To start off you will want to use a forward facing render (it’s okay if the edges are choppy as long as the rest of the render looks good). Paste your render onto a large image (1000 x 1000 or whatever you want as long as you leave lots of room so you can get the full effect) as a transparent layer.
Duplicate the render layer then run Noise>Pick at 50 and 50.
Now Image>Transform>Rotate image 90 degrees CW. Now use Filters>Distorts>Wind at whatever settings look good you want as long as you keep the style on wind with the direction on Left. (You’ll want it to be BIG though) Now do Image>Transform>Rotate Image 90 degrees CCW.
Now run another pick, but this time set repeat to 100.
Duplicate your picked layer and place the duplicate behind the render. Run a pick with 25 randomization on this layer. Then do a Gaussian blur of 3 on both pick layers before desaturating them.
Now go to your render layer and select: Layer>Transparency>Alpha to Selection then Select>Shrink 5-10 pixels. Now activate you’re quick-mask (The box in the lower left hand corner) and do a Gaussian blur of 30 then a pick with a repeat of around 45.
Deactivate the quick-mask and clear selection (Ctrl + K) on the top layer then Gaussian blur that layer by 3.
Ready for the finishing touches? I bet you are; so let’s finish this. Now go to the top layer and do Layer>Transparency>Alpha To Selection. Feather your selection by 5 and delete this from the render layer; erase the other parts of your render which don’t look good with one of the fuzzy circles.
Create two black layers and merge your picked “Flames” onto them. Set the two aura layers as screen and duplicate them both three times. Leave your uppermost copy alone, Gaussian Blur the second by 10, the third one by 20 and the fourth by 30. Do this for both “flames”. Merge down the flames then Layers>Colors>Colorize for both layers. Finally go to Filters>Colors>Color To Alpha and select 000000. Now erase where it doesn’t look good, crop your image etc.
Optional: For a little more depth create a sparks layer and set this to overlay (Desaturate this layer if you aren’t doing Red/Orange/Yellow for a color theme) Then Alpha to Selection you’re top aura layer, Invert Selection, and Clear Selection on the sparks layer.
I "borrowed a couple of ideas from
Fatal Edge - http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/topic/Mis ... 253-1.html
and
Frank34443 - http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/topic/Fra ... 227-1.html
You do not need my permission to post this on another site, please just credit me. I will answer any questions if you need help. :w:
