ChrisTCC Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Hi, I'm rather noobish at image editing. I just recently learned about alpha masks and how to use them to make an item transparent. I use BoltBait's plugin pack - the Apply mask function for that. Problem is, I have an image with something that's semi-transparent. (it's some lights with a black background) and I'm trying to figure out how to make it transparent. Magic wand won't help because the lights are somewhat transparent, meaning they have some black background with em, and they fade off as the light travels further. I was told by someone to make the image monochrome, then invert, and use that as a mask, but for some reason the lights come out really really dim, and it isn't really usable. I've attached what I got. Here's the original image. this is the mask I generated and this is the result I get when trying to use that as an alpha mask: I'm definitely doing something wrong here. I'd appreciate the help as I'm getting sick of using chroma key (due to the lack of transparency and AA-support) and would love to use alpha masks more frequently once I've gotten them down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution frio Posted December 2, 2023 Solution Share Posted December 2, 2023 Try Make Color Transparent from KrisVDM's pack. Choose black as the color to make transparent, 0.8 power, 0.0 full transparency threshold. The reason you get dim colors from using an alpha mask is because the colors themselves are already "tainted" by the black background, and applying an alpha mask won't remove that blackness in them, which brings up an alternative solution: using Curves+ from pyrochild's plugin pack. First grab the grayscale version of your picture to use for an alpha mask, then use Curves+ in HSV mode on the original. Uncheck "hue" and "saturation", and crank the only remaining curve (value) into a straight horizontal line at the top, i.e. you remove all value differences by maxing value out. Then apply the grayscale alpha mask on this value-removed image. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisTCC Posted December 2, 2023 Author Share Posted December 2, 2023 2 hours ago, frio said: The reason you get dim colors from using an alpha mask is because the colors themselves are already "tainted" by the black background, and applying an alpha mask won't remove that blackness in them That makes sense. I gave the Make Color Transparent plugin a try and it seems to work a bit better, although the colors are a little dim. I duplicated the result a few times and got a decentish result. With the alpha matte the result included some black so duplicating it would just make the colors darker, whilst here it doesn't have black, so it works. 2 hours ago, frio said: First grab the grayscale version of your picture to use for an alpha mask, then use Curves+ in HSV mode on the original. Uncheck "hue" and "saturation", and crank the only remaining curve (value) into a straight horizontal line at the top, i.e. you remove all value differences by maxing value out. Then apply the grayscale alpha mask on this value-removed image. I tried this, but it didn't work - the mask just caused the lights to have that black background and is similar to a greyscale image that was overexposed, or a magic wand. Thanks for the help man. It's a little annoying I have to do this kind of thing because the software where this image comes from doesn't support transparency... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frio Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 26 minutes ago, ChrisTCC said: I tried this, but it didn't work - the mask just caused the lights to have that black background and is similar to a greyscale image that was overexposed, or a magic wand. I may have explained that poorly since I got kinda similar results as make color transparent, but as long as you found a resonably working solution it's all good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixey Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 17 hours ago, ChrisTCC said: @ChrisTCC if you duplicate & merge a couple of times, this image will look stronger. Quote How I made Jennifer & Halle in Paint.net My Gallery | My Deviant Art "Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" anon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisTCC Posted December 2, 2023 Author Share Posted December 2, 2023 1 hour ago, Pixey said: @ChrisTCC if you duplicate & merge a couple of times, this image will look stronger. it doesn't work for the specific image you quoted, as it still includes some black. I did successfuly do that here though: 11 hours ago, ChrisTCC said: With the alpha matte the result included some black so duplicating it would just make the colors darker, whilst here it doesn't have black, so it works. Thanks though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 20 hours ago, ChrisTCC said: I duplicated the result a few times and got a decentish result. Duplicate the layer & set the top layer blend mode to Multiply. Merge down. Repeat. Quote ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisTCC Posted December 3, 2023 Author Share Posted December 3, 2023 3 hours ago, Ego Eram Reputo said: Duplicate the layer & set the top layer blend mode to Multiply. Merge down. Repeat. What does the blend mode "multiply" do? Duplicating the result got me a decent result, but the one you posted is a little darker than the original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tactilis Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 1 hour ago, ChrisTCC said: What does the blend mode "multiply" do? It's always worth checking to see whether the paint.net Documentation can help. See 'Layers | Blend Modes' https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/BlendModes.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisTCC Posted December 3, 2023 Author Share Posted December 3, 2023 31 minutes ago, Tactilis said: It's always worth checking to see whether the paint.net Documentation can help. See 'Layers | Blend Modes' https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/BlendModes.html right, I'm being stupid, Thanks for the link. I believe multiply is a little overkill for this case, but I'll give it a shot in the future, thanks for the heads up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxster4 Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 4 hours ago, ChrisTCC said: I believe multiply is a little overkill for this case After you set the layer to multiply, before you merge down, you can always change (lower) the opacity of the layer to something you like. (it will be less dark). 1 Quote My Art Gallery | My Shape Packs | ShapeMaker Mini Tut | Air Bubble Stained Glass Chrome Text with Reflections | Porcelain Text w/ Variegated Coloring | Realistic Knit PatternOpalescent Stained Glass | Frosted Snowman Cookie | Leather Texture | Plastic Text | Silk Embroidery Visit my Personal Website "Never, ever lose your sense of humor - you'll live longer" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisTCC Posted December 3, 2023 Author Share Posted December 3, 2023 1 hour ago, lynxster4 said: After you set the layer to multiply, before you merge down, you can always change (lower) the opacity of the layer to something you like. (it will be less dark). I guess that works, but for this case layer on the normal mode is sufficient because the colors are that faint in the first place. Still, good to know that this is also an option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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