Well, here's my second tutorial. I began doing some experimenting with some of the different settings to see what would happen when creating lightning. I thought I'd share them with others before I forgot how to do it :w:

Hope it helps someone out. Please post your creations or any questions/comments you might have.

Art

Keywords: Gimp, Lightning, Clouds, Difference, Blend Mode, Overlay

1. Open a new layer. For these examples, I'm using a layer size of 150 x 150 pixels.
2. Reset your colors to: foreground: black ; background: white.
3. Using the linear gradient tool, drag a gradient from the to left corner to the bottom right corner.



4. Duplicate background layer and set its mode to "Difference"
Your picture will now turn black, but that's normal.
5. Select Filters | Render | Clouds | Solid Noise...
For this lesson, I've selected the following parameters: Detail: 1; X: 2; Y:2 (no other options checked)
Feel free to play around with these settings.



6. Merge the two layers together by selecting Layer | Merge Down.
7. Now choose Layer | Colors | Invert.
8. Let's eliminate most of the white by going to Layer | Colors | Levels and adjusting the settings as shown below.



9. Let's give it a beuatiful blue color.
Go to Layer | Colors | Colorize and make Hue: 200; Saturation: 75. I left Lightness as the default.



Very nice and looking good!

Now that we've created "typical" lightning, we need to approach things from a different angle. As you go through the next few exercises, you may ask yourself, "How can I ever use this?" I can't answer that for you. I'm addressing the how, it's up to you to decide the where, when, and why!

Remember, I won't re-explain the steps used previously, just refer to the corresponding numbers above.

1. Open a new layer.
2. Reset your colors.
3. This time use the spiral (ccw or cw) gradient tool to drag
a conical gradient. The smaller the line you drag, the more
spirals you'll get.
4. Duplicate background layer and set its mode to "Difference"
5. Repeat Steps 5-8 above.





9. To color this one, set the Gradient Blend Mode to Soft Light. I chose the pastel rainbow gradient and kept the shape used above. Try playing around with the Shape and Mode settings to see what you can come up with. Here's another tip: after you color it once, change the Mode and Shape to different settings. This will keep the color you previously made, plus overlay a new one!



Pretty neat!

Here's my last example. Again:

1. Open a new layer.
2. Reset your colors.
3. Use the conical (asym) gradient tool to drag a conical
gradient.
4. Repeat steps 4-8 above.
9. Try colorizing it using whatever technique you'd like.

This gives us a lightning bolt from a specific location point. Try using the conical (sym), it will give 2 bolts from a specific location.



How about a Mother's Day Heart made using an undescribed, but similar technique?



Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I Love You!

Can you guess how I did it?

I know this was long, but I certainly hope it was as helpful for you as it was for me. Questions and comments always welcome!

Have Fun and Keep on GIMPing!

Art

Here's a photo of my 3 month old granddaughter and me. She was "misbehaving" so I felt she needed a little "shock" therapy! That'll teach her to cry when she's hungry. :w:

Art

Tutorial seems to be very interesting, but I could follow from step # 8.
Can you please give fewmore details on it? btw in step #6 if we delete the lower layer instead of merging it with upper one, sin't it same ?


btw, too much effort and time you spent in tutorial, thank yo uso much for this, many gimp usres will be benifitted from it.

regards

Your little daughter is so cute, expecting some more prictures of her.

thanks for sharing.

regards

I'm not sure if this will address your questions, but I'll give it a shot....

I'll start with step 6. You actually have to merge the layers because the upper layer's Mode is set to difference, which relies on the layer below it to create the lightning bolt(s). If you delete the lower layer, you're only left with the clouds. Also if you try to proceed to Step 7 without merging, the only thing you'll be doing is inverting the color of the clouds. Not inverting the color of the lightning. Does that make sense?

In step 8 I may have mistyped, but you're not really getting rid of the white, but trying to isolate the bolt by eliminating much of the grays or most of the color around the bolt itself. By increasing the left and middle settings to the values I've shown (Left setting from 0 to 190, middle from 1 to .3) we've introduced more black into the layer; therefore isolating the bolt.

Does this help? If you have anything additional you need clarification on, let me know. Also, the tutorial is a bit confusing, I can reword the areas of confusion to make it easier to understand.

Art

Ah, thanks I forgot the laye mode is not normal :w:, in that case upper one is dependant on lowe one. I think you clean tutorials once I have installed the new LBCode for tables, that way you would be able to get rid of putting entire tutorial in one image.

regards

No problem. Just let me know what I can do to help. :h:

A

I am just into the code, and adding new feature to LBCode, I let post in general forum when done :w:.

Thanks for quick response.

regards

will read it a bit later... looks really interesting...

and that pic of urz and ur grand daughter.. is so cute!

Nice for electric current or static animation:



Nice tutorial!

Here's another twist.

[*]Create a new document and add a text layer. This works best with a fat font.
[*]Select the text (Alpha to Selection)
[*]Render Clouds within the text layer



[*]Duplicate the text layer and set the upper layer's mode to Difference
[*]Grab the gradient tool and add one of the "Shaped" gradients (ie..angular, spherical, etc.)
[*]Merge the layers.



[*]Invert the colors
[*]Adjust the Levels
[*]Colorize

Final Results!



Enjoy!

Edit: When I prepared the main Lightning tutorial, I was unaware how the "shaped" gradients work. I stumbled across a website somewhere that briefly described them and thought it would be useful to add an example here. In a nutshell, the shaped gradients adjust their fills to the selection. If you try another "non-shaped" gradients in the BOLTS example above, the results will not be the same.

idk if i should ask this here but how can i make a smaller and more detailed shock? what do i change in the process?

look

i made this using the tutorial - very nice tut btw -



and i need to make one that i can animate for this :

ok im confused how do i set it difference there is no such setting in mode?

and im confused on how to put a sig and avvy on here i cant find were to do it

The layer mode is set by using the drop-down box at the top of the layer window (directly above the opacity slider).



I am not sure about the avatars and signatures, but I am guessing you have to click on the "My Settings" link at the top of this page.

sorry... where is the tutorial? where are photos?
(i know: i'm noob in this forum )

Look up and see lightning! The tutorial is at the very top of the page.

Welcome to the board.

Art

dam, nice tut, hella complicated tho, i like my lightning better tho lmao. (white grunge brushing) its fatter, easier, brighter, but urs looks hella cool.

Problem solved: Mozilla Firefox doesn't show pictures inside messages (but does show other images...)
With IE i've seen everything

very strange

I used the tut to make this base image, haven't added text yet:

THanks for the tutorial i have got it to work, and i am trying to create a force lightning affect i shall post m result later :h:

can you tell us how you did that heart?

Our outsome are really similiar Fencepost! :w:
This ones mine:

:

may i ask, how did you add the lightning to the picture?

I created the lightning on a separate layer and I believe I set that layer to lighten(?) Can't quite remember and I can't find the xcf file to verify. I also cropped the ends of the lightning bolt to fit and smudged them just a tad where they touched the skin to make the edges look a little smoother.

A

if you have ever heard of the show naruto, well i tried to use this and some other stuff to make chidori, didnt turn out right but im gonna keep tring lol