Resources:
Apartment Building: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/976442
Brick Wall: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/802046
Background Buildings: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/981381
Clouds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/azeected/2631417767/
Lamp Post: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/898294
Tutorial
1. Press Ctrl-O and open up the Apartment buildin stock. Let's make it easy to work with by reducing the size by %50. Make a new layer and name it "Guidelines". Use the path tool to make guidelines along the building's edges.
2. Get the text tool out and spell Gimp in all caps with a huge font (I used 700). Make the color a dark gray. Now make sure the yellow dashed lines are surrounding where the guidelines intersect. Select the perspective tool and make the preview in the settings "grid" with 15 lines. Click and drag the text layer to match the grid with the guidelines.
3. Go to layer>transparency>alpha to selection. This should have selected the text. Open a new image copy and paste the text into this image. Delete the background layer and go to Image>Fit canvas to Layers. Make the text black and save it as a .gbr (gimp brush) where the rest of your brushes are stored. Make a new layer named "First3d" and move it below the text layer. Go to the Brush tool and select the brush that you just made. Change the spacing to 1. Anywhere on the canvas, make a straight line using the path tool. Make the angle of the line follow the top right edge of the apartment. Stroke the path using the brush tool.
This is you layer dialog so far:
4. Now type the word "TUTS" in all caps with a little bit smaller font (I used 500). Use the perspective tool as before and move it towards the opposite direction of the first text. Then repeat the process of creating a brush and making the 3d effect as before.
This is your layers dialog:
5. Open up the original apartment on a new canvas. Scale it down to 1955x1300. Next use the Rectangle Select Tool, with the size set to 1000x1300, and crop out the outside pieces. Now go to Image>Fit Canvas To Layers. Use the Paths tool and cut out the blue sky. Also cut out the left edge of the building to make it look like it ends there.
6. Go back to the first image and copy and paste both of the text layers and the black 3d areas onto the new image. Hide the "TUTS" text and the corresponding black 3d area for now. Put the "GIMP" text layer and corresponding black 3d area below the Apartment layer. Position them right above the apartment. Get the Clone tool out and begin to clone the bricks from the apartment onto the a new layer called "brickclone". Cover up the text.
7. Make the "GIMP" text layer active and go to Layer>Transparency>Alpha to Selection. Then go back to the the "brickclone" layer and press Ctrl-I to invert the selection and then Ctrl-X to delete the selection. Now create a new layer called "firstcolorbrick" and fill it with the color #715b1f. Next, go to the "brickclone" layer and go to Layer>Transparency>Alpha to Selection. Now go back to the "firstcolorbrick" layer and press Ctrl-I and then Ctrl-X. Finally, change the "firstcolorbrick" layer to overlay and desaturate the "brickclone" layer. Back on the "firstcolorbrick" layer go to Colors>Hue-Saturation and make the settings Hue: 0 Lightness: -1 Saturation: -85
8. Repeat the same coloring process for the apartment building but don't use the same Hue-Saturation settings. For the color layer on the apartments, use these settings: Hue: 0 Lightness: -43 Saturation: -65. On the apartment layer, on the right side, darken that area with the burn tool.
This is your layers dialog:
9. Make the "TUTS" text and the black 3d area visible and move them to the bottom left. Go to Image>Canvas Size and make the canvas a little wider to fit in the "TUTS" text. Press Ctrl-Alt-O and open the brick the brick wall stock image. Scale it down to a realistic size and clone the scaled down bricks to cover up the text. Now change the perspective to match the "TUTS" text. Repeat the Alpha to Selection process to get the bricks to just cover the text.
10. Repeat the process of coloring the text, using these settings on the Hue-Saturation: Hue: 0 Lightness: -65 Saturation: -50. Create a new layer and name it "Sshadow" and move it below the "TUTS" text layer. Using a very soft black brush, make a shadow to the right of the "S" on the wall.
This is your layer dialog:
11. Press Ctrl-Alt-O and open the background building stock. Put this layer at the very bottom and cut out the top part with the Paths tool. Desaturate the layer and go to Colors>Brightness/Contrast and make the settings: Brightness: -127 Contrast: 28. Scale the whole image to %50. (Unless you just want it extra big)
12. Press Ctrl-Alt-O and open the clouds image. Put the clouds layer at the very bottom. Desaturate the layer. Make a new layer named "cloudcolor" on top of the cloud image and fill it with the color #0f0d08. Change the layer mode to Color. Change the opacity of the "cloudcolor" layer to %50. On the clouds layer go to Colors>Brightness/Contrast with these settings: Brightness: -127 Contrast: 40
13. Press Ctrl-Alt-O and open the Lamp image. Render out just the lamp post. Now desaturate the lamp. Add a simple vertical shadow to the lamp by using a soft black brush. Scale it down a lot and place it on the "P" of "GIMP".
14. Create a new layer and name it "light1". Make a triangle using the paths tool and fill it with white. Move it right below the lamp. Duplicate the layer and rotate it slightly to the left. Lower the opacity of both light layers to %30. Use a large and very soft brush and erase the bottoms of each triangle. Finally, gaussian blur the triangles by 7.0. Merge the two triangles and the lamp all together. Duplicate the new layer twice and move the duplicates on different letters of "GIMP" and scale them to the appropriate sizes.
This is your layers dialog:
15. Make a new layer and fill it with the color #292615. Change the layer mode to Color and the opacity to %70. Move that layer to the very top. Next, make a new layer and move it to the very top. Go to Filters>Clouds>Solid Noise with these settings: Randomize Checked, Detail: 15, and X and Y size: 6.0. Then change the layer mode to Overlay. Now, make a new layer and fill it with black. Change the mode to Soft Light and adjust the opacity to your preference.
16. Finally, add any additional things to your liking and you are through.
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