Cut through layer, make a mask? white circle icon cut through

[Gusop]

Hello guys,

 

sorry for the strange titel images speak 1000 words:

 

[two attached files]

 

I need a png circle and the logo must be cut in the circle.

 

How can I do that?

 

So far I have the circle in the first layer and the icon I want to bet cut in later in the circe in the second layer.

 

Thank you for your help

[MJW]

I'm not sure what you mean by "the logo must be cut in the circle."

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

I don't think I fully understand what you want, but if you are trying to work with masks, then you might want to try the alpha mask plugin.

The plugin can be found here: http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/1854-alpha-mask-import-plugin-20/

(how to install plugins?)

 

If you want more help, can you please try to explain more about what you want and are trying to do?

Edited November 29, 2015 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles

[Gusop]

Alpha mask didn't helped me. Maybe I used it not the way I should.

Here how the end product should look like:

 

pic

 

I just used the eraser to do it but it looks bad and unprofessional.

Do you guys know now what I want?

 

Black is background so it easier to see.

[Limon]

Let me see if I got this right, you want to cut out the shape of the cog in the white circle, so you end up just with the white circle (with a cog-shaped hole) and a transparent background?

 

If that is what you want, then I can suggest two different ways.

1. Make the cog all black by using the contrast tool, merge the cog down to the same layer as the white circle and applying Boltbait's Switch Gray to Alpha-plugin (Which can be found in this plugin pack).

 

2. Select the cog with the magic wand selection tool, delete the selection on the circle layer and then running dpy's AA's assistant plugin (Which can be found in this plugin pack)

 

I hope this helps  

[MJW]

For the general case, follow Limon's advice. However, you should try to start with a larger image than the one of the gear. You'll get a much better result if you start with an image several times larger than the final image, and as the final step, rescale it to the desired size. It's almost impossible to get a really clean result for something the size of your gear image, especially when it has both curved and straight edges.
 
For your specific case, forget about the gear image you have. Make a new, larger gear with Red ochre's Effects>Iterative Lines>Gears plugin. Then fill it using Tools>Paint Bucket.
 
For a gear like yours, you could use something like:
Number of teeth: 8
Tooth width: 100
Tooth height: 59
Tooth shape: Truncated triangle
Shaft hole: 35

Spoke shape: None

Show outer collar and inner rings: Unchecked

Overall size: 100

The other controls left at the default values.

Edited November 30, 2015 by MJW

[Red ochre]

 

Then fill it using Tools>Paint Bucket.

Or set the Secondary color to black before running Gears.

(no need to worry about the fill tolerance catching all the AA'd pixels on the outline then).

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

Sorry, I still don't think I'm really understanding.
 
But, by any chance, do you just want to make the background of the gear-shaped object transparent? Or do you want the gear-shaped object to be black with a transparent background?

Remove background using the Alpha Mask Plugin:
You can use the alpha mask plugin to make backgrounds transparent.
1) First, duplicate the gear-shaped object's layer, and then turn most of the object on that layer into a solid black shape using brightness/contrast, or levels, or curves, and then use the paintbrush or line/curve tool to paint any remaining white spots of your object black.

2) After your duplicated object is black, select all (ctrl + a), and copy (ctrl+c).

3) Then turn that layer off, and click on the layer that has the normal version of your gear-shaped object. 

4) Run the alpha mask plugin and check-mark the "invert Mask" setting. Your white background should be erased.
Please note, the checkerboard pattern = transparency, there is nothing there, there is no background. (please see the bottom of this post to know about saving transparency.)


Alpha Mask Alternative:
Instead of using the alpha mask plugin to remove the background, you could try using a color removing plugin to remove the white background.

Your object has some white on it, this means some of the white spots of your object might become transparent too. So, before you use a color plugin to remove the white background, you might want to place a temporary layer below your object's layer and fill the temporary layer with an easy to see color. That way when you remove the object's white background, you can see the effects of the plugin easier, and adjust a plugin's tolerance or threshold sliders, to lessen how much of the object itself is effected. If you do end up with holes in your object, sometimes duplicating the object's layer several times can fill-in the holes.

Here are some plugins that remove colors...
-- The Two Tone Threshold plugin, based on your primary and secondary colors, this plugin can remove white backgrounds and at the same time turn an object black.

-- The Color Replacer plugin can change colors as well as remove colors, but it doesn't do both at the same time, and it might be tricky to change your gear-shaped object into a solid black shape. I would recommend this plugin to remove the white background, then change the object black with one of paint.net's adjustments.

-- The Grim Color Reaper plugin is one of the simplest plugins there is for removing white or black backgrounds.

If you need to clean up the edges of the object after you remove the background, then I suggest the Feather plugin or AA's assistant (already mentioned in some else's previous post).
 
If you use the above color plugins to remove your object's white background, but you still want your object black, then you can change the color of the object using paint.net's adjustments: brightness/contrast, or levels, or curves.


Save your work:
First save your work as a pdn to keep your layers.

Then, as the final step...
You can make any lower layers and unwanted layers invisible and then save the image as a PNG to keep it's transparency.

Here is a tutorial that's about saving images under different file types...
http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/12189-how-to-save-your-images-under-different-file-types/

Edited December 1, 2015 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles