Feather Plugin (Now with Source)

[Hellfire010]

Alright, no rush

The halo effect is still useful though

[BoltBait]

Hellfire010, I thought a long time today about your request. It just doesn't make any sense to me. The whole purpose of this effect is to smooth out the edges of an object by fading the edges to transparent. You are asking me to do the same thing except using the secondary color instead of transparent. That wouldn't be useful at all!

Feathering the edges of an object to white (for example) would just make the object harder to work with. Trust me, it is much better to put your object on its own layer and feather to transparent using the DLL that I've already provided.

[Hellfire010]

Actually, it would be rather useful. Take my avatar, for example. Setting the primary color to white, and the secondary color to black, then using this effect would blur 1 to 2 pixels on the edges where the black and white meet. This, in my opinion, would be rather useful. There would be minor problems with what was selected, but that can be easily fixed by just selecting the circle. I don't know if you could do this with black and white, but maybe.

(Or if only the secondary color was white (disregarding the primary color), then doing this it would blend the black.)

Wish I could code plugins myself... Gonna learn some day *sigh*

[barkbark00]

Hellfire, try using the feather plugin first, then the drop shadow plugin, or BoltBaits Halo. This way the pixels that are transparent will show with the shadow color. I haven't tried it yes so I don't know how close it will be to what your looking for.

[BoltBait]

Actually, it would be rather useful. Take my avatar, for example. Setting the primary color to white, and the secondary color to black, then using this effect would blur 1 to 2 pixels on the edges where the black and white meet. This, in my opinion, would be rather useful. There would be minor problems with what was selected, but that can be easily fixed by just selecting the circle. I don't know if you could do this with black and white, but maybe.

(Or if only the secondary color was white (disregarding the primary color), then doing this it would blend the black.)

Wish I could code plugins myself... Gonna learn some day *sigh*

Actually, for an image like yours, the best way to do it is to use the circle selection tool to select the entire yin/yang symbol and do a Gaussian Blur(1).

Normally, when making such a picture, you would have made the black areas and the white areas on separate layers. Then you could feather the white layer for your desired effect.

[MadJik]

I'ld have done it in this way :

Take the yin/yang in layer 1

add 2 layers

Select/Copy White on layer 2

Select/Copy Black on layer 3

use the feather plugin on layers 2 & 3.

My suggestion then should be a feature that could create separate layers with separate colors...

[BoltBait]

My suggestion then should be a feature that could create separate layers with separate colors...

That's not something that an effect can do. Effects have no capability to change selections, add layers, etc.

I really wish that effects could (as part of their effect) create a new layer and put their results on that layer instead of the currently selected layer. But, I'm not sure Rick will ever let us do that.

[aatwo]

sexy awesome plugin. I never got round to trying it for some raisin until a few seconds ago and it's pretty awesome.

[trickman]

Would it possible to add a UI just in case I want to have a radial blur feather plugin?

[Hellfire010]

Hmm... I suppose you're right... thanks anyway

[Illnab1024]

This plugin is meant to feather the edges of any antialiased object into a clear background. Clear means that the alpha is Zero (0)

[BoltBait]

It's cool! But when I don't follow the excellent instructions for use you've given, it doesn't work.

Really? I'll have to look into that.

[usedHONDA]

I discovered a nice alternate use for it (kinda). If the picture already looks pretty well rounded, and just using the feather makes it too transparent (the Gaussian burr has the same problem), duplicate the layer and use the feather on the top layer. I've used it several times before.

[BoltBait]

I saw someone pointing someone to this plugin when they wanted to grow or shrink the selected area by X number of pixels, but I don't think this plugin (while excellent) does that.

Does it?

It does not.

The fact is, an effect can not change how much is selected.

[barkbark00]

I don't know how to compile the DLL with an icon, but here is one I made.

I was just guessing, but I figured that it had to be 16x16...

Boltbait, Any luck figuring out how to get the icon in the effect dll?

[Bob]

public static Bitmap StaticIcon
       {
           get
           {
               return new Bitmap(typeof(YourEffect), "YourEffectIcon.png");
           }
       }

[BoltBait]

Yes, Bob, I know how to do it, however, this effect was compiled using CodeLab and therefore does not have a built-in icon.

When I finish making changes to CodeLab that allows icons to be used, I will recompile this effect with the icon shown above.

I just need to find some time to do it.

BTW, I've done the research and believe that I know what needs to be done to CodeLab... I just wish there were more hours in the day...

[Ash]

Great plugin!!

Would it be possible to let users select the amount of Feather being applied?

Thanks for your time

[BoltBait]

Great plugin!!

Would it be possible to let users select the amount of Feather being applied?

Thanks for your time

I have recompiled this effect with the new CodeLab beta and added an icon to the effect and also added a UI that allows specifying the feather amount (from 1 to 5 with a default of 2).

Download here: http://boltbait.googlepages.com/feather

8)

[Bob]

also added a UI

Woot! Thanks!

[barkbark00]

You didn't use my icon

[Helio]

Nice... melikes!

[BoltBait]

You didn't use my icon

Sorry, I didn't have access to the internet when I made the latest build. But, I did have my old icon.

I still like yours better, but its too late now.

[Ash]

Awsome!!!

Thanks a bunch

[sagedavis]

Bolt,

at first I was a bit disappointed in this because I assumed it was something else. Like feathered edges that look like when you scratch the edges of a photo.

Then I realized what it does. It's pretty good, and I see many issues with images that are not antialiased, or whatever, and having too much pixelation. This is great for smoothing them out.

Keep up the good work.

I would still like to find an effect that makes that sort of scratch look that I am looking for though.

Thanks

Sage