How to create this effect?

[alex]

Sorry, if i'm at all unclear, i'm not much of a graphics person, i excel with php/mysql/html.. but i try to avoid hiring a graphics person when i'm doing some smaller websites. The effect below is something i did in photoshop a few years ago.. i kinda remember i had to make a background layer the same color as the background of the website, then create a mask over the middle of it, then fade the edges into the background somehow.

I really like using Paint.NET, but this one effect is one that i really like to use.. is there any way to do this effect in Paint.NET ?

Here is the webpage it's in (so you can see how it blends into the background):

http://cerisse.com/cap.php

Here is the image:

Thanks in advance for any help here..

And a BIG thank you to the development team. You've created a great peice of software, and given it freely to the world, which within itself, is even greater than the software.

[trickman]

try to draw in a new layer (with brush size 30 or so) a outline around the image. then gaus blur some pixs.

[alex]

Perfect, worked like a charm, i used the rectangle tool to draw a perfect box around on a new layer, i tried 30 first, but then 50 seemed to work a little bit better. then did the gaus blur set to 40 pixels, and it was done.. even easier than i remember it being in photoshop.

Thanks a lot

[trickman]

hehe glad i helped

Trickman

[crosswalker]

*light bulb flashes over head* just a thought, in GIMP there's a function called color-to-alpha which takes the intensity of a set color and changes the alpha value of a pixel to match it. if you were to use this effect with some color that wasn't in your image (so that it didn't get erased as well) you could run color-to-alpha(or, preferably, a pdn alternative) and get a transparent fade. Sort of like a feathered selection

[trickman]

*light bulb flashes over head* just a thought, in GIMP there's a function called color-to-alpha which takes the intensity of a set color and changes the alpha value of a pixel to match it. if you were to use this effect with some color that wasn't in your image (so that it didn't get erased as well) you could run color-to-alpha(or, preferably, a pdn alternative) and get a transparent fade. Sort of like a feathered selection

It would be cool if there was color2alpha in pdn3!

[Illnab1024]

I made a codelab for this earlier, and thought nobody would need it; here it is:

void Render(Surface dst, Surface src, Rectangle rect)
{
   for(int y = rect.Top; y < rect.Bottom; y++)
   {

       for (int x = rect.Left; x < rect.Right; x++)
       {
           ColorBgra c = src[x, y];
           c.A = (byte)(255-((c.R + c.B + c.G)/3));
           dst[x, y] = c; 
       }
   }
}

Simple. It keeps the original pixel value, and sets the alpha to its value (here the average of its intensity)

[trickman]

it is more than simply find x color and replace it with alpha. for example, if there is a grey pixel and you decide to turn white transparent, the grey pixel turns into black with some transparency.

[crosswalker]

Trickman's right on this one. your code, as far as I can make it work, is taking the intensity of whatever color the pixel is and setting the pixel's alpha to that. What color to alpha does, is allow you to set a "mask" color that acts as the alpha intensity guide. it looks at the intensity of the mask color in each pixel and then sets the alpha to that. so if your mask color is white, a black pixel would be transparent and a white pixel would be opaque...or would it be the other way around...shoot...*downloads GIMP source code* be back in a bit.

[Illnab1024]

ah, now i get you. it is a layer thing. I have no idea how to implement this into a (true) method of rendering. A black pixel is a transparent one, and white is opaque (basic masking). I understand you mean an alpha mask (TBI in 3.0)

EDIT: I think photo flood fill might help.

[crosswalker]

it could be a layer thing in PDN. but it's not necessarily one. I used mask because it best described the effect, but it's not completely correct. Color 2 alpha on GIMP works on one layer, it takes the intensity of a set color in each pixel and, I think, removes that color and sets the alpha value of the pixel to whatever the intensity was.

Edit: off topic, but still, illnab1024, where's the nintendo wii in your 7th gen consoles sig?