Transparent-border masking

[shrinkshooter]

Several times I have needed the idea I'm about to describe to you, but first a disclaimer: yes, there are workarounds, but they're a little harder. And for all I know, you CAN do this, I simply don't know how.

Simply put, you know how when you mask something (say, you use a circle in Layer B to make a circular picture of gradient on Layer A), the mask automatically makes a border around the circle? The border is usually white. Now, let's say I want Layer C, which involves a Xor layer property because I want to draw a line across the circle and the circle only, making a stripe across it consisting of different colors. Finally, I want to take that circle with the Xor line and put it on a transparent background. If I delete the white border on mask Layer B, then it goes away and it's as though there was no mask (sort of). I was just wondering if there was a way to make the white border of a masking layer tranparent without actually revealing anything beneath it. I know that sounds contradictory, but I'm talking about essentially taking what the mask reveals and putting it on a transparent background. That's what this effect would be equal to.

The above example is extremely simple, and yes, there are workarounds as I said before. I simply don't know if there's an easier way to do this or not. I'm sure there are some things in here that probably doesn't make sense to someone, and I'm sure some of this probably sounds stupid. Maybe it is. But I'll just reply to the posts as they come, and try as best I can to explain any questions people might have about what i mean.

[iRock]

It is very hard to understand what you are asking..

[shrinkshooter]

Yeah, I thought so.

Simpler version: I would like to be able to use masking that did not make a white border, but a transparent one that you could draw behind but not actually see behind. I'll try to make an example and post it.

[iRock]

hmmm

yeah im still kinda confused

post a screenshot and ill take a look at it

[shrinkshooter]

Okay, here we are.

Image A: how it looks pre-masking.

B: how it looks post-masking. A yellow line is drawn across the layer being masked, but all you see is the circle, white border, and yellow line.

C: However, when you delete the white border, you see everything that was underneath the border, including the yellow line that was drawn off the circle.

D and E: same things as A and B, only this is using the "transparent border masking" idea.

F: deleting the white border actually leaves a transparent background, but this background does not show what was originally underneath it.

Hopefully that shows the idea I'm talking about a bit better. Like i said i dunno if there's already a method to do this. BTW none of the examples shown above were actually made using masking, it's just an example.

==edit==

Also, i know you can merge down and then delete the border to achieve the results seen in F, but sometimes because of multiple layers between the masking layer and the bottom-most layer this is not doable without screwing over the rest of the picture. I hope you know what i mean.

[-Expiration-]

If I think I know what you are asking, why don't you select the white area and go to the layer with the gradient and delete, and repeat with the layer with the line on it.

[shrinkshooter]

If I think I know what you are asking, why don't you select the white area and go to the layer with the gradient and delete, and repeat with the layer with the line on it.

And do it for every layer between, I see what you're saying. Off the top of my head I think this would work, but there might be special cases where it doesn't. I dunno. For the moment I can't see any reason it wouldn't, so thanks.

[MiguelPereira]

Ey guys don't you really bother searching???

if searched 'mask' you'd get to this > viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2178&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=mask

[shrinkshooter]

Ey guys don't you really bother searching???

I did see that post, but looking at the top few posts it seemed like it was just talking about a masking plugin. Further down the page he seems to describe something similar (if not the same) to what I was talking about; I'll have to check it out to see if it is. I have an alpha mask plugin already, but I don't know if it does what that thread describes. In short yes, I did search, but skimming the first few posts I didn't think it was talking about what I needed. Thanks though.

[MiguelPereira]

That plugin is what you want, I just ranted a bit (sorry) because what you wanted was do obvious that made me scream but read the tut on that plugin on CMD's website, and you'll see that it's what you want