In this tutorial, we are going to create Crystal Globe Containers that look like this


The original concept for our creation was found on this Photoshop tutorial website Kiosk Orbs. Further inspiration was found on Ali's GIMPtalk globe tutorial located here Creating Globe in 2 Easy Steps. When I first came across the Photoshop site mentioned above, I was really excited about trying to create it with GIMP. But when I saw Ali's post, I got to thinking if it could somehow be accomplished with the Map Objects tool.

I'm here to tell you (and Show you!) that it can.

My biggest hurdle was getting a realistic glass effect. Although not perfect, I think it looks good and, as we learn more things about GIMP, maybe we can make it look even better.

As a matter of housekeeping, I used GIMP version 2.2.6. I believe that most older versions of GIMP should work fine; however, to be on the safe side, I recommend you install the most recent software.

To make the globe, you should have a basic understanding of selections, layers, and the Map Object tool. If you are not familiar with these tools, please read up on the other tutorials found on this site.

Are you ready? Let's begin.....

[*]Open up GIMP and create a new 400 X 400 layer with a white background and rename it "Globe"
[*]Now add two new transparent layers above it (also 400 X 400) and rename one "Bottom Cover" and the other "Top Cover"



Now, with the Globe Layer active, go to Filters | Map | Map Object and set your settings like so:



Leave the Orientation Tab "Rotation" settings at all zeros.


Now, go to Filters | Colors | Color to Alpha ---> click the color bar and type in b7b7b7. I came up with this particular color
because that's what looked good to me. You can either use this setting or pick one of your own. Experiment!

Your globe should now look like this. Looks fairly realistic, in my eyes anyway, but I wanted something a little bit different. Something a little more dramatic. I accomplised this by duplicating the globe layer and merging the two globe layers together.



Note: the globe looks a little dark against the checkerboard background. Once you've put it up against a light background the effect will be reduced. But, if you're a little concerned at this point, go ahead and add a white background layer. I won't be, however, because I know what the final product looks like :w:

Now, let's make the top and bottom covers of the globe. I will be starting with the "Bottom Cover" layer, but the order does not matter. Just make sure you follow the instructions for each one, because they are not exactly the same. Now, with your "Bottom Cover" layer active:
[*]grab your "Rectangle Selection" tool and select a large portion of the layer's lower half. Mine is 160 pixels high, but you do what you like. Very important: Make sure your selection covers the entire width of the layer. If you don't, your Bottom Cover will have a gap in the back. You may have to increase the canvas size a bit if you can't get the proper seletion.
[*]Fill the selected area with the color of your choice.



[*]Deselect the layer.
[*]Go to the Map Objects tool again and, with the exception of the "Orientation" tab, use all the same settings as above. Here, we want to rotate the bowl a little bit to give us a "surface" to "hold" our items.
[*]Under "Rotation", set the Z axis to 9.0.
[*]Choose OK.



Now, we'll do the same thing for the "Top Cover". Since this is pretty much a duplicate step, I won't provide any pictures. This step, however, has one difference than the previous one. Make the layer active, grab your "Rectangle Selection" tool and select a large portion of the layer's upper half. Mine is 100 pixels high, but you do what you like. Again, make sure your selection covers the entire width of the layer.

[*]Fill the selected area with the color of your choice.
[*]Deselect the layer.
[*]Go to the Map Objects tool again and, with the exception of the "Orientation" tab, use all the same
settings as above. This time, under "Rotation", set the Z axis to 5.0.
[*]Choose OK.

Your image should now look like this. How are you doing?



You probably won't believe this, but we're almost finished!

Let's add the final touches, shall we?

What I want to do now is make the surface for our objects to rest. There are 3 parts to the surface: a rim for the "Bottom Cover", a side wall, and the shelf.

The 3 parts are actually just ellipses that you could create with the ellipse selection tool and place them by hand, but for the tutorial, we'll be using guide lines to create/place them.

Let's go....

Put two vertical guidelines at the very edge of the Bottom Cover. The one on the left is at x=105, the right x=295. If you've used different dimensions for this exercise, modify your guidelines accordingly. Now add two horizontal guidelines at roughly y=214 and 252. Like so...



I've made the guidelines bold as they didn't show up well when I exported the image.

Make sure you've got Snap to Guides selected. You can find that under the "View" menu.

Now, grab your ellipse selection to and drag an ellipse from the upper left hand cornerof the guide intersection to the lower right handcorner of the guide intersection. I have designated these locations with a red and yellow dot, respectively. The dots will not be on your screen. If you performed this step properly, you should have a selection that matches the upper edges of the Bottom Cover.



[*]Create a new layer and rename it "Rim"
[*]Grab your gradient tool and fill it with your choice of colors. I've used the "Brushed Aluminum" gradient with a Conical (sym) fill shape.



[*]Shrink the "Rim" selection by 3 pixels and create a new layer and rename it "Side Wall"
[*]Fill the new layer with a Linear Gradient from left to right. I used the "Flare Rays Size 1" gradient, but you can use whatever looks good to you.



[*]Shrink the "Side Wall" selection by 3 pixels and create a new layer and rename it "Shelf."
[*]Fill the shelf with solid white.



