Selection Tools - Feather, Outline, Bevel, Shadow - Upd: 2015-01-31

[BoltBait]

BoltBait's Selection Tools

 

What are selection tools? How are they different from other effects?

Good questions! I have grouped this set of effects under the Effects > Selection menu because of how they work. Most effects don't really care about the shape of the selection, they just do their effect. These tools, on the other hand, apply their effect based on the shape of the "marching ants" selection.

 

The Idea

 

The very first effect I ever wanted to write was a feather effect that would feather along the selection. I couldn't really figure out a good way to do it so I wrote another feather effect that used transparency to determine the edges of objects. While good, it was never really the effect I wanted to write--it was just a "hack". Well, I finally figured out a good way to do it!

 

The Effects

 

Feather Selection

To use: Create an irregular selection and run Effects > Selection > Feather Selection. It feathers the selection along the trail of marching ants. As you can guess, this will be REALLY useful for making photochops! And, I think, MUCH less confusing to use compared to my current feather plugin.

 

Outline Selection

To use: Create an irregular selection and run Effects > Selection > Outline Selection. It outlines the selection along the trail of marching ants using the selected color.

 

Bevel Selection

To use: Create an irregular selection and run Effects > Selection > Bevel Selection. It creates a 3D... like... um... "puddle" (I guess)... out of the selection along the trail of marching ants. You'll just have to play with this one to see what I mean.

 

It makes some great looking text!

 

I can only take partial credit for this one. While I did have the idea and wrote the first version, it was sooooo slow that it really wasn't usable. Ed Harvey took me to school and taught me ways to increase the speed of the effect... and fixed some bugs along the way.* To give you an idea, his version was over 1000 times faster than mine. :shock:

 

Inner Shadow Selection

To use, select the area where you want to render the shadow. Looks great with text or other irregular selections.

 

The Effect DLL

 

All 4 of these effects are grouped together in SelectionTools.dll which you can find in my plugin pack.

Download it here and install it in the normal way...

 

BoltBait's Plugin Pack

 

If you need help installing plugins, I recommend reading this page: How to install Paint.NET plugins.

And, if that doesn't work, post your troubles here: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/1708-

Enjoy.  

 

*Some of the bug fixes in Paint.NET 3.36 were a result of the development of this effect. Thanks, Rick!

[Ash]

Awesome!

Thanks!

Don't forget to add it to your pack, both the zip and thread

[Andrew D]

With the inclusion of these effects, I think it may be a good time to have a way to expand a selection by a specific percentage, otherwise, this feather now works pretty much like the one in PS, but easier.

Great job as always

[MiguelPereira]

We can now remove the feather dll from the folder I believe...

[BoltBait]

We can now remove the feather dll from the folder I believe...

It really depends. They are both different effects. Personally, I use both depending on the situation.

[oma]

oh sweet mercy that bevel plugin is simply awesome!

like manna from heaven.

thanks thanks thanks

OMA

[Ash]

We can now remove the feather dll from the folder I believe...

I would keep both too.

[Curmudgeon]

yep, pretty awesome job BB, keep up the good work

[bEPIK]

Boltbait could your 'Flip' effects please be moved to this menu? Thanks for all the time and effort you put into Paint.net.

[pipp92]

thx a lot

[jerkfight]

Thanks a lot BB

[Crimson]

Holy.

Carp.

Nuff said.

[Curmudgeon]

BoltBait, I'm lovin' the Bevel Selection plugin so far, as it's making my life easier in some projects I'm doing.

Couple ideas I'd like to toss out to see if they might be possible:

• Would it be possible to have an angle chooser, to simulate a light source from another direction?
  Would it be possible to add a transparency to the shadow/highlight colors for the start of the color?

For the transparency issue, I simulated it by doing my selection on one layer and running the bevel on a separate layer and then adjusting the opacity of the new layer, or blend modes.

The angle chooser I think would be tougher to come up with as it would have to do the bevel shadow and highlight in different areas depending on the angle chosen.

Just ideas I thought about and was wondering about...

[oma]

BoltBait, I'm lovin' the Bevel Selection plugin so far, as it's making my life easier in some projects I'm doing.

Couple ideas I'd like to toss out to see if they might be possible:

• Would it be possible to have an angle chooser, to simulate a light source from another direction?
  Would it be possible to add a transparency to the shadow/highlight colors for the start of the color?

