MJW

The Ctrl+A to Select All isn't necessary. Both Ctrl+C and Ctrl+Shift+C work without it.

No. To adjust the transparency of a selection, try BoltBait's Transparency adjustment. (Yes, the next-to-last post was way back in 2008, so this is necro posting. Sorry about that. I think the question is worth answering, and not really worth starting a new thread for.)

Some parts of this I like quite well; other parts are a little kludgy because I ran short of time. I didn't want to miss the first OOTF contest.

Shochi, the plugin isn't really intended to produce specific images. It's essentially a brightness/contrast/auto-brightness control for height maps, and is mostly useful in conjunction with plugins which use 24-bit height maps, like the Texture Shader. What's best depends on what the height map will be used for. Because the normal image editing functions can't be used for high-precision height maps, I'm writing some tools to help manipulate them.

There was rather blatant bug in the scaling, which I fixed. I can't imagine how I missed it. I also increased the slider precision to 3 decimal places. (I hope I didn't miss any other obvious bugs.)

It's really only useful for those who use the Texture Shader and Texture Merger plugins a lot. I don't want to be criticized for using "private" plugins for comps, so I try to publish all the plugins I use, and let others decide whether they're worth downloading. For most PDN users, this one won't be.

Texture Scaler is a seemingly boring but quite useful utility program which allows height maps to be rescaled. The height map is mapped to the specified range. The original range is considered to be 0 to 1 if the Pre-Scale Heights to Entire Range option is disabled, and the minimum height to the maximum height within the selected portion (actually its bounding rectangle) of the image if the option's enabled. The Feather Far Pixels option is useful for erasing the zero-height background when combing height maps using the Texture Merger with the Minimum merge method. Unchecking the Produce 24-Bit Height Map option allows it to be used to scale grayscale height maps (and other grayscale images too, I suppose). Here is the plugin (version 1.2.6431.28257): TextureScaler.zip From the Help Menu: Texture Scaler scales a height map to a specified range. The controls are: Pre-Scale Heights to Entire Range: When enabled, the height range is adjusted prior to scaling so that the minimum pixel height is zero and the maximum pixel height is one. Equivalently, the minimum height will be mapped to Minimum Height and the maximum height will be mapped to Maximum Height. When there is an active selection, the pixels within the selection's bounding box will be used to determine the depth range. Set Transparent-Pixel Heights to Zero Before Scaling: When enabled, the heights of transparent pixels will be set to zero before mapping to the final range. Equivalently, transparent pixels will be mapped to Minimum Height. Don't Scale Transparent Pixels: When enabled, the heights of transparent pixels are not modified by pre-scaling or by the range scaling. If this option and Set Transparent-Pixel Heights to Zero Before Scaling are both enabled, the heights of transparent pixels are set to zero. Feather Far Pixels: When enabled, the transparency of scaled pixels near the Minimum Height will be increased. Feather Range: Specifies the proportion of the Minimum Height to Maximum Height range that will be feathered when Feather Far Pixels is enabled. When Feather Range is zero, pixels at the Minimum Height are fully transparent and all other pixels are unmodified. When Feather Range is one, the pixel transparency will decrease linearly through the full height range. Produce 24-Bit Height Map: When enabled, the scaled height map will have 24-bits of precision. When disabled, the scaled height map will be an 8-bit grayscale image. Minimum Height: Specifies the minimum value for the scaled height map. Maximum Height: Specifies the maximum value for the scaled height map. The user interface: EDIT: Version 1.1. Replaced buggy version. Increased slider precision from 2 to 3 places. EDIT 8/9/2017: Version 1.2. Fixed various bugs; added "Don't Scale Transparent Pixels" control; Modified feathering control. EDIT 8/10/2017: Version 1.2.6431.28257. Minor change to avoid unlikely problem.

Perhaps when the angle is less than about 20, you should reverse the direction of the arrows and move them outside the angle. That's what we did back many years ago when I had a drafting class. | | |<------>| | | | | ->|--|<- | |

I know of no way to do this, and doubt there currently is one in PDN. I think it would be difficult to write a plugin. It would have to use a 2D equivalent of string matching. Depending on the use, it might have to find near matches, since sampling can modify a pattern when it's resized or translated. I found some reference to 2D pattern matching, such as Fast Two Dimensional Pattern Matching.

