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LE-stuff.zip # - (6.57 MiB) Downloaded 169 times
The zipped folder also contains a test file resource (Env_Map_Test_Square.xcf) which contains some pattern layers gathered from various sources and just four simple custom font characters.
Here is a copy of this help guide in pdf format:
- Custom Font Lighting Effects GT Style Filter Help.pdf #
- (2.28 MiB) Downloaded 148 times
This Gimp 2.10 plug-in uses the Gimp Lighting Plug-in to apply a range of effects to all the characters in a custom font file.
It broadly follows the techniques employed by GnuTux in his Environment Mapped Text tutorial on GimpChat in 2013.
http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=23& ... 17df8732e3
Unfortunately, as Graechan bemoaned way back in 2010, the Lighting plug-in does not work as it should in non-interactive mode i.e. when used from within a script, and so I have had to be creative and use additional mode methods to apply a patterned layer for the light effects to work with.
In lighting plug-in terms, this patterned or textured layer is used as an environment map but, unlike the real filter, it requires an alpha channel to work properly; it will still work without an alpha channel but it will not produce very good results. If you are not sure if the layer has an alpha channel, it will be displayed in bold text in the layer stack if it does not have one.
To see the filter work, open up an existing custom font file (or use the supplied test file which has only four characters in). The custom font can be plain or decorative – since the plug-in will initially use the outlined shape of each character as its base. If you use your own font add a patterned layer – preferably one bigger than the image height and width – to your image layer stack and click on ‘OK’.
The filter dialog is a large one and if your screen resolution is less than 1080 px high you will probably have to make use of some sort of solution to add a scroll bar to the dialog. Search Gimpchat for an answer to this problem or follow the link here:
http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13714
I have tried hard to shorten the 24 option dialog but sadly the plug-in won hands down. Below are example outputs using the default options. Just drag the texture/pattern layer you want the filter to use to the top of the other patterned layers in the layer dock and click ‘OK’. 'Master Bump with alpha copy' pattern result 'Plain Orange' result 'envmap_red.jpg copy' pattern result 'Gold_Sparkle' pattern result A quick look at the workflow of the filter may help to explain some of options from the dialog.
After checking that a suitable layer exists to use as the environment layer the filter makes a copy of that layer... ...and then attempts to centre it.
If an appropriate option (dialog nos 16 - 18) is checked it will distort this pseudo environment layer with the selected Gimp plug-in. The Apply lens filter is selected by default with a refraction index of 2.0. but you could also introduce some distortion using the Polar coords filter option. Then the filter creates a filled version of the character on a white background (represented by the rectangle below) in the chosen shade of grey (dialog # 10)... ...before adding some of the blur (dialog # 14)… ...and a bump-mapped version of the environment layer (dialog # 11)... ...before applying a final blur. This is now the temporary character bump-map layer that the lighting plug-in can use to create its magic – shown below with a yellow light taken from the foreground colour (dialog # 1). The next step is to attempt to try and remove any artifacts created during the bump-map and lighting process using the selective gaussian blur filter (dialog # 20).
Then the environment layer is added and applied to the bump-map layer using the chosen mode (dialog # 19). Be aware that the new, default modes are used only if the old mode is set to ‘Normal’. When this process is completed, the filter moves on to the next character in the custom font file.
At the end of that, the filter adds one extra layer named legend as a summary of all the dialog options used in text form. I got fed up trying to remember which options and values I had used to produce a certain effect. I have posted the rest of the guide in the Tutorials section of GimpLearn. Best of luck!
