Okay guys, I have had this question asked from me a bunch of times. "HOW DO YOU DO PATHS LIKE THAT?"
I will be honest, it is not my technique, it originates from a PS method to make lightsabers, but I sort of changed it up and used it to make paths. Most of you higher class gimpers will probably know this, but to help out the people who are a bit newer, here it is, my minitutorial:

Yay thank you I was always having trouble with the merging part I didn't realize it was image merge vis. I was getting a crappy effect when merged. Thanks again man!

np glad i can be of help.

realy helped me first time my paths looked good :w:

Np glad it could help.

Cool, thanks! *bookmarked* Just one question: What do you mean in the part about the 75 pixel brush? I don't get what you are saying, or how that gets the curve... :s:

Well what that means is that, as you might know already, that you can create your own brushes in gimp. So create a soft brush of 75 pixels or something around that size depending on your paths tooling size, and then erase the path from an angle to get the sort of curved point thing I usually have. Thats pretty much as simple as I can put it hope it helps.

I still don't get how erasing the line gets the curved point, but you can use Iwarp to get the same effect, right? Or are you talking about having the path end in the sig? Like not going from one edge of the sig to the other edge. If that's what you mean, then I do get it.

EDIT: Never mind, I get it. I misinterpreted what I read... :

Thank you so much, I've been trying to get paths done for a week now and went no where. It should look nice in one of my signatures.

NP guys.

@Pikapal: Pikapal, don't erase the whole path, just softly erase the end of it with a soft brush to get a curved cut off.... You get it? It makes it have that cool ninja sword look at the end.

Yeah, I got it. I was like "I don't get it-...oh, wait a minute...I see. *doh*" Thanks though. I got it now.

Thanks Frank this has really helped me :w:

hey these are my three resukts i got

Not bad, I think what you were doing though is making the original line too thick. On an average sig a 3 pixel line is usually enough.

here's a sig I made for a request using this technique to get the lines... with a small alteration from me

Nice use of paths. Something to remember is to keep the lines thin, because I have realized that if you blend too much or make the lines too thick it can end up being too illuminating to actually look nice.

Your tut rocks, thanks for taking the time to do it.

I don't understand how to get the pen tool to follow the path...Do you just use the path as a visual reference, or is there a way to get the pen to snap on to the path?

Oh ok... let me explain..

The path tool, is the tool you use to make the lines and shapes you want to "stroke". Once you have it done, you go to dialoges>paths. In that dialogue, you can select the path you made, and at the bottom of the dialogue there is a button called stroke path, click that and then make the settings. Using a paintbrush is generally smoother but it is not necessary. Hope that helps, that is how you paint over the path.

You can also go to Edit>Stroke Path. That's usually what I do.

My result

@Pikapal: Stroke path works, but it tends to be jagged so I try to stay away from it.

@MOOK: Very, very nice use of it. I said very twice. You got it looking very great.

I have a question about the stroke them in a thin line. What do you mean by that? You mean with the path tool or a paintbrush. Thanks :h:.

Argh, why must I be so dumb. Im sorry, but for some reason Im completely lost. Oh man, on a simple tut too. Now, when you make the path, do you make it just a line, or like a shape, then erase as stated? And what do you mean stroke by 4-5? @_@ (Im such a noob ;-;)

EDIT:Wait, I got it. Pretty cool. :p

-SL213

hey.. nice tut, am going to try it out..