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How to easily make a mat cut effect.


Eli

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Is there an easy way to draw a mat cut effect around an object and make it look realistic?

 

I tried using the outline effect as well as MJW's edge expander but both produced rounded corners. So I drew a rectangle with the shapes tool beneath my green rectangle. But this method does not give me a precise border size around the object.

 

green-art-with-mat-cut-4e64a50.png

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There are probably simpler ways (and i'm not sure this is an "easy way"), but here's an idea.

 

Add a new layer and fill it with black.

Add a new layer.

Run Render>Borders N' Shape to produce a white border.

Run Object>Edge Expander with the Maximum Distance and Fade Rate set to produce the beveled region.

Merge the layer with the black layer.

Select the center region with the Magic Wand then invert the selection

Run Distort>Texture Shader.

  Set the Image to White.

  Adjust the Texture Height Scale to produce a good bevel depth.

  Set the Directional Light Direction to a good position. I always like upward and leftward.

  Adjust the Directional Light Intensity if necessary.

  Set the Specularity to 0.

  Perhaps enable Antialiasing.

Invert the selection and Erase the center region.

 

An image could be stored in the clipboard for a fancier mat.

Edited by MJW
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Thanks MJW, I will try it.

 

Since I want to draw the mat cut effect around an object I will first use Edge Expader to create an outline and I will just have to fill the rounded corners with the rectangle shape tool. Then I will use your way.

 

Edit: Ok, I did it , though I lost two diagonal lines. I saw them but they faded when I made it lighter. 

 

Do you think Edge Expander could  be modified a litle bit as to produce outlines with square corners?

 

mjw-border-idea-4e6502b.png

Edited by Eli
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I can say fairly confidently that there are no minor modifications to Edge Expander that would produce square outside edges. The corner distances for a square outside edge don't have any simple relationship to the distance to the nearest pixel. I think it's an interesting problem, and I would eventually like to make a plugin that would do that, but I don't believe it's easy to do. It would be fairly easy to write a plugin to produce bevel around a rectangular region, so maybe I'll try to do that sometime soon if no one beats me to it.

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Yes, I would like a plugin to create a bevel around a rectangular region.  :)

 

By the way, In the examples above, I overlayed some soft clouds that gave it a more natural look. It is hard to see it with the naked eyes but the color picker tool reveals it.

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