Can the Bokeh Effect be done in Inkscape? Specifically I'm wanting to flesh out how the background on this site was done, but do it in Inkscape.

http://www.friskdesign.com/

More info on the Bokeh Effect is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

Other sites doing the Bokeh Effect are here:

http://inspiredology.com/bokeh-effect-in-web-design/

And if you think I need to combine both Inkscape and Gimp together, then fine -- let me know. Thanks!

You can do this very easily in Inkscape, use Tiled clones to create circles with varying opacity and blur, you can probably use tiled clones to make the rays too or create lines and rectangles and blur them.

Use tweak tool to scatter the circles in directions you like.

prkos beat me

There is currently no filter in Inkscape that creates this effect. It is however possible to define your own filters. As Bokeh is basically a convolution of the base image with the shape of the diagfragm, it should be possible to create such a filter through the filter dialog. However, I am not yet advanced enough with this to tell you for sure that it can be done and certainly not how. I understand that for a good lens blur a fourrier transformation is required and I am not sure that can be done within Inkscape filters.

The effect you show on the website could be quite easily simultated by using circles in different transparencies, scatter them using tiled clone, use them as a pattern along a path and then apply selective blurs - as it does not resemble a true Bokeh.

And finally a tutorial how to do a type of Bokeh in GIMP.

I hope others can add more useful information.

Cheers,
Syllie

I was just talking with one of our viewers regarding this same effect. I think prkos nailed it on the head. I would use tiled clones with random blur, opacity, and size as well. You might want to start out in outline mode first though. It will run much faster. When finished just flip back to normal mode to see the rendering.