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Gradient Effect Plug-In


pleska

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Well, say you have a document with one layer. On that layer you have a photo. It would be cool if you could apply a transparency gradient to the image. This would set the alpha of one end of the picture to fully opaque, and run through the image right up to the other end where the picture would be fully transparent.

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Ah... I get it!

You could create a new layer, make a gradient fading from transparent on top to black on bottom. Then flatten the image, import it into the composition in which you need the fading image, and set the blending mode to screen. That does have its disadvantages, however, as any black in the image itself will also disappear.

Didn't someone, though, make a CodeLab script to do this?

I am not a mechanism, I am part of the resistance;

I am an organism, an animal, a creature, I am a beast.

~ Becoming the Archetype

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Hmm... I thought that method worked, but I'm not seeing much with it myself either...

Anyway, yeah. SearedIce wrote a CodeLab script for it:

http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewt ... =6273#6273

It takes the alpha values of your Primary and Secondary colors and does a vertical fade of alpha. Set your primary to 255 alpha and your secondary to 0 alpha and run the script, and it will fade out nicely!

I am not a mechanism, I am part of the resistance;

I am an organism, an animal, a creature, I am a beast.

~ Becoming the Archetype

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Hi all,

Back from my vacation and did a little update to the gradient plug in. I have updated the source and binary zip files. Lets call this version 1.2.

Changes:

1. I normalized all the fill directions to Vertical, Horizontal, Radial, Diagonal (Upper-Left -> Lower Right ) and Diagonal (Lower-Left -> Upper Right ). If you notice, the last one is a new direction the "up-hill version" of the diagonal fill.

2. I added a reverse colors check-box so that all these gradients could go the other way without needing to go back to the source colors and swap them. (This allows the original reverse-diagonal to be done from the dialog box).

3. After reading the discussion I added the ability to do a "Alpha-Channel Only" version of the gradient. It will follow all the same settings of the gradient fill but only modify the "alpha channel" or the transparency of the pixels in the selection based on the primary/secondary color transparency values. Hopefully this will be useful.

Thanks,

Paul

Binary to replace DLL in effects directory:

http://www.sapphireonline.com/Downloads/GradientPlugIn.zip

Source code for version 1.2 of the plug-in:

http://www.sapphireonline.com/Downloads/GradientPlugInSource.zip

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Hi thanks,

1. The use mask color allows you to apply the gradient only to pixels with the specified RGB color within your selection rectangle. I use this often to draw some really complex region in one color and then have the gradient fill only that color, this is nice when making buttons.

2. To use the alpha channel only thing you need to specify two different (assuming you want a fade) transparency levels on your primary/secondary colors. The gradient will then only change the alpha channel (or transparency) of the selected rectangle pixels in the gradient and not the actual color. This should allow some cool fade in/out effects between layers.

Hope this helps.

Paul

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You have to unzip the file and you have to place the dll into the Effects directory of Paint.NET (Typically C:\Program Files\Paint.NET\Effects).

Then you need to start Paint.NET and the name of the effect will apear in the Effect menu.

So you could use it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Very Cool Plugin.. I have been trying to make a good beer label. I was able to follow the gradient tuts and they worked too, but this rocks.

I have a question. I would like to have dark colors at top and bottom with the gradients going to a middle lighter color. I tried doing this by creating two layers and using the plugin on each layer, but it seems the gradient only does one layer per pic. Is that correct?

Sorry for the kodak link, but it is the only place I can share pics:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2xw ... &y=-15u12o

These are the foundations I am using for my beer labels. I did NOT make the shark.

Jim

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2xwez9qb.aahdxuyz&x=0&y=-15u12o

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The plugin restricts itself to the currently selected area, so:

Select the top half of the canvas with the Rectangular Selection tool. Change your primary and secondary colors to the two colors between which you want to blend (The plug in fades from primary to secondary downward when Vertical is selected, so make your primary color the darker one). Then open the Gradient plugin and select Vertical blend mode. Click OK and the plugin will apply itself.

Next, press the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+ to invert the selection. This will select the bottom half of the image. Now, open the Gradient plugin again. This time, check the Reverse Colors checkbox. Click OK and you'll have a bi-directional gradient!

If you'd like to have more light space in the middle, don't select the entire top of the image in the first step, and then you can't just press [Ctrl]+. For example, for a 400px tall image, select only 150px at the very top of the image down, make the top gradient, deselect and make a 150px selection from the very bottom of the image up, then do the reversed gradient. Then use the Magic Wand to select the blank area in the center and fill it with the secondary color.

You could also do each of these steps on seperate layers to keep them independantly editable.

Hope that helps!

Dan

I am not a mechanism, I am part of the resistance;

I am an organism, an animal, a creature, I am a beast.

~ Becoming the Archetype

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  • 2 weeks later...

I downloaded the plugin zip, extracted it to my Paint.Net folder. How do I know it works? Is that even the right place to extract it?

Thanks!

Edit: Never mnd, I read some more of this post and found I need to extract it into the Effects directory.! :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

:cry: :? One more time i've downloaded this plugin (the last version) , dezipped it into my Pdn effects folder and one more time it doesn't work .Everytime i open Pdn and try to do something the interface "goes frozen" and i must to close Pdn (with difficult and the usual error message ) When i take off the dll from the effects folder Pdn works fine again ! :cry: :?

I know that i'm a "newbie" but i don't see where i have made the mistake ...( this time ) :?

Please can you explain me or help me ? No response on the troubleshooting forum .

:wink:

To be free To be wild

And to be Just like a child

Mike Oldfield

http://www.myspace.com/tubulartos

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No, You speak perfectly fine English (Better than some down here in the South...)

I dunno...It's just everything works perfectly fine...but...oh well...

I don't think I have any idea, anymore.

~~

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:shock: Hum , do you think it's really that ? I've just two or three , perhaps four, plugins that work wrong .The others seem to work fine like toon and drop shadow plugins . I think this is more my settings to make correctly when i use a plugin than my antivirus .

In any case , i've installed on my pc , Panda Titanium 2006 +antispyware+firewall , also installed spywareblaster and i launch spybot and adaware everyday .

To be free To be wild

And to be Just like a child

Mike Oldfield

http://www.myspace.com/tubulartos

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK...

Put 2 images in 2 layers.

Then change Secondary Color's Alpha to 0.

Then on the top layer, use gradient plugin with the option "Alpha-channel" only.

sig6rj3.png
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