Masking

[Paul L UK]

Leen

When zoomed in and the mask on, you can see if there are any bits that you have missed and/or need adding to your selection. Also you can easier see parts that are not 100% selected.

My starter for 10

Paul

Another thing is you can see how much feathering there is on your selection

[RobertHJones]

Leen,

I agree with Paul.

In selection mode, the line of marching ants is where the pixels are 50% or
more selected. That's ok with a hard brush but with a soft edged brush you
can't see the feathering. Mask mode will show the selection and fade the
color of the mask for partial selection so you can get a feel for the extent
and hardness of the selection.

Also, in places where you've used the selection brush to paint over an area,
mask mode allows you to see the places where the overlap was greater than
50% but less than 100%. In selection mode, you have no indication that the
selection is partial unless it drops below 50%.

Bob

[Leen Koper]

Paul and Bob,
I see. I think I understand and I will try tomorrow when I'll be back in the studio.
But now I've got another "problem": what 's th euse of other selection tools like the lasso etc. if this masking method seems to be superior?

Leen

[carl sutherland]

Robert,

Is there any reference to illustrate what you are talking about. I understand all the words, but can not understand the concept. One illustration would do wonders for me I believe.

Thanks

Carl

[RobertHJones]

Leen,

Part of it is history, the selection brush came with PSE 2, for example,
part is function, and part is personal preferences. Each of the selection
tools has an advantage that makes them useful in some circumstances and not
in others. Having a variety of ways to make a selection is an advantage.

The rectangular and elliptical marquee tools are great for quickly and
precisely selecting areas that match their geometry. But they aren't very
good if you need to select an arbitrary area.

I tend to use the selection brush a lot but I also use the other tools.

The Lasso tools are good at selecting arbitrary areas. I'll use the
standard lasso tool to rapidly delineate a gross selection and then use
another tool to fine tune the selection. I often use the polygonal tool
when selecting straight edged objects that I intend to cut or copy or to
skew to either correct or create distortion. I tend to not use the magnetic
lasso but some find it easier to trace around the edge of objects as
contrasted with the normal lasso tool.

Have you ever heard of the expression "different strokes for different
folks"? That kind of applys here. We have another expression "what ever
floats your boat". What ever tools you are comfortable with and can use to
accomplish what you want to do are acceptable.

In terms of technique, when making selections with these other tools, you
can always switch to the selection brush after making selections and look at
it with the mask mode set to see what you've done.

Bob

[Richard Coencas]

Bob is correct in his overall assessment of the different uses of selection tools. Would like to share that it is a very common workflow to make a rough selection with a lasso or a magic wand and then use the mask as a way to fine tune the selection. It is a lot quicker to draw a rough selection or click once with the wand then it is to paint a mask around a complex object. But once you've made the rough selection, the painting options of the mask tool make it possible to get a really accurate selection.

Rich

[Leen Koper]

Thanx to all of you. I couldnot resist the temptation and went to the studio tonight. I think I will be applying this tool quite often.

In dutch we would say: "the coin has dropped"
(analogy to the coin in a slot machine)

Leen

[Chuck Snyder]

And as Julius Caesar reportedly said, "Alea jacta est"....!

:-)

Chuck

p.s. I use all the selection tools, and leave them in "Add to Selection"
mode where that's an option. That way, I might select a large portion with
the rectangular marquee, add a little more with the lasso, then finish off
with the selection brush. As Bob said, they're all useful and I'm glad to
have them all!

[Barbara Brundage]

My goodness, Chuck, were you a secret Classics major or something?

[Chuck Snyder]

Barbara: Well....I read "Classics Illustrated" comic books as a kid - does that count?

:-)

Chuck

p.s. Two years of high school Latin might have had some had an impact....

[carl sutherland]

Chuck,

Please stop that. You know most of us don't read Texan. And that Julius fellow, was he in the Rangers or the Dallas Cowboys. I can't quite place him, but then I'm not a native-just a wannabe.

Carl

[Leen Koper]

Chuck, I kinda crossed the Rubicon as well. ;-))

About a "classic major", I feel like I'm a rookie in the "Elements Major League" at this forum. Learning quickly however.
Thanks to all of these teammates.

[AmarShah]

Hi I want to do masking of perticular image as we can do with flash.But how it can be done in director???

[Rob Dillon]

Masking is done completely differently in Director. It's an ink, and
related member thing. There's a tutorial movie that explains how it
works.

--
Rob
_______
Rob Dillon
Team Macromedia
[url]http://www.ddg-designs.com[/url]
412-243-9119

[url]http://www.macromedia.com/software/trial/[/url]

[Gren Foronda]

Hi AmarShah,

The sample movie for creating masks can be downloaded from the TechNote
below:
"How to create an animated cursor mask"
[url]http://www.macromedia.com/go/15496[/url]

You can also refer to "Using Director>Sprites>Using sprite inks" in Director
Help for more information regarding creating masks in Director.

Regards,
Gren Foronda
Macromedia Technical Support

"Rob Dillon" <rob@ddg-designs.com> wrote in message
news:190220040742359709%rob@ddg-designs.com...

> Masking is done completely differently in Director. It's an ink, and
> related member thing. There's a tutorial movie that explains how it
> works.
>
> --
> Rob
> _______
> Rob Dillon
> Team Macromedia
> [url]http://www.ddg-designs.com[/url]
> 412-243-9119
>
> [url]http://www.macromedia.com/software/trial/[/url]

[AmarShah]

Thank you For your Reply.I will really help me.Thanks

[ws7_987654321]

I am trying to creat series of images scrolling up a screen and have the top
and bottom edges feathered and transparent so that you can see the background
image coming through. Is there a way I can mask the image and animate it behind
the mask, so that the mask stays where it is and just the image behind scrolls
down. Hope this makes sense.

Thanks

[Sébastien \(sg\)]

Hi,

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you want to do so I may be off-topic
but you could have a PNG image with gradient transparency where you want
your image to show.
Import that image as 32-bit to preserve alpha channel info and place it
above your scrolling image.

If you need the background to show, as if the scrolling image itself was
transparent (this is the part of your post which isn't entirely clear to me)
then just use the background image of your movie as the opaque part of your
PNG, and place it where it belongs on stage.

HTH

Sébastien


"ws7_987654321" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> a écrit dans le message de
news: c6b1ud$789$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> I am trying to creat series of images scrolling up a screen and have the

top

> and bottom edges feathered and transparent so that you can see the

background

> image coming through. Is there a way I can mask the image and animate it

behind

> the mask, so that the mask stays where it is and just the image behind

scrolls

> down. Hope this makes sense.
>
> Thanks
>

[JB]

You also can use mask ink to make the ajecent member in the cast act as
your fade mask, using that masking approach you might have to alter the
regpoint if the graphic member to make it appear to move relative to the
mask member, note the regpoint changes 'stick' onlike sprite changes.

It's also possible to do the masking an scrolling in imaging lingo
copyPixels operation, this can be better for larger than stage images.

[ws7_987654321]

Thanks for your reply, will be trying it shortly, how would I go about trying the lingo method?