Interactive Mask

[Juan]

Hi all,
Would be great if the Mask tool could be interactive when you change the soft edge, expand and contract from the Tool settings panel, right now at least the soft edge if you want to change the soft edge you have to reselect and to see if it fits for your needs.
Another thing could be apply the mask selection to a channel for future reuse and/or save the selections embedded into the file so you can load it anytime without search it in the computer and after load the one that you need apply interactively the expand, contract and soft edge. In few words... SmartMask.

Cheers
Juan

[bkh]

Hi all,
Would be great if the Mask tool could be interactive when you change the soft edge, expand and contract from the Tool settings panel, right now at least the soft edge if you want to change the soft edge you have to reselect and to see if it fits for your needs.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Mask tool". The Lasso tools in the toolbar? But if I draw up a lasso, I can set the width of the soft edge at any time, even after shrinking or expanding it.

Another thing could be apply the mask selection to a channel for future reuse and/or save the selections embedded into the file so you can load it anytime without search it in the computer and after load the one that you need apply interactively the expand, contract and soft edge. In few words... SmartMask.

In PL, there are various ways of turning masks into bitmap or vector layers and back. I use those layers to "store away" masks for further use. (To copy a greyscale image to the mask, use Tools -> Change Channels – admittedly not the very first place to look for such a command.)

Cheers

Burkhard.

[Martin Huber]

The intended way for storing multiple masks are layers masks:
- "Layer/Layer Mask/Create from Mask" creates a layer mask based on the current mask.
- "Layer/Layer Mask/Apply to Mask" creates a mask based on the active layer mask.

This way the stored mask are directly associated to their layer.

Of course you should turn off the clipping feature of the layer masks (Shift+click on scissor symbol in the layer panel), if you use them as a storage.

Martin

[Juan]

I'm not sure what you mean by "Mask tool". The Lasso tools in the toolbar? But if I draw up a lasso, I can set the width of the soft edge at any time, even after shrinking or expanding it.

Is a little hard for me to explain with words I´ll try wit some steps :
- Select free lasso from the toolbox, then you make your selection in the picture, after is selected click over Edit mask icon, below from the active brush (in the toolbox) then you´ll see the mask overlay in the picture, now if you go to the Tool--Mask--Expand mask, you´ll see that the overlay in the picture has changed but if you change the Soft edge via Panels--Tools settings (while Free Lasso tool is still active) you don´t see any change.

In PL, there are various ways of turning masks into bitmap or vector layers and back. I use those layers to "store away" masks for further use. (To copy a greyscale image to the mask, use Tools -> Change Channels – admittedly not the very first place to look for such a command.)

I have to check that command because is not very clear for me how it works. If there are some steps by steps maybe I can follow it

The intended way for storing multiple masks are layers masks...

Thanks, that work perfectly.

Cheers
Juan

[bkh]

- Select free lasso from the toolbox, then you make your selection in the picture, after is selected click over Edit mask icon, below from the active brush (in the toolbox) then you´ll see the mask overlay in the picture, now if you go to the Tool--Mask--Expand mask, you´ll see that the overlay in the picture has changed but if you change the Soft edge via Panels--Tools settings (while Free Lasso tool is still active) you don´t see any change.

Try switching off "Edit mask" mode, then you should be able set the soft edge again. (The reason behind this seems to be that even in Mask Editing Mode, you can draw up another lasso/mask to protect part of the mask which you are refining.)

In PL, there are various ways of turning masks into bitmap or vector layers and back. I use those layers to "store away" masks for further use. (To copy a greyscale image to the mask, use Tools -> Change Channels – admittedly not the very first place to look for such a command.)

I have to check that command because is not very clear for me how it works. If there are some steps by steps maybe I can follow it

Just use Martin's solution – it's simple and does just what I meant, just that there are other ways of achieving the same (or similar) effects.

Cheers

Burkhard.

[Juan]

Try switching off "Edit mask" mode, then you should be able set the soft edge again. (The reason behind this seems to be that even in Mask Editing Mode, you can draw up another lasso/mask to protect part of the mask which you are refining.)

Now I got it, thank you so much.

Just use Martin's solution – it's simple and does just what I meant, just that there are other ways of achieving the same (or similar) effects.

You are right, at least until I understand how that tool works.

Cheers
Juan