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I've been lurking for a while here and finally have something to contribute. Hope you like it.
DISCLAIMER: Any resemblance to any tutorial living or dead is purely coincidental. I came up with this totally on my own.
If anybody knows of a similar tutorial, please let me know.
I Googled all over the place looking for a tutorial like this one, but never found any.
Actually this WAS inspired by the Plasti-Wrap effect screenshots at Guicon's site where you can get the Plasti-Wrap script (which this tutorial requires).
Once I figured out it was the Solid Noise Cloud he was using as a base layer, I was off and running.
Get the Plasti-Wrap script here: http://guicon.110mb....pts:Plasti-Wrap
On with the tewt...
PART 1 - In which we attempt to create a multi-colored "melted wax" texture.
Step 1 - In which we start with a multicolored background with Plasma Cloud.
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In case you haven't done so already, download and install the Plasti-Wrap script from the address above.
Open The Gimp and make a new canvas: File - New
Size it however you want (I used 640 x 480 @ 72 dpi for the example)
Fill with a Plasma Cloud: Filters - Render - Clouds - Plasma
Keep hitting the "New Seed" button until you get a cloud with a good variety of colors in it, and press OK.
NOTE: If you prefer a single color for your wax, then just start by flood filling the new canvas with your favorite color, or Colorify a Plasma Cloud (makes for interesting texture)
TIP: Using a nice shade of Brown will result in something that looks sort of like the surface of a Chocolate Candy (Yum!)
To Colorify: Colors - Colorify, select a color and click "Custom Color" to tweak it.
Step 2 - In which we add a bubbly/ripply effect with Solid Noise.
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Make a new layer: Layer - New Layer
Render a Solid Noise Cloud on it: Filters - Render - Clouds - Solid Noise
Select "Turbulent" for a more 'bubbly' final result and play with the X and Y controls if you like.
Press OK when you're happy.
In the Layers tool tab, set the Layer Mode to "Hard Light".
"Multiply" and "Darken Only" will work also, but will make a darker image.
(this may be useful later, in Part 2...)
Step 3 - The final step in which we apply Plasti-Wrap to make a glossy surface effect.
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No need to make a new layer, the script will create one.
Select the Plasti-Wrap script (you did download and install it, didn't you?): Filters - Light and Shadow - Plasti-Wrap
The default settings will work for now, you can play later, although setting the "Final Layer Copy" to 2 or 3 will lighten the results a bit.
Press OK.
In the Layers tool tab, set the Layer Mode to "Addtion" to lighten it further.
Voila'!! Melted wax texture to put in a sig, wrap around a cylinder, or whatever.
PART 2 - In which we alter our methods for some gruesome Brains/Zombie Guts textures.
Step 1 - In which we start with a different sort of background.
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Same steps as Part 1, but with a couple of tweaks:
For Brains, you'll want a fairly uniform color (probably a pastel-ish shade of red like 'ffc4a0), so either fill with a solid color or Colorify a Plasma Cloud with your desired color (instructions in Part 1, above).
For Zombie Guts, we've a little more tweaking to do:
Render a Plasma Cloud with the "Turbulence" set to 3 for a more 'blotchy' texture, and Colorify with a darkish midtone red (try 'ff6060').
Select the Brush tool and the "Galaxy, Big" brush.
Set the Opacity to 50 or 60 and the brush Scale to 2.00
Click the Foreground Color to make a new color and set it to some shade of muted Green (try '3f883d') and just click in a few random spots. Not a whole lot, just enough to give it a little "gangrene".
Step 2 - In which we add veins (altogether now... "Eeewww")
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I wish Gimp had a "Veins" plugin (I suppose some sort of fractal would do), but Lava does a great job at getting the results we need.
This is a totally new step from Part 1:
First, we'll render some Lava: Filters - Render - Lava
Set the gradient to "Default" (the one that's a plain black-to-white gradient) and make sure "Separate layer" is checked so we don't need to make one.
Click OK
Select the Lava Layer and invert the image so we're left with dark 'veins' on a white background: Colors - Invert
In the Layers tool tab, set the Layer Mode to "Multiply"
Step 3 - In which we add the bubbly/ripply effect.
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Make a new layer and follow instructions as in Step 2, Part 1, but definitely check the "Turbulent" box in the dialog.
NOTE: Set the Layer Mode to "Multiply" for more creepiness, "Darken Only" for a little more light.
Step 4 - In which we apply Plasti-Wrap to make it look wet and squishy
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Same as Step 3 in Part 1, no changes.
Voila'! Greasy Grimy Zombie Guts and BBBRRRRRAAAAIIIIINNNNNSSSSS!!!
Perfect for your creepiest sig or Zombie game splash screen!
There are a lot of weird things you can do with this just by changing the Layer Modes and trying different colors, so if anybody has any good tweaks to this tutorial or some ingenious uses for the resulting textures, post them here, I'd love to see what you can do!
