Gimp: Create a glowing lines effect - how it works

In Gimp, you can create an impressive glowing lines effect with a little effort. We give you step-by-step instructions.

Prepare effect lines in gimp

You can use the result as a background for your website or as a wallpaper for your PC, for example. However, it takes a few steps to create the glowing lines effect perfectly. We have once again put together the individual processes in the gallery for you.

Create a new picture in Gimp and choose black as the background color. In our example, we chose a size of 1280 x 700 px.
Create a new, this time transparent layer and draw a straight line on it with the "Paths" tool from the toolbox. The length should be about a third of the screen width.
Now set the foreground color to white and click on "Trace path" in the path dialog box. Enter 1 px as the line width.
Next, create a new transparent layer and trace the first path with the path tool. Click again on "Trace path", this time with a line width of 11 px.
With a click on the move tool, the path disappears. In the "Filters"> "Blur" menu, call up the "Gaussian blur". Enter 100 px as the radius in the new window.
Right-click on the layer and select "Merge Down" from the context menu. In the "Layer" menu, navigate to "Automatically crop layer".
Via the menu "Tools"> "Transform" you get to "Perspective". Pull the two left corner points together so that they meet in the middle (see photo).
Duplicate the layer and mirror it horizontally using the "Tools"> "Transform"> "Mirror" menu. Then move the layer so that the two lines meet exactly and appear as one. In the context menu of the level, combine them back down.
Move the line to the center of the image and click on "Layer on Image Size" in the menu on "Layer". Duplicate the layer five times in total.
Now comes a trickier task: Open the "IWarp" filter via the "Filter"> "Distort" menu. The deformation mode should be "move", the radius should be 200 px and the deformation should be 0.20 px. In the preview window, click inside under the left end of the line and then drag the mouse pointer up. Here you have to try out and play around a little. In the end, a nice curved line should be created.
Repeat the process for all layer copies. In the end, you should get different, harmonious curves.
Then move the lines apart a little.
Hide the black background layer and go to the menu "Edit"> "Copy visible" and then on "Edit"> "Paste as"> "New layer". You can now make the background layer visible again.
Activate the new layer and go to Filters> Blur> Motion Blur. The setting should be "Linear" and the parameters should be 170 px and 0 degrees.
Duplicate this layer and repeat the motion blur this time with 190 px and an angle of 40 degrees. Then enlarge it to "150%" via "Tools"> "Transform"> "Scale".
Create a new transparent layer. Change the foreground color to black in the toolbar and select the gradient tool. The gradient should change from your foreground color to transparent. Now drag a course from left to right and then a course from right to left. The sides of the picture should be darkened.

Glowing Lines Effect: Now color comes into play

You have now prepared the lines perfectly. However, the colors in which your lines should light up later are still missing:

Create a new transparent layer. Use this paintbrush to paint the individual lines in different colors.
Again use the motion blur with a length of 200 px and an angle of 0 degrees.
Blur the layer again, this time with the "Gaussian blur" and a radius of 100 px.
In the layer window you change the mode of the layer from "Normal" to "Color".
Now reduce the opacity of the individual line layers in order to achieve a more natural picture. Your glowing lines effect is ready. But don't forget to save your work.