Custom Font Bevel Reflect Version 1.00 - 1.06

[skinnyhouse]

Krikor:
Provisional version 1.06 now has the option to fix the layer origins to the image origin or leave layer origins as they are.

Further testing shows that user emaps have to be very small in proportion to the working layer to adversely affect the outcome. A more important consideration is the proportion of any transparent area around an emap. If this is less than about 75% of the target layer size the effect becomes quite noticeable - so it is worth a look at.

Will await your comments/further thoughts before committing to code.

Diagramjamal:
If you search for custom fonts on GimpLearn you will find an abundance of information.

[skinnyhouse]

Test results using different regions of transparency in emaps:

The emaps used - colour differentiated for ease of checking:

Transparency_Test_emaps.png # (86.2 KiB) Viewed 6023 times Thumbnail

Results using version 1.05 i.e. leaving the emaps uncropped:

Transparency_Test_Output105.png # (64.63 KiB) Viewed 6023 times Thumbnail

Results using provisional version 1.06 with auto-cropped emap layers:

Transparency_Test_Output106.png # (100.34 KiB) Viewed 6023 times Thumbnail

Even the smallest emap, when auto-cropped, gives acceptable results.

[Krikor]

Hi Skinnyhouse, I'm doing some tests with some exotic emaps / covers that I have. Due to its irregular nature (not spherical and / or not massively spherical), the question of transparency being managed by the plugin may compromise (or not) the purpose of creating these emaps.

I hope to post something soon!

Yep! Post #52 is a great example!

[skinnyhouse]

I would be very interested in your findings Krikor

As far as I can tell this ratio of transparent to filled pixels seems to be as a result of the way the MLBevelReflect2 plug-in handles the input emap source.

[Krikor]

More useful stuff K.

When BRL creates its own emaps it always crops by removing any empty border space - perhaps GnuTux found that this produced the best results in general. My own small tests seemed to indicate that there were no advantages to be gained from overly large emaps and that too small an emap produced poor results on the whole.

When generating emaps internally I use a size based on the height of the layer. There is currently no test on user loaded emaps.

It would be quite possible to test the emap loaded by the user and crop it to content and then scale it if required to a particular size.

It seems not ...
Among some I tested during the day, I decided to try the emaps created by the BRL itself.
I selected in:
1- Enviromenment Map Type - Spherical Topo (Active Gradient);
2- Save Any generated emaps (etc) - Yes

The result of this was emaps with transparency beyond the limits of the spheres, not trimmed (croped? cropped?), resulting in the same problems that we already identified in previous posts.

Below image of the emap generated by BRL - (canvas and layers window.), And four results of applying these emaps (on white background)

Krikor - BRL dont remove empty border spaces

EmapsAutoNoCropped.png # (174.02 KiB) Viewed 6004 times Thumbnail

Using the same emaps generated in the previous experiment and cutting the layers close to the spheres, I obtained much better results (As we have already discovered).

Krikor - Better results manually

EmapsAjustedOK.png # (174.51 KiB) Viewed 6004 times Thumbnail

With that it seems that directly applying the emaps generated by the BRL in the letters (Custom Fonts) would not be the best option!
Unless the plugin automatically starts to 'Crop to content' before creating each emap in a new image.

Version 1.05 with the option 'Random sequence emap' was very good. It looks like version 1.06 will be surprising too!

[skinnyhouse]

Excellent stuff K

Ok that would confirm my plays. The GnuTux BRL script adds a small amount of transparency to each emap that it generates.

So the developmental version of the Custom Font filter crops emaps tightly on loading but does not scale them to any particular size. Obviously there is the potential issue of loading square/rectangular emaps with a transparent border area but that too can be overcome. Size seems less of an issue - you take out what you put in: If you supply an emap 50 pixels in size to work with an image of 2000 pixels you are bound to reduce the quality of the outcome. (Perhaps I had better test this - in case I am wrong here.)

I have just one outstanding character based issue to solve before posting the current developmental version but getting there.

[skinnyhouse]

Version 1.06 now available at post #1

[skinnyhouse]

Most of the improvements are behind the scene but there is one new option (indicated in red below).

The option is set to 'Yes' since for custom fonts it only makes sense to have the character layers set to the image origin.

If you are actually applying Bevel Reflect using normal layers disguised with character names, like Krikor, you may want to keep the layers spaced out across the image. If this is the case, set this option to 'No'.

dialog_v106.jpg # (91.08 KiB) Viewed 5982 times Thumbnail

[Krikor]

Most of the improvements are behind the scene but there is one new option (indicated in red below).
The option is set to 'Yes' since for custom fonts it only makes sense to have the character layers set to the image origin.
If you are actually applying Bevel Reflect using normal layers disguised with character names, like Krikor, you may want to keep the layers spaced out across the image. If this is the case, set this option to 'No'.
dialog_v106.jpg

I really really liked this new option !!
The plugin became more versatile with it.

BTW ...
Would it be possible to create the option so that we can save presets with the plugin?
Several plugins have this option:
Kaleidoscope;
Curves;
Offset layer;
Gaussian Blur. etc.

Thx Skinnyhouse!

[skinnyhouse]

Would love to be able to add this type of feature - but not currently able to do this in Python without a custom dialog/interface. Perhaps when Gimp 3 comes along the developers may make this possible.

I do have a layer utility that converts normal layer names to custom font layer names if you would find that useful.