Glow Effect

Average: 4.4 (705 votes)
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In this tutorial I will make use of different overlaid layers mixed with radial gradient tool to achieve and awesome light effect, started off as a experiment turned out to be a cool effect and worth a tutorial :)

Step 1

Will start off by creating a new image and filling it with a solid Black color. i started off with 420x300 so it fits the sites width. you might want to use your final outcome as a wallpaper so try 1600x1200 then zoom out to 33% to get the a decent few of the whole image.

Step 2

Now will want to create the Lines using the "Path Tool" but first Create a new Layer, name it something like "Middle line" then select the "Path tool" and add one point above the image area and another at the lower bottom, drag the bottom point to the right to get a similar curve as mine.

Step 3

Now we need to create a new thin brush to stroke the path with. go to the Brushes dialog and at the bottom you will see a little "New brush" icon, click on that and enter all the values shown in the image below. once your finished name it and save.

Step 4

Change your Foreground color to solid white, Make sure the new brush is selected, then go to Edit>Stroke to Path, now inside the Stroke to Path dialog click on the "Stroke Path with a Paint tool" radio button and finally press Stroke.

Step 5

Now for the out glow of the lines will create a new layer, change the foreground color to 5babe8 and in the brushes dialog you should have a brush named Circle (05) if not then create a new brush with the following values.

Step 6

Now as we did in step 3 will repeat it again, go to Edit>Stroke to Path, now inside the Stroke to Path dialog click on the "Stroke Path with a Paint tool" radio button then finally press Stroke.

Step 7

Once you have the solid light blue will add the glow effect by using the "Gaussian blur" this can be found in Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur".change the values to 10px for both Horizontal and vertical fields.

You should have something like this now

Step 8

Draw two more lines with the Path tool and Repeat the same steps done earlier to achieve the same glow effect on the lines.

Step 9

Using the radial tool create three spot light effects, one in the upper right corner , the second in the upper left corner and the third in the lower left corner, will do that by first creating a new layer, then grabbing the "blend tool",changing the foreground color to white and the background to black, make sure you have the FG to BG (RGB) Gradient and changing the the gradient shape to "Radial".

Once you have all that set apply the blend tool as shown in the image

Step 10

Now that you have applied the radial blend in the upper right corner change the layer mode to "Addition" you will find this option in the Layer dialog.

Step 11

New Layer, create another spot light in the bottom left corner, drag the blend tool starting from the middle . then set the Layer mode to "Dodge"

Step 12

Create another new Layer for the final spot light, this time apply the Blend tool in the upper left corner where the two lines join and change the mode to "dodge"

<2>Step 11 Will add some particles using different sizes of brushes, just select the brush we first created or any tiny 2 radius brush select the color white and paint random dots here and there,for the bigger particles change the size and the opacity in the "Tool Options dialog" to get a better effect.

There you go, you're done!

Like everything there is always room for improvements here i added some text and applied all the techniques we just learned .

Hope you found that useful :) if there is any mistakes or something unclear let me know.
you download the attached Xcf source file of this tutorial from below.

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Visitor's picture

Another nice way to finish

Another nice way to finish off lines is to create a new layer and
make another FG -> BG radial gradient originating at the line end and then applying the layer with 'Subtract' this gives a nice fadeout effect similar to this: http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7731/lineendiq3.jpg

Sorry if this isnt the best way to achieve this effect. Im fairly new to The GIMP, but this seemed logical to me.

Great tutorial thanks a bunch

fedella's picture

Hi! Thanks for the tuto, it

Hi!
Thanks for the tuto, it is so useful.
I would like to add another truc, you can use the scrip-fu neon, it seems to me quicker.
First: Draw your lines in plain color (up to you) Second: script-fu/alpha to logo/neon...taking your beautiful idea (or trying I made this)
Cheers!

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/4417/firevd4.jpg

Visitor's picture

Let's follwo you. ^_^

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

nice trick

nunupuff's picture

Glow text...

