Help
You can get results like this:
Or like this:
Start with a new image with a BLACK background, whatever size seemeth thee good. I am doing the default Gimp 420x300 image.
You should also have the default colors in your toolbox. Black foreground and white background.
Now, choose the gradient tool. In the options, Opacity should be 100%, mode should be normal. Check the reverse box on the gradient and set the shape to circular.
Drag out a gradient in the middle of your black like this. Simple, huh?
Now go Filters>Distorts>Iwarp. Set your deform radius to five and your deform amount to 100.
Starting at the edge of the gradient you just drew, start dragging out little trails. They don't have to be straight, straight or squiggly, doesn't matter, it's up to you.
At the edges of the gradient, the trails will be quite dark, but we are going to move in a bit closer to the center and do it again.
There are all sorts of possibilities with this method right here. Cartoon hair, for one.
Anyway, keep going until you have done your whole gradient from the outside to the inside.
Once you are done, click Ok. You end up with this:
Again, we also have some animation possibilities here. If you click the animation tab, you can set how many frames it takes to go from the base image, to the final iwarp. When you click okay, it will generate a series of frames, each one more warped than the last. Saving the optimized, scaled GIF made it a bit "jumpy".
Okay, so now we have this sort of sea anemone lookin' thing. Looks kind of like an "organic" C4D.
What can we do with it?
All sortsa stuff.
Pick filter (probaby old hat and gauche to all the sig makers...)
Iwarped again...sort of "smooged" together with the move tool with a large radius.
Gradient mapped with the incandescent gradient. (Filters>Colors>Map>Gradient Map)
Pick filter used on the above image.
This is a combination of the black and white pick filtered version over the gradient mapped pick filtered version. The b&w layer has its mode set to "saturation".
And finally, a version chopped roughly in half and run through saulgoode's mirror Script-fu.
