In this tutorial you will learn how to produce a cheap imitation of the Aqua reflective material effect.
i've tried to make it as easy to use as possible, but it will probably
require a basic knowledge of a number of GIMP functions, if you have
trouble let me know why and i'll see if i can improve things.
First of all create your image, i used 256*256 transparent, then select the Elipse tool (shortcut key "E") and find the center of the image, hold shift
and control(to produce a perfect circle from the centre point), and
click and drag until your circle is of the desired size.
now set your foreground colour to black.
now use
<image> - select - shrink...
to shrink the selection size by 1px, then select your disc colours, i
used #ff9900 and #ff7f00 for mine, the colours should be a light shade
as foreground and a darker shade of the same colour as background.
create a new transparent layer, this will be the discs colour layer, select the blend tool
from the pallete and double click on it's icon to display the tool options and set them as shown on the right.
now click anywhere on the image and drag, you should now have an orance on black circle.
shrink your selection again, this time by 1 or 2 pixels, create a
new layer and switch your blend tool settings to those shown and set FG
colour to white.
create another new transparent
layer, this will be for the shiny overlay, with the blend tool selected
hold down control and drag from the top of the image to the middle of
the selection and let go, experiment a little to see what distance and
angle of blend works best, then repeat but with a smaller distance and
oposite direction on the lower half of the selection, again, it may
take a few attempts to get it right.
if all went well you should have something resembling the image on the
right. duplicating the shine layer may help if the effect isn't bright
enough to start with.
you can stop here, but the next few steps add an interesting lava like texture to the image.
Create a new layer, select none and do
<image> - filters - render - clouds - solid noise... and apply the filter using the settings shown on the right.
once applied do
<image> - layers - Layers, Channels & Paths... right click on the disc colour layer and select Alpha to Selection, followed by
<image> - select - invert
then re-select the solid noise layer and do
<image> - edit - clear, then switch the layer mode to subtract and place it directly above the colour layer.
And there you have it, one shiny
disc, you may also want to try this effect on other similar
shapes, but avoid anything too complex.
It looks rather nice having added a chrome background and bevel