How do I get the text to glow like that?

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

nice tutorials ilike it

Visitor's picture

>=(

GOD! i cant frickin do it!! >=(

Visitor's picture

Text Glow

Am struggling to create the background white line of the text.

When i press the "path from text" button and then stroke the path using the paintbrush it outlines my text, instead of creating a single line.

 Do i need to use a different mode of paintbrush to achieve a single line instead of an outline from the text path? Or has this tutorial just used the white text (no path stroking) with a blue stroked layer on top - if so, what font did you use/styling?

Alex

Visitor's picture

in step for when looking at

in step for when looking at the "Stroke to Path dialog" in there you will see option to make staight line path or and outline. in this case you will need an straight path line. hope that helped 

xxsoarixx's picture

Re: Glow Effect

it's a really nice tutorial. i actually did it!

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

Congragulation Laughing

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

how do you do the text =/

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

the text was done the same way i did the lines.

Visitor's picture

Glow effect

Thanks a ton....

Visitor's picture

MisterChief

WOW! This tutorial is brilliant, not only for the finished effect but also because I didn't relaise Gimp had half this stuff! Laughing

yonyonjohn's picture

Upgrade

You may need the latest version of The GIMP.

get it here: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Visitor's picture

help

can someone help me with step8? :( where exactly can i find the "Addition" mode of the layer? i thought i found it but nothing happens.

P.S the tutorial is awesome!

Gimper's picture

Re: help

inside the Layer dialog you will see mode: and a drop down list. inside the drop down list you will find the "Addition" mode.

hope that works but if not ill i can show you a screenshot on where it is.

Visitor's picture

Re: Re: help

i found it! :) thank you! (i was looking everywhere else but in the layers dialog.)

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow text...

Do the same thing that you did to the line
But with the text

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow text...

I couldn't. Are you saying that we should create the text using paths? or create the text using the text tool in white, create new layer, then create the same in 5babe8, then Gaussian blur?

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

to make the text with effect, the only difference is the Path tool instead of that you will use the text tool. the rest is the same.

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

Actually I forgot to use the blend tool. Argh! Now my text looks fine. Thanks a lot!

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

i can tget the gaussian blur to work right it doesn't make i glow it blurs it

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

ummm can u post a video? i got stuck after step 6

Visitor's picture

how do you change the foreground layer?

how do you change the foreground layer in step 3? when i try to change it to white, i click on the bucket and my stroke paths disapear. and after that it wont turn white

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

never mind the post above* now i cant find the blend tool. where is it?

Visitor's picture

never mind i finally figured it out

it had a different name

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

XD my layer opacity was at 100! everything should work know. but that vid would be nice lol jk

Visitor's picture

Please Help

Can you please help me step by step make the text glow like yours for the word light?
I can't seem to get the text to work and I did try to do it just like you did for the paths.

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

the steps are exactly as the lines but instead of using the path tool for the line use text.. i don't know how els i could help :/

Visitor's picture

well this is what i get when

well this is what i get when i do it? it dosent look right? what might i have been doing wrong? it dosent look anything like yours.
http://i11.tinypic.com/8fakya9.png

Visitor's picture

Joints are different

In the last two images, the joints where the lines meet are different. How did you do that? That adds a really nice touch.

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

guys if you follow the tutorial you would get it, but it seems some of you pick and chose so you end up with something els.

the text looks fine but it seems you didn't do what i did to the joints in step 9 and 10 that is what gives that high contrast glow on the text as well as the joints.

Visitor's picture

Okay I think I finally got

Okay I think I finally got it to work.
How does it look? Is that how it is suppose to look?
http://i8.tinypic.com/6twlhz9.png

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

yep seems right, you could try to have the gradient dodge on the tip of the text so you get a better glow effect.

Visitor's picture

Glow Effect Again

Okay, Thanks.
How would I do that?

Visitor's picture

text!!

how do you make the text like that?

