Masks in AD?

[MaryLou]

Reggie, I did it the same way you do and it works perfectly.  The hard part is finding that exact spot where you can get the image to show like that.    I don't think I'd call that clipping, as Grethe said so what would you call it?   It works great with a simple mask... going to try it on a really ornate one to see what happens.

[Grethe]

A little closer to the solution, folks?
Did take notes this time....
From Select->Select Sample Colour->Invert Selection
And then like Rege.

As you can see, the photo itself got a little transperency, but it is one step closer, isn't it?

Add the photo and the frame

[MaryLou]

Grethe, I would have done that just the opposite - invert the mask. The dark areas are the parts you want to hide.   I think masks are going to give me a headache! 

I used your mask and your photo and this is how mine came out. 

[SherylC]

Thank you Rege, that is very clear and almost what I have in mind. the result I am trying to get has transparency or fading around the inner or outer edges. There must be a way of doing this using your method.  I shall give it a try.

Grethe, the Black frame is more or less it but in reverse wo that the transparent edges are on the outside.

MaryLou, yes that's exactly what I am looking to do in AD. Did you follow Rege's method and tweak it?

I may have saved all the PI Masks somewhere on my pc. It would be fantastic if we could import/use them in AD.

[SherylC]

Got it. I was placing the image (this is how I used to do it in PI)  rather than opening the image, which doesn't work quite the same way in AD.  So I followed Rege's method of creating and saving a mask in .png. Opened it in the AD workspace along with an image and moved the image underneath the mask as the .gif example.   

Thanks all. :)

[MaryLou]

I found that using masks from PI, it works great if you save the selection rather than the mask itself.  On the one below,  I opened PI, dragged one of the masks to a blank image. That puts just the selection on the blank image.  Then saved the selection as a .png.

In AD, I clipped the image inside of the selection.  This is the result.. worked perfectly.  It looks like there are many ways to reach the same goal - it depends on what we use as a mask.   I rather like the selection method. Going to play with this a bit more.

[Rege]

Sheryl, by putting elliptical transparency on the mask, we may be getting close to what you're looking for. Set the transparency according to the desired result.

[Rege]

MaryLou, I admit I don't really care about naming this operation!  As it is non-destructive it is indeed not a "cut". This poses a problem if you want to keep a mask with its colors to use it on another photo or drawing because it loses its characteristics if you copy or export it: as soon as it is separated from its photo it keeps only its shape.

I did different tests with a shape with "tortured" contours and it works well.

[Grethe]

Grethe, I would have done that just the opposite - invert the mask. The dark areas are the parts you want to hide.   I think masks are going to give me a headache! 

I used your mask and your photo and this is how mine came out.

You got it just what I wanted. Perfect! 
Now...what did I do wrong? I'm in limbo! 
Guess I've to wait for a really, really tutorial…..

[SherylC]

That transparent image is very much like it Rege except that the outer edges only of the mask is transparent. Thanks for all the efforts. :)