06-10-2021, 11:37 AM
Hi, newbie to the forum here.
I wondered if anyone could advise on the following?
I am using artistic effects that apply to the whole layer rather than ones that can be used with a paint tool.
I want to style the artistic effect differently in different parts of the image - for example an artistic effect might have a stroke direction - an 'angle' -
so "on this part of the image strokes should be at 30 degrees and over here strokes should be at 60 degrees".
So the problem is how to vary effects that apply to the whole layer with regional variations by changing a variable or setting supplied in the artistic filter, I am using 'stroke angle' for an example but it could be any variable that can be changed on an artistic effect that is applied to the whole layer.
The method I have been experimenting with is to make say 5 layers and apply the "whole layer" artistic effect to each layer in turn, each time with a different stroke angle.
So I may have
layer0 - stroke angle of 0 degrees applied to artistic effect
layer1 - stroke angle of 30 degrees applied to artistic effect
layer2 - stroke angle of 60 degrees applied to artistic effect
and so on....
I then added a layer mask to each layer.
This means I can achieve the result I want and I can see the result live in the main layer as I use say the rubber tool to remove areas of layer mask for each layer, if I rub out the layer1 mask at one location I can have a stroke of 30 degrees and then if I rub out the layer2 mask in a different place then I see the 60 degree stroke coming through.
Great it works !!! But.........
The only problem is that for this to work well I need to make sure that my layer masks are mutually exclusive from one another - if I use the rubber tool on one layer mask at position A then I must not use the rubber tool at that same position in any of the other masks otherwise I will not have the desired result that for any pixel the contribution comes from only one of my layers - in my case the layers in question are mode=dodge so I do not get the desired effect if more than one layer is allowed to contribute to any single pixel.
I cannot use modes on the layers themselves to combine them in different ways because they all have to be "dodge".
So it seems that the only way I can get the mutual exclusivity I want is to have some "magic" option that views my five layer masks as being part of a set and if a pixel in any one of these masks is transparent then the same pixels in all the other masks must be opaque - if I use the rubber tool to make a particular pixel transparent then the other layer masks must all react automatically and set that same pixel opaque.
It could be progressive, for instance perhaps the pixel at a particular position in the image might have transparency in the layer masks as follows 0.6, 0.2, 0.1, 0.1, 0.0 - ie adding up to 1.0 at all times - so if I used a rubber tool I might use multiple strokes to progressively make layer 5 dominant in a particular region but always so that the contribution from the other layers is decreased accordingly.
I can't help thinking it must be a common wish to use an artistic effect that applies to the whole image and to wish to use layers each with the same image but a different setting for the artistic effect and then to want to paint on masks to determine which setting is used in different places on the screen?
Is there any kind of mask that can take say 5 layers as 'input' be painted on freehand with facilities to allow only one layer as output or to blend the contribution from each layer in a sensible way?
Conceptually a mask where each pixel has a value 1 to 5 to indicate layer and so can only accept one layer as input for any particular pixel? -
Or a mask system were five channels are blended according to how I paint on the mask but the result is only a weighted average of the 5 layers, perhaps a system that is progressive so that if I wish to have layer 5 dominate in a particular area then repeated strokes of a tool on the mask in that area will progressively weight more and more to layer 5 with the other other layers diminishing in their input at every stroke?
Its not an easy one to describe
Thanks in advance
Jon
I wondered if anyone could advise on the following?
I am using artistic effects that apply to the whole layer rather than ones that can be used with a paint tool.
I want to style the artistic effect differently in different parts of the image - for example an artistic effect might have a stroke direction - an 'angle' -
so "on this part of the image strokes should be at 30 degrees and over here strokes should be at 60 degrees".
So the problem is how to vary effects that apply to the whole layer with regional variations by changing a variable or setting supplied in the artistic filter, I am using 'stroke angle' for an example but it could be any variable that can be changed on an artistic effect that is applied to the whole layer.
The method I have been experimenting with is to make say 5 layers and apply the "whole layer" artistic effect to each layer in turn, each time with a different stroke angle.
So I may have
layer0 - stroke angle of 0 degrees applied to artistic effect
layer1 - stroke angle of 30 degrees applied to artistic effect
layer2 - stroke angle of 60 degrees applied to artistic effect
and so on....
I then added a layer mask to each layer.
This means I can achieve the result I want and I can see the result live in the main layer as I use say the rubber tool to remove areas of layer mask for each layer, if I rub out the layer1 mask at one location I can have a stroke of 30 degrees and then if I rub out the layer2 mask in a different place then I see the 60 degree stroke coming through.
Great it works !!! But.........
The only problem is that for this to work well I need to make sure that my layer masks are mutually exclusive from one another - if I use the rubber tool on one layer mask at position A then I must not use the rubber tool at that same position in any of the other masks otherwise I will not have the desired result that for any pixel the contribution comes from only one of my layers - in my case the layers in question are mode=dodge so I do not get the desired effect if more than one layer is allowed to contribute to any single pixel.
I cannot use modes on the layers themselves to combine them in different ways because they all have to be "dodge".
So it seems that the only way I can get the mutual exclusivity I want is to have some "magic" option that views my five layer masks as being part of a set and if a pixel in any one of these masks is transparent then the same pixels in all the other masks must be opaque - if I use the rubber tool to make a particular pixel transparent then the other layer masks must all react automatically and set that same pixel opaque.
It could be progressive, for instance perhaps the pixel at a particular position in the image might have transparency in the layer masks as follows 0.6, 0.2, 0.1, 0.1, 0.0 - ie adding up to 1.0 at all times - so if I used a rubber tool I might use multiple strokes to progressively make layer 5 dominant in a particular region but always so that the contribution from the other layers is decreased accordingly.
I can't help thinking it must be a common wish to use an artistic effect that applies to the whole image and to wish to use layers each with the same image but a different setting for the artistic effect and then to want to paint on masks to determine which setting is used in different places on the screen?
Is there any kind of mask that can take say 5 layers as 'input' be painted on freehand with facilities to allow only one layer as output or to blend the contribution from each layer in a sensible way?
Conceptually a mask where each pixel has a value 1 to 5 to indicate layer and so can only accept one layer as input for any particular pixel? -
Or a mask system were five channels are blended according to how I paint on the mask but the result is only a weighted average of the 5 layers, perhaps a system that is progressive so that if I wish to have layer 5 dominate in a particular area then repeated strokes of a tool on the mask in that area will progressively weight more and more to layer 5 with the other other layers diminishing in their input at every stroke?
Its not an easy one to describe
Thanks in advance
Jon