Visitor's picture

HOW DO YOU MAKE THE EXTRA SPARKLES???

like how do you make the extra sparkles?? im using paint brush but it wont work helpp???

Visitor's picture

On reply to HOW DO YOU MAKE EXTRA SPARKLES^^

If your talking about those small white lines inside the glowing blue lines, make a new brush, make the radius 1.0, make the spikes 2, make hardness 0.50, make aspect radio 1.0, make angle 0.0, and make spacing 20.0.
create the brush. make foreground color white, go to edit>stroke path, check stroke with paint tool, and then apply, then you're done. this gives a nice feel to it. :)
hope i could help.

Visitor's picture

Text

What font is that?
the one u used at the end

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

i reinstalled my windows and i lost all my special font :D so i can't remember... sorry

007brett's picture

HELP

i just started using gimp so im stuck at the beggining. either the tutorial isnt very good or i suck butt. plz help me!

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

being more specific about what exactly you need help in ... you might want to try the forums help section for help.

Visitor's picture

Not clear

I dont think its a good tutorial, but it could easy be made a lot better, if you just place some screenshots from how your layers are, so we know which one is on top, which on is supose to be transparant. As it is now, i can't make any sence of it. I've been trying for 3 days now...

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

i avoided doing a very detailed step by step with screenshot tutorial because i meant to make this for users who have a good understanding of gimp ..

none the less members can download the attachment of the .xcf file at the bottom of the tutorial. this way you can see what layer goes where....( you can't see the attachments because your not signed in :)

let me know any specifics and ill help out.. preferably using the forums help section , it uses the same login/password as this site so you only need to register with one of them.

none's picture

Im extremely new at gimp and

Im extremely new at gimp and i found this rather detailed and easy at the same time!

Although its not as good as yours heres the best i could do,,
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x36/vanessaloverfan/valentinesbackgro...

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

nice work!

none's picture

http://i181.photobucket.com/a

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x36/vanessaloverfan/glowamazing.jpg
heres mine i have one question though, you know the extra glow you have when the lines touch how do you do that?

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

nice work! to get the same glow effect on the lines make sure your layer mode is right. see step 10, and that u place the layerns ontop of lines.

Visitor's picture

RE: in step for when looking at

I'm not sure what you mean. The only way of selecting text, that I know, is 'Layer->Text to Selection'. Are you saying there is a way of selecting a path that runs through the center of the text?

Visitor's picture

RE: in step for when looking at

I'm not sure what you mean. The only way of selecting text, that I know, is 'Layer->Text to Selection'. Are you saying there is a way of selecting a path that runs through the center of the text?

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

yes if you look in you Path dialog you will be able to activate/select paths you have drawn.

Aj1t1's picture

i thought this was a great

i thought this was a great tutorial... i'm new to picture editing and stuff since about a month ago.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd13/Aj1t1/Glowing01.jpg

Valdivia1994's picture

font

what font did u use in the tut i would love to know!!! XD

Visitor's picture

/

I don't know how to change the Foreground color to solid white!!!

MiniCah's picture

Radial?

How do I change the Gradient shape to Radial or w/e? please reply soon ^^

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

its in you tools option dialog. when you have the blend tool selected

Visitor's picture

Text

If you can't get the text to work, try pressing "Path from Text" in the text tool dialogue.

Visitor's picture

Sorry

I'm a really newbie but could you tell me like step by step how to open the tools dialogue and how to change the gradient shape please? Thank You.

Visitor's picture

photoshop

can anyone please buy me a photoshop? pleaaase

Zombie Kangaroo's picture

not

its not photoshop, its gimp, completly free

just type in gimp download in google and you'll find it pretty easy

Help's picture

how do i make the fonts

hi

i need a big help from you.

I got the blue line. But after the Gaussian blur, i couldnt get the glowing lines at all. Is it something with the layering orders?

Mag's picture

Font

hi people.

I need help for the fonts, i am almost on my way to success!

