hello from new user and layer/mask question

[horusra]

I'm a new user of Paintnet, my name is Rob and this program was recommended to me by a person from another forum for the 3d graphics program Truespace where I am a member and registered user of that software and have been for years.

I've got some financial troubles temporarily till around june/july, so therefore I've been looking for a program similar to photoshop, etc, etc that is free and this was recommended to me, like I mentioned; on the Truespace forum that I'm a member of. For quite some time now I've needed to most importantly make some alpha channel textures of trees and such to use in Truespace. This is where the bulk of my work will center around. Bein that I'm not familiar with paintnet I have a few questions right away:

1. (example) I have a picture of a tree and I want to cut just the tree out of the photo to make a alpha channel texture of the tree, how do I do this in paintnet? I need everything but the tree to be transparent. Usually I think in photoshop the background (or that which is around the tree is either white or black) and is what will be the transparency channel.

2. I have made a band logo for our band in Truespace (I play in a local rock band), White background, letters in black. I need to cut the logo out including the space within letters such as "O's", "A's", "P's", etc e.g. the space thats within the O's have to go to, that way we can place "just" the logo onto flyers and such where we may already have a background picture. This has also been a problem when we try to do t'shirts for example where we wanted just the decal to be the logo but not the solid coloring around it and within the lettering as in the cases of o's, R,'s, P's, etc, etc.

Hopefully this is clear enough, kind of hard for me to describe, haha.

All help greatly appreciated.

kind regards

Rob

[csm725]

I'm not particularly understanding the first question, but here is a mini-tutorial for the second one:

1. Load your image.

2. Go to magic wand tool.

3. Set the mode to 'Global' - on the toolbar next to the tolerance slider.

4. Click in any white spot.

5. Hit 'Delete'.

Transparency in Paint.NET is represented by checkerboard.

[horusra]

I'm not particularly understanding the first question, but here is a mini-tutorial for the second one:

1. Load your image.

2. Go to magic wand tool.

3. Set the mode to 'Global' - on the toolbar next to the tolerance slider.

4. Click in any white spot.

5. Hit 'Delete'.

Transparency in Paint.NET is represented by checkerboard.

ok, thanks, that worked out well. How do you now add that cutout to another picture? example, I have a picture with other stuff on it (say a band flyer) and I want to place that logo we just cut out in the middle of the other pic?

As far as the tree/transparency question, I will have to try to explain tomorrow as I've got to go to work in about 45 mins, maybe someone else also may know? Maybe what you've already given me maybe the solution though. Well let me see if I can explain quickly. ok, I go out to the woods with my digital camera, I take a picture of the forest, but one tree in particular catches my attention so I make sure that I get the entire tree in my pic from tip to trunk at ground level. I load said pic in paintnet. Now, hehe, well this is where its hard to explain, not sure I can anybetter than I already have. I need to make a transparency channel (usually at least in photoshop this is common practice and terminology) I need to cut everything out of said picture EXCEPT just the tree Ive chosen, everything else in the pic becomes transparent (alpha channel). What I'm doing is this; in Truespace, lets say Im modeling a 3d house and want some trees around it, I could model them but this would bring the Polygon count wayyyyy up, so I model the house with geometry (polygons) and I place geometric planes areound the house and paint said tree on plain. I check transparency on said plane so truespace knows to treat that texture just like it is, an alpha channel texture, usually in .tga or.png that has an extra 8-bit alpha channel which holds the transparency info. Therefore I need to cut a tree out of a pic and turn everything else in the pic as a transparency channel. Best I can do.

Kind regards

Rob

[csm725]

Now I get it.

To answer your first question:

Select all (Ctrl-A), Copy (Ctrl-C), Paste (Ctrl-V) in your target destination, whether it be another image of your flyer or a Microsoft Word / Publisher document.

To answer your second question there is a wonderful tutorial by Simon Brown:

http://www.isimonbrown.co.uk/cutting-out-images/

Hope it works.

[horusra]

Now I get it.

To answer your first question:

Select all (Ctrl-A), Copy (Ctrl-C), Paste (Ctrl-V) in your target destination, whether it be another image of your flyer or a Microsoft Word / Publisher document.

