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Fade to white, oval & rectangle


GeorgeB

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For the record: I've searched the forums, used searchpaint.net, and searched using Google restricting to "site:paint.net" and "site:forumer.com" with a paint modifer. I keep coming close, but can't find what I want. I'm not a graphic artist, just want to fiddle with fotos. Using PDN v3.22. I'm a newbie not just to PDN, but to graphics editing in general. This is also my first time including images (photobucket).

Searching for "vignette", "blurred edge", "edge blur", "soft edge" or variations thereof gets me close. Using "fade" and "white" got me a little closer. So I know that there may be an answer already posted, but I cannot find it, or if I found it, didn't know what it was.

For example, I start with:

example.png

In another post, I found these instructions:

1. on a new layer make fill it white. :PaintBucketTool:

2. Click on gradient then radial. :GradientTool::RadialGradient:

3. Click transperent. :AlphaChannel:

4. From the center right click and pull to the edge or your likings

Which gave me this:

example_fade.png

Very nice, but I want an oval, and Gradient -> Radial doesn't do ovals, as far as I can tell. (Once I've learned how to do this, I also want to do rectangle fades, but Gradient -> Diamond apparently only does squares, not rectangles.)

I also managed to produce this:

example_oval-fade.png

On a white background, it almost fades to white. On a new layer, I made a 30px oval, bucket-filled to white, GaussianBlur+ at 30 (I think, I've tried dozens of combinations). This would almost be acceptable, but the image layer (Object -> Feather set at 10) is still too distinct, not enough "fuzziness", or blending, or blurring or whatever; plus it really just doesn't fade. I even tried repeating Feather at 10 (Ctrl-F), but it seems you only get to feather an image once.

(I even tried adding Distort -> Dents & Frosted Glass to the blurred white oval -- nice effects, even on an oval, but not a fade-to-white.)

Now here's where I'm probably going to get cranky! :D Based on hours-upon-hours of reading forums (GD&Q, Plugins, Tutorials), I'm certain that at least one person is going to suggest Alpha Mask Import (AMI). Instead of getting cranky, maybe I'll just break down and cry. I've tried to figure out how to use that plugin, but there's apparently a short-circuit in my brain. If you still want to suggest that procedure, please provide very detailed instructions (and a link to a large bottle of aspirin :wink: ).

(Another problem with the AMI is that I want to apply this "effect" to many different photos, with diferent oval/rectangular dimensions and sizes, and that would require lots of masks, right? But then since I don't understand AMI, maybe that's not true.)

Bottom line: is there a (hopefully relatively simple) way of achieving a fade-to-white on ovals and rectangles?

(In olden times, making a photo print, we'd hold an oval-shaped paper cut-out about halfway between the enlarger lens and the photo paper, and moving that "magic want", we''d burn out the edges. Wasted a lot of paper and chemicals, and, it turns out, wasn't very eco-friendly!)

Thanks in advance for any help,

GeorgeB

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Download Ed Harvey's plugin pack. It includes an effect called "vignette" which will do precisely what you're asking for with no fuss! :-)

 

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The Doctor: You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it.
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I think here is exactly what you're looking for:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5513#p57490

This method works on all shapes.

Only update is that "Gaussian Blur Channel" plugin is now called GaussianBlur+ (available in BoltBait's plugin pack).

That seems to be exactly what I was looking for! Exactly. My mind is boggled that I didn't cross that page before, or even the page referenced by barkbark00 on that page. If I did, it sure didn't register. (I thought maybe the reason that page didn't come up was because I was restricting my searches to Tutorials & Plugins; but I just ran an un-restricted search with "fade white" and it still didn't come up. Just using "fade", it does, of course.)

You have no idea how happy and relieved I am to finally know how to do this. Thank you, Tanel.

barkbark00: I'm playing around with duplicating layers (your tut "Fade Edge to Transparent"). Looks like a useful additional modification.

David Atwell: I had actually tried EDE Vignette on several different occasions, seemed like it should work. Back in December, "vignette" was what I started searching for, refining as I went along after that. But I still can't use Vignette to make fade-to-white or fade-to-transparency.

Thanks again. I'm going to go play with my new toys now! :D

GeorgeD

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