How do i create the glow for the fonts?

First i create my text. Whats the next step, been stuck in here for very long. Please help. thanks!

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

help, yes the layers need to be in the same order as the steps, download the XCF attached file to see.

Mag: doing the text is just the same as doing the lines same steps but instead of the path tool to make lines just use the text tool?

one more thing
PLEASE USE THE FORUM SECTION FOR HELP!

Visitor's picture

Step 8 ! help me

can u show a screenshot of step 8 ?? i dont find it

Visitor's picture

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

haha all the noobs are like "how do you do 'blah'" its so funny... anyway i tried it and it looks pretty good to me! thanx!!!

3Speed's picture

http://i39.photobucket.com/al

3Speed's picture

noob ftw

heyra's picture

GLOw

hoLLY hOt!
Luv d' Glow effect DaWg!

ilgrillo's picture

Re: Glow Effect

I don't understand. And i want 'til i die! :)

I create the first transparent layer, draw my path, but when i try to edit the brushes the path vanish! Why? I can't stroke the paths because there's any path to stroke.

It made me crazy!

Thx.
Sorry for my lazy english.

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

open the path's dialog so when ever you need to see it agian or edit it just click on the path tool and then select the path that you drew from the path dialog.

ilgrillo's picture

Re: Glow Effect

YES! Ok, now it's all right! Thx a lot! :)))))))

Alice's picture

Re: Glow Effect

ive had gimp for two days and before i tried this tutorial i had no idea what to do but i followed this and it really helped me get a better understanding of gimp and i managed to do a pretty good picture with it. thankyou x

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

nice to hear that it helped you out. if you liked this one then be sure to check back next week because i have another cool effect tutorial to publish :)

Idoit 's picture

Re: Glow Effect

where do I get to the 'brushes' dialouge? I've been using ubuntu for a while and am new to tampering with gimp :D

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

in the menu go to Dialogs>brushes or if you haven't changed your GIMP layout then you should have a Brushes TAB.. thats it

Gabe-noob's picture

Re: Glow Effect

when I try to make it glow it sorta just fizzles and stuff like so: ahhhhhhhhh how do I put up a pic?

gabe-noob's picture

Re: Glow Effect

nvm I see what I did

gabe-noob's picture

Re: Glow Effect

when I try to add the lighting affects in the corner it blacks out the whole thing and just gives me a sphere up there (I'm working with a different background if ti makes a difference)

visitarz's picture

Re: Glow Effect

How do I get to the thing to use script-fu?

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

I also want to know, when you enter in the script fu how do you make it change the image?

evelinutia's picture

http://www.failai.in/P/120801

http://www.failai.in/P/1208010598_manodarbas.png
This is my first result on this tutorial.

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

Hey, I was wondering if i could put this on another site?

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

great work evelinutia :)

@Submitted by Visitor (not verified) on Sun, 04/13/2008 - 04:24.

what do you mean put it on another site?

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

by any chance could you post what the colour codes you used for the particles were?

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

check the attached zip file and you will see how i painted the particles using white and blue then lowered the opacity to get a faded shade.

MyNameDidntFit's picture

Hey, sweet tutorial. Easy as

Hey, sweet tutorial.
Easy as yet gets a great result and has endless opportunity for customisation :)
10/10 from me and here's a background I made with it:
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff243/Corey870621345/GlowLinesTRFBG.jpg

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

good work with your outcome :) .

ichigopeach's picture

Re: Glow Effect

This is so awesome!^^

Gtrplayer13's picture

Hey dude, I was wondering

Hey dude,

I was wondering wat u did to make your text glo like that?

Could u plz list some steps?

Thx

Gtrplayer13's picture

Hey, How did you get those

Hey,

How did you get those little lines into the background?

It looks sweet.

