting it!
I used to do tricks like these in Photoshop and Illustrator. I emigrated to Ubuntu a bit more than a year ago, and I’m slowly catching up in GIMP and Inkscape thanks to tutorials like this one. Again, thanks!
/ Mats
Reid
December 13th, 2008
OMG, LOVE THIS TUT. Im posting the pic that i made with it on my deiviant art. THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!
http://supersyko.deviantart.com/art/Winter-storm-106217295 <—– Here it is!
yay
December 13th, 2008
Thanks for your comments Mats and Reid, I’m glad you found it useful
I like the colors you used there Reid, those blue colors really give it a nice “cold” feel.
david
December 19th, 2008
super! I love it… I also looked long for a way to create glow and light FX in Gimp.
There are a bunch of cool Tuts out there for Ps but the translation for Gimp… hugh!?
GREAT Tutorial! Keep up your good work, site is faved
sean
December 23rd, 2008
vagrant can u help me make teh same sig as this one above us and add adr instead of gtuts.com just put adr?
somebody
January 1st, 2009
Very cool. Thanks.
I got up to step 12, made the big fuzzy circle and the little dots, but when I tried to ripple and then whirl and pinch, it rippled/whirl and pinched the whole image instead of just the circle and dots.
How do I stop this?
Lasia
January 1st, 2009
Great tutorial! I’ve been looking for away to make that nice glowing line effect & sparks ever since I started using GIMP over a year ago. Thanks, this was the nicest method/effect I’ve found.
Lasia
January 1st, 2009
Here’s an example of this tutorial in practice — made this for a base for my wallpapers, I made a nice bow-like effect by adding a small circle where the lines intersected and combined it with some other general lighting effects & textures in the background:
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5953/wallpaperbase1swirlbowtvr0.png
yay
January 2nd, 2009
somebody: You did create all those dots on a separate layer right? Make sure that layer is selected in the layer dialog before you whirl and pinch.
Lasia: that bow thing is genius, it looks really cool.
Greg
January 18th, 2009
Thanks a lot! This helped me SO much!
Victoria
February 12th, 2009
Great tutotial! I enjoyed it. Thanks a lot!
Mera
February 18th, 2009
not understood about that gradient tool. That tutorial didnt help yay
yay
February 18th, 2009
Mera: What exactly did you not understand? Is it the gradient settings or how to apply the gradient? Let me know and I will try to explain it better
Beaver
March 4th, 2009
When I do the gradient, it shows up as a half a circle at the bottom rather than a full circle in the middle.
yay
March 4th, 2009
Beaver: The gradient should be created from the middle of the image to the bottom of the image, it sounds like you’ve done it the other way around.
Beaver
March 4th, 2009
Yep, you’re right. Thanks.
Um…where is stroke path?
Beaver
March 4th, 2009
nvm, Sorry. I figured that out!
Beaver
March 4th, 2009
Real Problem: On step # 7, when I try to do the dithering, I do everything it says. I have the mask selected, and I checked and made sure that my info on the gradients matched the screenshot.
But when I try it it gives me the “gray boxes” around that area.
yay
March 4th, 2009
Gray boxes? like these: http://gtuts.com/images/fancy-glow-effects/25.jpg
Did you remember to put the line on a separate layer?
Beaver
March 5th, 2009
Yeah, like those. Um…thanks. I was able to figure it out.
I used FG to Transparent, not FG to BG. =D
Thanks!
slay_88
March 5th, 2009
thank you very much!!!
Will N (wncruzer)
March 12th, 2009
Very nice tutorial mate! Ive been wondering how to fade the lines making it look thinner, thanks alot. XD *thumbs up*
jessica
March 17th, 2009
Heyy, im trying to set my backround colour when i open up gimp, and i cant do it for my life?! please help!!
x
yay
March 17th, 2009
jessica: It should be as simple as clicking on the Background color in the toolbox, ( that thing on the left in this image: http://gtuts.com/images/fancy-glow-effects/15.jpg )
That should open up a little window that let’s you choose a new color, you should then click OK. If that doesn’t work, there might be something strange going on with your computer, I would probably try to reinstall Gimp and see if that solves the problem.
John
March 18th, 2009
Uhhhhhh….. ok, I could use the gradient and fade the 2 edges of the FIRST line. But, when I do it on the second line…. uhhh…. here, a picture to show you:
http://i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo282/thunderclaw83/AA.jpg
Help? Thanks for your time if you can help
(Pretty new guide, I just got GIMP yesterday, so, trying things out to make a logo for school)
yay
March 18th, 2009
It looks like the white line is faded but not the red one, so I’m guessing you forgot to merge the layer with the white line and the layer with the red line before adding a layer mask, if that’s the case, just delete the layer mask, then merge the layers, and add a layer mask.
