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Lolz text effect using GIMP !

August 15, 2008 – 5:00 pm

This time its about some fancy text. “Lolz text effect” - as I call it. Here is the sample and outcome.

Sample Text

Final Text

Now it time for tutorial ! So read on…

• Create a blank image and type any text you like, broad fonts works better and keep the size large enough. Choose the text colors as #4cc7d9

sample text “lolz !”

• Now select the text by using “Selection by Text Tool” and clicking on any of the letter inside color.

• Text will be selected now

text is selected as you can see running trail around it

• Now its time to distort the selected text. So select the distort option

select distort option to make selected text selection as distorted

use default values or if you wish you can tweak it

• Ok, so now the selection is distorted !

look how the selection is distorted now

• Now copy (CTRL+C) the selection and paste it on new layer. Name the new layer as “distorted”. After that delete the original text layer “lolz !”

paste the copied text selection to new layer “distorted”

• So now you got the distorted text, its half the way through our goal !

the distorted text

• Its time to give it a 3d look. So select Emboss filter

select emboss filter

select default values or tweak a little bit

• Ugh, so 3d looks fine but colors are all gone. Nevermind, there is more to this.

text is embossed but colors are gone. No problem, read on…lolz

• Time to fill it awesome now. Select the “Paint Brush Tool“. Color as #4cc7d9 and Mode as “Grain Extract“.

select PaintBrush Tool and other values as mentioned

• Now paint it, sure the Grain extract does wonder (at least for me). Just a tip, while coloring do it in a single stroke without clicking the mouse again. As doing so will intensify colors at areas where the brush it taken over multiple times.

start painting

painting done, look I used a large Brush (see the hollow circle)

• But there is something wrong with hard black edges. So lets make them subtle and smooth. “Select Blur Tool“, it looks like a tear drop.

select blur tool

• Start smoothing the edges, please do not smooth out the a center part. Smooth only black boundaries. Remember in GIMP Blur, Smudge and Dodge tool play an important role. You need to start experimenting with them.

start blurring, half the texts are blurred now

It looks good now !

• You can continue to adding shadow too. Add  “Drop Shadow” from Filters.

drop shadow

select default values or tweak it a bit !

• Here is the result.

text with shadow

• Time to smooth out the shadows. Click on the “Drop Shadow” layer in Layer window to select it active. Now hide the text layer “distorted” by clicking on “eye” beside “distorted” in Layer window.

Drop Shadow layer selected.

hide distorted layer

• So now only Drop Shadow and Background layer is visible. Press “CTRL+I” to invert selection so as to include shadow in selection. Now use the same blur trick to make it smooth as told previously.

ghostly shadow look ! Half of the shadow is smooth and light now.

shadow smoothing complete !

• Now un-hide the distort layer and look the final image,

final distorted text

• With slight displacement (Move Tool, m) of either layer you can get some great aesthetic look.

noobish but cool !