Thanks, toe_head2001!

toe_head2001, in the source code, I can't find the implementation of the QuadrilateralTransformation class.

As described ("takes those pixels and flips it or mirrors it and duplicates it"), it sounds impossible. That sounds like the plugin needs to write ouside of the selection, which plugins can't do. I may be misinterpreting the goal of the plugin. If so, I'd appreciate a more precise and detailed description of what the plugin is supposed to do.

It would look pretty pitiful, especially compared to the other, very impressive, entries. I'm still going to try to come up with something; though I can't guarantee I'll be able to. I hope I didn't come off as criticizing the theme, which was not my intention. I was only pointing out that it's rather difficult, which probably accounts for the lack of entries. Also, this is a holiday season, when many (including me) have a lot of distractions.

I do think it's a difficult theme. I've tried to make an entry, but so far, failed. The problem is, there aren't really many ways to produce anime images other than just drawing them. And drawing them requires both artistic ability and a feeling for the style.

I'm perfectly happy to abide by that rule. I sort of prefer it, since if bunches were allowed, I'd probably be tempted to do a bunch, which would be a lot of extra work. Are we allowed to add a leaf or two?

Should it be a single raspberry, or is a group allowed?

Here's an attempt using a different approach. I took Dipstick's version, erased the black part, then pasted a picture of a cushion I found on Google Images underneath. I stretched and rotated the selection till it was in the right position.

I don't think this is easy to do. I can't see any way other than essentially creating an entirely new cushion of the same size and shape. I can't imagine how you could take advantage of any of the current coloration. To create a new cushion, I'd try MKT's Shape3D and pyrochild's Grid Warp. Another approach is to fill the cushion shape with black and paint in the shading (which for a black vinyl surface is basically the shine) by hand. Painting the shading into another layer would allow the density and blending to be adjusted afterward. In either case, make sure to Google (or whatever your preferred search engine) for images of black vinyl cushions. You can see how the shading should look, and even use the color picker to get the correct colors.

Have you tried more than once; that is, closed down PDN and rerun it? The most common causes of something like that are having the wrong layer active, or having a selection (often a tiny one) so the effect doesn't change most of the visible pixels. If you run an effect with a menu, does the menu appear? Also, when you say the plugins don't work, does that include the built-in effects? You say you can't make a picture black and white. The "Black and White" adjustment is built in to PDN, not a plugin.

When you say none of your plugins work, do you mean they no longer show up in the menus? they show up, but when you attempt to select them, they don't run? or they run, but they don't do the correct things? Also, when you say "none," do you mean that literally? That not a single one of the plugins now works? You need to be more specific Speaking of specific, please change the thread title to something more descriptive. You're violating forum rule 6:

Try the Color Clearer. You can also try HSV Eraser, which allows more control but is more complicated (set Portion of Non-Erased Color to Preserve to 1.0).

A variation of Iron67's useful suggestion is: Select the region with the Magic Wand with a tolerance that leaves unselected exceptions. Add a new layer and Fill the selection (with the Primary Color). In some cases, this will be enough. Just select the transparent outside region with the Magic Wand (in Contiguous mode), invert the selection, and switch to the original layer. When that doesn't work, clear the selection and use the Paintbrush to fill in the unselected holes. Then use the Magic Wand to select the colored region. Often it works better to copy the new layer into the Clipboard and use Paste Alpha. It's pretty roundabout, but using the Magic Wand for anything very subtle is like sculpting with a hatchet. Or so it seems to me.

I didn't intend to propose there should be a requirement that entrants explain how they produced their results.

That seems like a good idea for a competition. Perhaps after the competition, participants could discuss how especially novel results were achieved.

For update notes, you can check the thread for the update. For the 4.013 update: Fixed "Missing api-ms-win-core-timezone-l1-1-0.dll" error that was being seen on some Windows 7 systems due to partial install or uninstall of Microsoft's Universal C Runtime Fixed the layout for the File->New, Image->Resize, and Image->Canvas Size dialogs in all known situations (various languages, DPI sizes, font configurations) Fixed: Old versions of PSD plugin couldn't load due to removal of PrivateThreadPool Fixed a crash when typing a negative number for a zoom level