John
March 19th, 2009
Al
March 21st, 2009
This is cool! I’ve been wondering how to do stuff like this! Thanks for sharing!
Anton
March 29th, 2009
Best tutorial ever! VERY easy to follow, you described each step very well in a awy which was easy to understand, gave usefull side notes and such too. I really enjoyed following this one.
Result: http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh368/Anton93_2009/FancyGlow.jpg
Jaime
April 8th, 2009
Amazing!
Thanks very much for this tutorial!
jeeez
April 16th, 2009
im still having trouble fading the line with the gradient thing…plzz help
yay
April 18th, 2009
jeeez: Make sure it’s the layer mask that’s selected and not the layer itself when you create the gradient. If that’s not the problem, please describe your problem, a screenshot would help
NAvbob
May 3rd, 2009
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
The first thing i’ve ever done with gimp
Jonna
May 13th, 2009
Cool tutorial! I will test this at once. Thanks for sharing
cadmancvb
May 19th, 2009
Really great tut and very easy to follow for us GIMP newbies. I wish all tuts were written this well. Thank you!
web2000
May 22nd, 2009
Superb.. Thanks so much!
Babyu
May 27th, 2009
Omg Thank You You Help Me Alot ! !
Pinina
July 1st, 2009
I loved this tut… It’s almost the best I’ve seen. It probably was the easiest to understand though. I would show you guys what I made but I’m not really sure how to do that…
Pinina
Blake
August 11th, 2009
whenever I try the gradient to fade the tip in step 7, the background goes transparent.
what am I doing wrong?
Blake
August 11th, 2009
Nevermind!
I got it!
Thanks for the tut!
It really helps
yackobe
August 16th, 2009
Wow…. awesome best gimp tut I hve ever seen. only gimp froze… ah well.
Blake
September 6th, 2009
whenever i try to do the gradient, the end goes transparent and i see the grey boxes
help?!
Darren
September 10th, 2009
Hi, excellent tutorial, I decided to use some different colors for mine and variated a bit on the larger line. My result is here – http://home.vicnet.net.au/~darrenb/LightNEasy.php?page=gallery. Cheers!
FIFI
September 15th, 2009
For real, this tutorial s great. Just wat i was looking for. Thanks
Ohi
October 19th, 2009
After, you can go to Colors > Colorize, then you can change the color of it, so its not just those colors!
Great tut!
Jason
October 20th, 2009
Wow. Simply amazing tutorial. Fantastic job!
glibwort
October 31st, 2009
Hey Yay, great stuff and a lot of fun! I read Ohi’s comment about Colorizing and as I still had not yet merged the layers I played around a bit with some of the other options e.g. Color Levels.
I’ve bookmarked the site and will be a regular visitor, thanks
Insano
November 20th, 2009
OK I’m trying this tut but can’t get past part 5. I have absoluetly no idea how the Path tool is even used. I’ve tried several sites with various tuts on the Path tool. I can’t grasp it at all, they all seem to explain it as if I should already know how Path tools are used :-/ … for someone who’s still new to Gimp and to any kind of grahpics program at all, it can be frustrating with some of the tuts out there
J0nii3
November 30th, 2009
Thank you SO much. I have been using Gimp for quite awhile now, and I keep thinking, I soooo need to get PS so I can do GOOD image authoring, and this is exactly what I was looking for. thank you again, I have to read every tutorial on this website now
Bortey
December 7th, 2009
I love this. you are so great i need more of it to learn from and other things you can share with me. tthhaannkkss
Nirvana
January 7th, 2010
The tutoial was very clear and easy to understand, thanks for such a great tutorial and I’ve learnt a lot of things since I read this!
Here is what I created after learning from your tutorial: http://gipato.deviantart.com/art/The-shrowded-light-149537144
Thanks a lot again!
Gipato
January 7th, 2010
Very good tutorial! I learnt a lot from this and you were very clear!
Thank you very much!!
This is what I created: http://gipato.deviantart.com/art/The-shrowded-light-149537144
Thanks again!
Krizza
January 24th, 2010
im still having a little problem.
everytime i’m on the second glow line, and when i try to fade the edges, there will be some black color (not like the background color) on the selected path which is not good for the picture.. as if it’ll look like a dalmatian dog (because of the spots).. help me please…. other than that, i’m good with the tutorial… just this…
Melissa Lynn
January 27th, 2010
Thank You!! I completely skipped step 11 because i didn’t feel like spending that long on it and it looks identical to yours still…lol..but thanks! Do you have any more tutorials?
Mulaa12
February 15th, 2010
i think you need to explain step 11 more , effictiant!
i dont understand it quite well .