To answer your second question there is a wonderful tutorial by Simon Brown:

http://www.isimonbro...ing-out-images/

Hope it works.

SWEET!

ok I'll take a look and more practice on problem #1 in the morning and let the board know, hopefullt that will do it.

thanks so so much

kind regards

Rob

[horusra]

<<Now I get it.

To answer your first question:

Select all (Ctrl-A), Copy (Ctrl-C), Paste (Ctrl-V) in your target destination, whether it be another image of your flyer or a Microsoft Word / Publisher document.

To answer your second question there is a wonderful tutorial by Simon Brown:

http://www.isimonbro...ing-out-images/

Hope it works.>>

Nope, no such luck. I've included the result as an attachment. You can see the checkerboard in one image but the one I included its not there BUT you can see the square around the small logo and thats exactly what I'm trying to get rid of, I needed just the letters, but then maybe I'm doing something wrong, especially since paintnet is new to me.

The tutorial wont work because that would just be way to tedious for a tree. You would have to trace the entire tree, every branch, leaf etc. I should have seen that coming right away. I guess what I was used to years ago when I had access to photoshop and corel photo-paint was to make a crop around the image (but I may not be remembering exactly) then there was something that put a square around the object and then it shrink-wrapped itself around the entire image and then that part was cut out, thats the idea method, but not sure if paintnet can do that. I'm stumped.

kind regards

Rob

[Sarkut]

horusra,

To cut-out the logo use the Grim Color Reaper plugin.

Grim Color Reaper

Settings:

Color Tolerance ------------------- 20.00

Consider transparent ...-----------0.00

What color?-------------------------White

=======================================

If you can post the actual image of the tree it will

help towards getting the best advice/suggestions.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

You could also try the Alphaspace plugin to remove the background.

[horusra]

I'm not particularly understanding the first question, but here is a mini-tutorial for the second one:

1. Load your image.

2. Go to magic wand tool.

3. Set the mode to 'Global' - on the toolbar next to the tolerance slider.

4. Click in any white spot.

5. Hit 'Delete'.

Transparency in Paint.NET is represented by checkerboard.

Something I've noticed with this. After I hit delete, the background does in fact turn to checkerboard but it does not act as transparent later. What am I doing wrong, is there someother steps in the save process or somewhere else? I saved as a.png of course. I would have posted the image but I deleted it.

kind regards

Rob

[csm725]

Check for a 'transparency threshold feature' or, if you're using the OptiPng filetype make sure you're on Rgb with Alpha and nothing else.

[gravesk]

Hi -

I am having exactly the same problem as the other fellow. My picture has a checkerboard background except when I import it as a layer. Then the background is a white rectangle.

You suggest checking for a "transparency threshold feature" -- where exactly would I find this feature?

thanks,

Kristin

[Sarkut]

So, you have PNG files that open with transparency,

but import with white instead of transparency.

Is that right?

============================================

transparency threshold feature

It's part of the PNG Save dialogue.

(Edit: Should read "PNG Save Configuration dialogue".)

Edited April 26, 2010 by Sarkut

[gravesk]

I have images of different types. The bottom layer (background layer) is a PDN file (paint.net image). I'm trying to bring over a JPEG image with a checkerboard background but the background turns while when I bring it into the PDN file.

Do I need the new layers to also be PDN files?

Also, you said that it's part of the PNG save dialog. I don't know what that is. Do you mean File Save in Paint.net?

thanks,

Kristin

So, you have PNG files that open with transparency,

but import with white instead of transparency.

Is that right?

============================================

It's part of the PNG Save dialogue.

[Sarkut]

JPEG won't preserve transparency.

Use PNG if the image has transparency

that you want to keep.

==================================

Yes. File > Save As... click Save

Save Configuration has Transparency Threshold,

but it's not used with the default save.

Edited April 25, 2010 by Sarkut

[gravesk]

Sarkut -- Thanks for the tip about PNG files and transparency. I had no idea, but now everything is working great!

Kristin

JPEG won't preserve transparency.

Use PNG if the image has transparency

that you want to keep.

==================================

Yes. File > Save As... click Save

Save Configuration has Transparency Threshold,

but it's not used with the default save.