Clover's picture

Re: Glow Effect

The end result looks simply stunning. I'd never thought to use the different modes this way; I guess this put things in a new "Light" for me. ;D

I tried my hand at this, here's my not-too-impressive result o-o
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg288/clover-bunny/erthglw.png

An amazing tutorial, thank you. =D

Visitor's picture

dede

Visitor's picture

dede

guero's picture

Re: Glow Effect

Thanks for the tutorial. . . .i found it the white and dot with the dodge mode very useful. . .

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

Very useful!

Ommadawn's picture

Great help. Thank you!

Great help.
Thank you!

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

hey im great tut but ive got two things i'm stuck with
i'm dutch and have a dutch gimp and i really can't find the dodge mode can you tell me wich one it is from top or bottom
i tried them all they just don't look like yours

and with the particles they just look fake and ugly even if i change the opacity.

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

make sure you have the layers in the same order as mine, to check download the XCF source file attached below the tutorial.

kent's picture

Re: Glow Effect

Got as far as the path, lines, blur and first spot light. Then I crashed and burned could not figure out how to get the small round spot in lower left corner. Thanks for the tutorial I learned more than i knew before.

Christine's picture

Re: Glow Effect

Wow! Thanks for the tutorial! took me 4 tries to get it like yours but at least I know it now haha. I still didn't get how you made the semi transparent dots..I couldn't do the last step that well but like you said there's always room for improvement! :p Thanks! Great tutorial!

Visitor's picture

First time ever using GIMP

First time ever using GIMP today, first photo editing software ever used except for picasa, first picture ever made on Gimp as well! Thanks for the tutorial, This was pretty easy, instructions were great, had a little trouble at first with the text but i read the previous comments and figured it out. Thanks for the tutorial, YOU ROCK!!!
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii243/BabiJzMomma/KaseysFirstGlow.jpg

Thyromine's picture

Re: Glow Effect

very beautiful

Ruben Omar Cobos Leal's picture

Hi, great tut, look im from

Hi, great tut,
look im from mexico, and i really like to transtale your tuts on my blog but only if you allow to.
If you agree please just send me an email to deliriumlabs@deliriumlabs.net so i can starts thanks
Keep rocking man.

Nick's picture

Re: Glow Effect

I really liked the tutorial
My text came out bad because i didnt do it like you did yours
Here's mine http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg124/Nickshorty/Light.png?t=1213561951

Bobby's picture

Re: Glow Effect

this tutorial is HORRIBLE. thats all i can say

Jake's picture

Re: Glow Effect

This tutorial is awesome, clear language, easy to follow, but the only thing it left out was the text part, sure it told you to follow the steps above, but next time, you should write "Press the Text to Path button" just for some of the noobs out there! lol (don't worry noobs, we all started out just like you) Ive been gimping for only a short while, but man the results you can get from this tut. are spectacular! check it out, http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/4428/cchy3.jpg

i changed it up a bit to fit my girlfriends initials, (CH) she loves it! lol

thanks again for this awesome tutorial!

-jake

Visitor's picture

Re: Glow Effect

i got stuck on step 9 :(

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

step nine is explaining how to create those gradient balls shown in step 11 and 12... if its not clear try posting in the forum section where other can try and explain it :)

Christian's picture

Re: Glow Effect

it's so cool, thx.

lizzie's picture

Re: Let's follwo you. ^_^

nice web i need one please help me..

Help.'s picture

Re: Glow Effect

After I do Step 8 the Gaussian Blur stops working for my other two lines.

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

I don't know what your doing wrong... have you made sure you have the right layer selected?

beginner_alyanna's picture

Re: Glow Effect

I have the version 2.4.6 , and i'm a beginner , i dunno how to save the brush on step 3. How can i ? Goshh , this is freakin' hard >W<

kelly's picture

Re: Glow Effect

i did step 12 then from there i had no clue ? i drew dots but what do i do now

Falcon's picture

Re: Glow Effect

I can't find the radial tool on GIMP. Help me!

Gimper's picture

Re: Glow Effect

Comments have been closed off for this tutorial - Please use the forum help section for help.

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