I stayed up way too late last night rewriting this, so there may be some mistakes. Let me know!

Start with a new transparent image, 450 x 100

Choose Filters>Render>Clouds>Solid Noise. Leave the Detail at 1, Set x=2, y=2. Play around with the seed button until you find one you like.

Create a new transparent layer. Grab the rectangular selection tool and make a box 350px wide x 60px tall. Tip: Use the Snap to Grid function for easy sizing. Next, choose Select>Rounded Rectangle, set the radius to 90 and OK.





Fill your selection with whatever color you want your tube to be. Set the mode to Overlay. Keeping the selection active, click on the cloud layer, choose Select>Invert, Edit>Clear. You should now have just the tube visible. Merge the tube layer down to the background.



Stop right there! With the selection still active, go to Select>Save to Channel. This will save the rounded rectangle shape as a mask that can be activated instead of having to keep creating the shape and match size and location, and save some time later.

Insert a new transparent layer (Tube lower highlight) above the tube. Select>Shrink by 6. Set foreground color to white and click on Gradient tool. Gradient= Foreground to Transparent, Mode Normal, Reverse, Shape Linear, Repeat None, Dithering checked. Apply the gradient to approximately the lower third of the selection only. Unselect. Gaussian blur by 10. Set Layer opacity to 80 percent.

Insert a new transparent layer (Tube shine). Go to Channels dialog, click on Selection Mask copy. Click the pink box at the bottom of the dialog box (Channel to Selection). Select>Shrink by 6 again. Go back to the Gradient dialog and unselect Reverse. Apply gradient to upper half of selection. With the selection still active, select the Move tool and choose Affect selection (pink box) in the dialog. Drag the selection to the right 30 px and down 10 px roughly. Edit>Clear. Choose Select>None. Gaussian blur by 10.

Insert a new transparent layer (Tube lowlight) below the shine layer. Set foreground color to black. Do Channel to Selection; Select>Shrink by 16. Fill with black, unselect and apply a Gaussian blur of 25. Set the layer opacity to 25.





Image>Merge Visible Layers.

Next, Script-fu>Layer Effects>Bevel and Emboss, choose Outer Bevel and settings:



Script-fu>Layer Effects>Satin with these settings:



Merge visible layers again. The tube is now finished.



Wrap Layer 1:

Insert a new transparent layer above the tube. Go to Channels dialog and create a selection from the saved channel.


Fill with color of choice. Reset colors to black and white. Click on the gradient tool and set mode to overlay, Foreground to Background, Reverse. Apply gradient top to bottom of selection. Unselect.



Choose elliptical selection tool. Drag selection to desired shape over the end of the image.



Edit>Clear. To mirror the cut on both ends, switch to the Move tool and reposition elliptical selection at opposite side and repeat Edit>Clear.
Script-fu, Decor, Add Bevel, Thickness 5.

Add a Drop Shadow, Offset x=1, y=1, Blur radius 0. Repeat drop shadow, but change the x, y offsets to -1.
Script-fu>Layer Effects>Inner Shadow



Repeat the above steps on the outer wrap layer, changing colors as desired.



Here's another attempt. Came out much better!


Add buttons, more cuts, text, whatever.....

Great job! Looking forward to trying this out a bit later. Thanks a bunch!

Art

confussssssssing..... i got to this part

Insert a new transparent layer (Tube lower highlight) above the tube. Select>Shrink by 6. Set foreground color to white and click on Gradient tool. Gradient= Foreground to Transparent, Mode Normal, Reverse, Shape Linear, Repeat None, Dithering checked. Apply the gradient to approximately the lower third of the selection only. Unselect. Gaussian blur by 10. Set Layer opacity to 80 percent.

Insert a new transparent layer (Tube shine). Go to Channels dialog, click on Selection Mask copy. Click the pink box at the bottom of the dialog box (Channel to Selection). Select>Shrink by 6 again. Go back to the Gradient dialog and unselect Reverse. Apply gradient to upper half of selection. With the selection still active, select the Move tool and choose Affect selection (pink box) in the dialog. Drag the selection to the right 30 px and down 10 px roughly. Edit>Clear. Choose Select>None. Gaussian blur by 10.

Insert a new transparent layer (Tube lowlight) below the shine layer. Set foreground color to black. Do Channel to Selection; Select>Shrink by 16. Fill with black, unselect and apply a Gaussian blur of 25. Set the layer opacity to 25.


ok first. the tube lower highlight is real confusing u said make your forground pallet white, and u put the gradient tool on and put it on reverse wich will make it the background color... whats it sposed to be ? green? and 2nd im kinda new to gi mp so how do u apply gradient to my sig thingy? i clicked it on the tube part and the transparent backgorund part....


i think it needs to be just a li more explained for newbs like me

Alright, you finished! *Goes to try*

Sorry I got you confoozed, gamer. If you look at the gradient box in the pic on the left, you'll see the white fades to transparent left to right. In the gradient box on the right, with Reverse checked, the transparency fades into the white. You're not changing the palette colors, just the direction of the gradient.

"Next, Script-fu>Layer Effects>Bevel and Emboss, choose Outer Bevel and settings:"
I got there. Problem, i dont have any layer effects in my script fu. At all.

Layer Effects

Sorry. Forgot to include the link. I'm still new to writing tuts myself!

...well, that makes a lot of things easier...

pretty sweet I'll have to try it

Shameless self promotion, or

BUMP!

C'mon, folks! I worked hard on this. I want to see what people are making - if anything!

Alright, no offense, but that was CONFUSING! Half the time, I didn't even know which box or window I was looking in!

First, my tube, well, the background was white, not transparent, so, everything I did wasn't showing up...

Second, My Script-fu doens't have that Layer Effects thing, so I couldn't go pass that part... :

Other than that, good job...

:w:

Why would I be offended? I got confused writing the silly thing.

Did you start with a transparent background?

And the Layer Effects.scm is a few posts up the page.

OK its getting late now so i'll try tomorrow and i'll post my attempt later

Okay, I tried again from scratch. I followed EVERYTHING you did up to this part:

" Apply the gradient to approximately the lower third of the selection only. "

When I did that, it didn't even have an effect on the tube!?

same thing happened to me, btw the link for hte download of layer effects.. doesnt wrok??? i clicked it, then clicked download but it took me to a script page

Check your gradient mode. I've applied gradients dozens of times with no results until I realized I had overlay or screen or some such checked. Set your gradient mode to Normal and it should work.

Edit: I just saw your screen shot ($#*%& dialup). Something's not right. With your selection active, the marching ants should only be around the tube itself. Send me your .xcf file and I'll see if I can figure it out.

.sorry didnt mean to post

Awesome tut here. I love the out come and i will post mine soon. Just wanted to say great job!!

haha i know what i did wrong, edit your post mate, you click invert, clear, then INVERT AGAIN lol...

yay i got mine finished ill upload it later

Woah! I'm SO darn confused... :

I started all over again, and the same thing is happening:

3rd attempt:

No progress...

As for my Gradients tool, here's a screenshot of the stuff and everything...

I set all the settings the write way...

Darn, Darn, Darn!!! It says that I can't upload (or attach) my file because "The File Size May Be Too Big For The Server To Upload."

*sigh*... :a:

Sheesh, you need to invert the selection >_> Hang on, lemme do it *Goes off*

*Yells* ARG!!!! I tried that!!!

Inverted:

You can't even tell that I added the darn Gradient!!

Trickd, can you give me a screenshot of your layers dialog? I think I see what's happening.

Sure. This is after I TRIED to apply the gradients to the lower section of the tube...

I merged the layers down so that the Tube and the Background became one.