GIMP tutorials: Feather to create a glowing effect

Synopsis

Any graphics artist must know how to use basic tools to create different effects. What this tutorial will aim to do, is show you how to create a glowing effect by using the selection tools that come with GIMP.

To follow this tutorial, it will help if you have GIMP installed which you can find here. My tutorial is aimed at someone who has used GIMP before, which is why I have not provided any screen shots. If you do not have any experience with using GIMP, then this should still be fairly easy to follow, as long as you are familiar with the GIMP interface.

Note

This tutorial was originally written for GIMP 2.4, although the same principles should apply to later versions.

Step 1

Start by creating a new image (in the menu, go to File -> New).

You can use any size you wish to experiment, though I will use one that is 300px in width and 100px in height.

Step 2

We now want to add some text to the image. Either press T on your keyboard to use this tool, or click on the text icon like so

Step 3

Now in the menu, select Layer -> Transparency -> Alpah to Selection.

Step 4

From the menu, select Select -> Grow. A small window will then pop up which will ask you how much you want to grow the selection by. For this tutorial, we will grow the selection by 8 pixels.

Step 5

Once you have grown your selection it is time feather it. What this basically means is, you are going to make the selection gradually fade out. From the menu select Select -> Grow -> Feather, then as with growing the selection a window will pop up asking you how much you want to feather the selection by. In this case, we will feather the selection by 20 pixels.

Step 6

Time for colour! You will need to create a new layer, which you can do by selecting from the menu Layer -> New Layer, then just click OK. Now fill your selection with your desired colour using the fill tool (click on the bucket icon or hold Shift and B at the same time). Once you have filled your selection, you will need to make sure that the layer you filled the selection with is below the layer you have your text on.

You should now have something like this.

Be sure to experiment, then you can produce different types of outcomes such as these two I will demonstrate for you.

Notes

The image used to acheive the result shown above (the character called Trunks with the purple hair, who appears in a cartoon called Dragon Ball Z), is not my property and all rights are reserved for the respective owner.

I give permission for this tutorial to be posted anywhere on the condition that you give me notice, specify that I wrote this tutorial to the people reading it and provide a link back to www.denegibson.co.uk.

Tutorial written by Dene Gibson (otherwise found under the call sign of gogul2k).

I hope you found this useful and thanks for reading!