underdog Posted October 25, 2008 Posted October 25, 2008 My first post here so first off: THANK YOU FOR A FANTASTIC PRODUCT! WOW. Ahem. Now for my suggestion? I would LOVE to have a checkbox that allowed me to preserve the transparency in an image when applying these effects. I am processing hundreds of PNG images for avatars (poses) in a web chat. I want a cartoon like image. To get the proper effect, I have to do the following: First select the transparent background using the wand (global flood mode) then press CTRL-I (invert selection) then the first time choose Effects->Artistic->Ink Sketch and subsequent times press CTRL-F (repeat effect). If I don't do it this way, the Ink Sketch effect flattens the PNG first. I also would like to have scripting / macro capabilities, which would allow me to automate these steps, but that is a separate suggestion, I suppose. Quote
Simon Brown Posted October 25, 2008 Posted October 25, 2008 I also would like to have scripting / macro capabilities, which would allow me to automate these steps, but that is a separate suggestion, I suppose. Search for "ScriptLab." Quote
underdog Posted October 25, 2008 Author Posted October 25, 2008 Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned in my other post that I have installed ScriptLab. It is a great plugin and there are several good effects that are bundled with the download, but it doesn't allow me the flexibility I need. Somehow I need to select the non-transparent area (select transparent then invert). Sadly, ScriptLab doesn't appear to have a way to recreate mouse clicks. That would be way awesome. Quote
Simon Brown Posted October 25, 2008 Posted October 25, 2008 So you want to make the entire image opaque? You need viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3285. Quote
underdog Posted October 25, 2008 Author Posted October 25, 2008 No. Here's what I said: "I would LOVE to have a checkbox that allowed me to preserve the transparency in an image when applying these effects." The current Artistic->Ink Sketch filter makes the entire image opaque. I want to preserve the transparency in an image when using the Ink Sketch effect such that the transparency is not removed. It is, in short, preserved. Quote
Simon Brown Posted October 25, 2008 Posted October 25, 2008 No. Here's what I said: "I would LOVE to have a checkbox that allowed me to preserve the transparency in an image when applying these effects."The current Artistic->Ink Sketch filter makes the entire image opaque. I want to preserve the transparency in an image when using the Ink Sketch effect such that the transparency is not removed. It is, in short, preserved. Export an alpha mask of the image, run the effect, then re-import it. Plugin to do this: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=24191 (I linked to this as I have not tried the other plugins and this is the only one that am sure can export a mask as well.) Quote
underdog Posted October 25, 2008 Author Posted October 25, 2008 Thanks, Simon. That alpha mask plugin looked like a great suggestion. Unfortunately, I tried it and I can't figure it out. I tried using it with the ScriptLab. What I did was install the Alpha Mask plugin and restart Paint.Net I loaded my images and for the first image I started ScriptLab, then I selected Alpha Mask and saved the alpha mask as "temp.bmp" in the current directory. Then I selected Ink Sketch with 20% / 45% for the settings and applied that. Then I reselected Alpha mask and loaded the "temp.bmp" that I had saved previously. That didn't work right for some reason. The mask was wrong.... So, I tried it again but this time when I got to the part where I reloaded the Alpha Mask, I applied the filter without pulling the mask from the saved file and that worked! So, I was pretty happy but.... when I tried the same on next file, it trashed the alpha mask for some reason and used the first images alpha mask... Drat! Foiled again. I tried several other variations on this theme and so far I haven't figured out how to actually use a combination of the Alpha Mask tool with the Ink Sketch filter to preserve the original alpha channel... What you suggested makes perfect sense, and I was pretty sure you were onto something there, but I haven't been able to get it to work right. I am linking to an HTML page showing some more details. http://www.wizardchat.com/colors/forum- ... tails.html No. Here's what I said: "I would LOVE to have a checkbox that allowed me to preserve the transparency in an image when applying these effects."The current Artistic->Ink Sketch filter makes the entire image opaque. I want to preserve the transparency in an image when using the Ink Sketch effect such that the transparency is not removed. It is, in short, preserved. Export an alpha mask of the image, run the effect, then re-import it. Plugin to do this: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=24191 (I linked to this as I have not tried the other plugins and this is the only one that am sure can export a mask as well.) Quote
Simon Brown Posted October 25, 2008 Posted October 25, 2008 Here is a suggestion: Try to get it to work without ScriptLab first, so that you can observe each step and avoid complicating things. Quote
underdog Posted October 26, 2008 Author Posted October 26, 2008 I should have explained that I tried that. I tried several things that I didn't go into detail on that post. I felt I had been running on a bit as it was. I tried manually choosing Alpha Mask, saving the mask, running Ink Sketch, then loading the mask. Even without the ScriptLab it was doing odd things with the transparency. I would see a semi-circular shape appear in the mask that I can't explain. What I need to do is get over to the Alpha Mask forum and figure out how to use that tool first. The concern I have is that this will be a bit of time spent for a possible dead-end. But such are the risks. I do want to emphasize that having a checkbox that says something like 'preserve transparency? (Y/N)' on the Ink Sketch. That would tell the code to either skip 100% transparent pixels or apply the algorithm differently for semi-transparent pixels. Anyway that was the original suggestion. Quote
Ash Posted October 26, 2008 Posted October 26, 2008 I understand the request, and I 2nd the request. There are quite a few other effects beside the ones in Artistic. Quote All creations Ash + Paint.NET [ Googlepage | deviantArt | Club PDN | PDN Fan ]
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