For the transparency issue, I simulated it by doing my selection on one layer and running the bevel on a separate layer and then adjusting the opacity of the new layer, or blend modes.

The angle chooser I think would be tougher to come up with as it would have to do the bevel shadow and highlight in different areas depending on the angle chosen.

Just ideas I thought about and was wondering about...

second these requests ... if possible...know you have your hands full on the codelab thing but would love to see these in future releases of this plugin ..... along with the ability to type in the exact hex colors for the higlights and shadows.

@Curmudgeon the work around I've been using for your second item is to rotate the layer with right click run plugin and then re rotate back again. and I use transparency plugin for the opacity that way it doesn't wonky up when you merge layers.

[BoltBait]

BoltBait, I'm lovin' the Bevel Selection plugin so far, as it's making my life easier in some projects I'm doing.

Thanks!

Couple ideas I'd like to toss out to see if they might be possible:

Would it be possible to have an angle chooser, to simulate a light source from another direction?
Would it be possible to add a transparency to the shadow/highlight colors for the start of the color?

For the transparency issue, I simulated it by doing my selection on one layer and running the bevel on a separate layer and then adjusting the opacity of the new layer, or blend modes.

That's about the best way to adjust the amount of the effect. I'm glad you figured it out.

The angle chooser I think would be tougher to come up with as it would have to do the bevel shadow and highlight in different areas depending on the angle chosen.

Don't make me hurt you.

I don't think you have any idea how complicated this effect is... to give you an idea, most of my plugins are in the 50 line range. This one is over 600 lines. :shock:

By using the "Use alternate lighting direction" check box and swapping the Highlight and Shadow colors, you do have 4 different lighting directions. More than that would make me tear out all of my hair. Sorry, if 4 isn't enough, try what Oma suggests (rotating the layer, do the effect, rotate back, etc.)

[Curmudgeon]

that's why it was only tossed out as an idea. no worries...I was hoping that something like the Illuminate plugin or the bevel selection could accomplish it.

I'll just continue to do it the old way with gradients

Thanks for the quick reply, and you too Oma, for your reply

[oma]

Hex values? or will this mess up your UI box. its not necessary but I use them almost all the time when I'm working on my pictures. (Although I do keep a cheat sheet next to me with the RGB values) and can get by very well with using those if not possible.

once again I can not express how great this plug in is. It makes my glass work and water work almost mallable to what ever shape I'm going for.

simply super. thanks mega from the picture making bunch!

ciao OMA

[BoltBait]

Hex value input would be a job for Rick. I am simply using the IndirectUI color control. If he was to enhance it to allow for hex input, my effect would automatically use it.

[oma]

Ok that explains it. thanks as I said its not a must I've my work arounds that work just fine.

ciao OMA

[jsonchiu]

Nice Job on the bevel :wink:

Could you release the source code?

I would like to see how you implemented this.

[PyroTechniques]

First off - this is an awesome plugin. The best way to 3-D-ize something that I have found so far.

I do have a question, however. Not being a programmer, I have no idea if this would be easy or even feasible, but - would it be possible to add some sort of anti-aliasing option in? When I do slanted lines and try to bevel them, I end up with something horribly :AntiAliasingOff:. So, would it be possible to add something like "bevel object" to the Objects menu, that uses the same method as Outline Object to distinguish what the object is, and then bevels it in a :AntiAliasingOn: way?

[BoltBait]

First off - this is an awesome plugin. The best way to 3-D-ize something that I have found so far.

I do have a question, however. Not being a programmer, I have no idea if this would be easy or even feasible, but - would it be possible to add some sort of anti-aliasing option in? When I do slanted lines and try to bevel them, I end up with something horribly :AntiAliasingOff:. So, would it be possible to add something like "bevel object" to the Objects menu, that uses the same method as Outline Object to distinguish what the object is, and then bevels it in a :AntiAliasingOn: way?

First run Bevel, then run Feather.

[m2lucky]

this is awesome I was looking for a bevel effect

[himself22]

Could you possibly make something for the bevel plugin that would let us choose how solid the colors are, like an alpha slider or something like that?

(you can tell I don't program)

Thanks.

[BoltBait]

Could you possibly make something for the bevel plugin that would let us choose how solid the colors are, like an alpha slider or something like that?

(you can tell I don't program)

Thanks.

Once you have your selection, add a new layer and run the effect on that new layer. Once you like it, Press OK, then F4 to adjust the layer opacity.

That's what I do.