Grab your move tool and move the shelf layer down to cover the bottom portion of Side Wall layer like so:



You are now officially finished with your container! Wasn't that easy?



Theoretically, the globe should be scaled to fit "inside" of the rim, but I think I've given you enough tools to make that happen.

Additionally, you need to bring the "Top Cover" layer below the globe layer to give it an extra shine.

Don't forget to add some objects to your container.

Hope this was enlightening and fun! I've had a great time learning how to do it and sharing the information with you.

Happy Gimping!

Art

Oh I missed, thsi topic was not beign shown in new topics.
It is just Out-Standing :h:.

Are you sure you used a highlight of 40.00 when mapping your first sphere? Here is what I got when using your settings exactly:



The only way I could get it to look right was to keep the highlight setting at or below 27.00 which is the default. Otherwise, great tutorial and I had a very nice transparent shpere with electricity in it (combining 2 of your tutorials) before the program locked up on me forcing me to reboot.

Thanks for the kind words, Ali and Gatormac!

Gatormac, mine did the same thing a couple of times when I was in the Map Objects preview mode, but it never did it when I hit the OK button. Don't really know what the issue is, but my setting was 40. Of course you can use other settings as well, 40 is just what looked best to me. I actually created several spheres beginning with a highlight of 5 and increased it in increments of 5 until I got what I liked. So, don't just stick with my numbers, it's what looks best to your eyes. :l: In all actuality, when I create my next orb, I probably won't create it exactly as I outlined in the tutorial because I've got some other ideas I want to try.

BTW, I'd like to see your sphere with electricity in it as I'm working on one myself :w:

Unfortunately I will have to start from scratch as I hadn't saved any progress before Gimp locking up. I don't think anything I would do would come close to being as impressive as what you do, but I will share it when I get around to finishing one (and if Gimp will quit locking up!).

Don't be so sure. Everyone brings something good to the table. :l: Sorry you're having such a difficult time with your computer and GIMP. Mine too has its little quirks, but no crashes so far *crosses fingers*

here is my first pic done using GIMP ,it is a combination of this tutorial and the lightning tutorial i was attempting to create a plasma lamp

Welcome to GT kward1979uk

Nice attempt :h:. btw if the holder/stand of this sphare can be done in shorter length cylendar it will look great.

thanks for submitting.

regards

Very impressive and welcome to the boards, kward!

Your animation looks like it may be worthy of a tutorial. Care to share your techniques? Did you do the animation with GAP?

Thanks, Art

has this page been edited?!

Cause I could of sworn that a few days ago when i looked at this tutorial that there was more to it--with other people showing what they did---i.e. Showing cylinders and other stuff?

BTW--nice tutorial--it was good fun :l:

I saw you were online and that you had found the thread you were asking about. Glad you found the tutorial fun. BTW, welcome to the boards!

Fencepost (Art)

Welcome to the boards Dome6656,

I think the thread you where refering to is here http://www.gimptalk.com/topic.php?a=v&t=14&f=8 Its a slightly differnt TUTORIAL.

I created my animation by Firstly creating a glassglobe using the instructions I then created a image of my plasma and mapped it to a sphere and placed it behind the glass image, to get the lighter part of the sphere i coppied the plasma ball, lowered the opacity and applied a mask, this image was then saved as plasma1 i then changed the plasma image-remapped itso the sparks were in a different position and saved as plasma2 this was then repeated for a third time i then opened the images as three layers and saved all three layers as a .gif

Im sorry this explanation is probably not very clear, i will repeat with images step by step at a later dat if required.

Karl

This tutorial is very nice, and very effective.

Can anybody explain where I might have messed up to get the bottom to look like that? I started the top at 120 and the bottom at 240, followed the top's instructions and it worked, but when I tried the instructions for the bottom Rotation Z: 9.0 created an area inside the orb even smaller than that, that one is set at 15.0. If a picture of it at a rotation of 9.0 helps explain what I just said let me know...I don't make much sense often.

Hey, Omega. I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the steps you've described that led you to having that problem. Give me a little more information.

Thanks, Art

Right, sorry. =)



When I followed that step the inside of the bottom cover was maybe a half of the size it is in my picture now, and curved differently than your example picture. Aside from that I haven't had any problems.

Here's a possible error you may have made....When you mapped the bottom layer to the sphere was anything selected on the screen? The whole layer needs to be mapped, which includes the transparent part of the layer as well. So, if you only had the outline of the red portion selected, it would have made it smaller.

Try that and let me know.

A

That was the problem, thanks Art.

Glad to have been of help. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Art

Ended up working on three of them. =P

I'm stuck at the part where you need to create the rim. After creating the guidelines, I don't know how to select the bottom cover.

That is where I'm stuck.

You're not actually "selecting" the bottom cover. You're just creating a selection that has the same "limits" or "borders", if you will, of the bottom cover. That's the purpose of the guidelines.

So, just create the selection and make sure you've "Snap to Guides" on.

Does that make any sense? Let me know if it doesn't.
Art

Yes it makes sense, but I don't really know how to make the selection. I do have Snap to Guides on.