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This is hot. I’m so excited. (I’ll never fear a “locked” layer again).
With only a slight variation on your theme (Hide Selection, rather than Reveal Selection, in the Layer Mask options), I have an excellent brush object of my ghastly insect.
When I have something fit to show, I’ll send a link.
Thanx a meg, wuz. This has been an education.
Best,
M -
[wuzelwazel] “It sounds like you haven’t switched back to your original layer. Photoshop is going to apply a Layer Mask to whatever layer you have selected, and it can’t apply a Layer Mask to an alpha channel. Make sure that after you have your selection you go back to the Layers palette and select your original layer.”
Can’t seem to do this. Clicking, double-clicking–nothing seems to “select” the original layer. Only clue I have is that there’s a “locked” icon to the right of the original layer’s name.
This is a mystery to me, as I certainly never intentionally “locked” the original layer–nor do I seem to be able to unlock it.
Just as an experiment, I deleted the current project and tried loading in other images, in all formats. They ALL come in “locked.”
As said, wuz, I’m grateful for your thoughtful help. I’m cutting and pasting all your responses into a text document which I’ll be saving in my Pshop helps/tutes folder.
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[wuzelwazel] “Try dragging one of the channels, preferably whichever one has more contrast between the foreground and background, onto the ‘Create new channel’ button. This will duplicate the channel. Once you’re working with that channel you can use any adjustments or filters available in PS (in grayscale) on that Alpha Channel.
Once you’ve got that Alpha looking good you can use the ‘Load Channel as Selection’ button or ctrl/cmd click the channel thumbnail. Then using this selection go back to your original layer and use Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal Selection.”
Aha, now we’re cookin’. Turns out, I was doing it correctly–but it’s at your second paragraph that I’m cut off.
I get the “alpha” looking good (VERY white and VERY black)–but when I Load Channel as Selection and go up into the menu bar and pull down the Layer options, “Layer Mask” is ghosted.
(This was happening when I tried this before; it’s what made me think that this new channel I’d duplicated/created was NOT an alpha channel).
I’m really grateful for your help with this, wuz.
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” . . . does this give you any ideas? =)”
Not really. My knowledge of layers comes from how they’re treated in ImageFX. Layers in PS have never been clear to me.
Did scour the list before posting this, and I read with interest your response to another query last week about cut-outs, in which you suggested going into the layers pallette and clicking on Channels.
Where you lost me was the part where you said “drag one of the channels down to duplicate it and create an alpha channel.”
Perhaps it’s that the controls are slightly different on my PC version, but there doesn’t seem to be an alpha option–just “Load channel as selection,” “Save selection as channel,” “Create new channel.”
The black box with the white inner circle looks like the proper symbol for an alpha channel with transparent black background and opaque white area–but when I drag to this symbol, I get the “NO” symbol.
So, the subsequent steps of your suggestion were kinda of lost to me.
(Have examined manuals, how-to’s published by adobe, and the help file within CS, but nowhere does it tell you PRECISELY how to create an alpha channel from an existing channel–only what great things you can do with one).
“Curious, where did you get this image?”
Created it from a scan of a dried insect, a dragonfly nymph.
Thanx, wuz, for chipping in here.
I’m sure there’s a straightforward procedure that I’m just not getting yet.
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[Vincent Becquiot] “Got it… yep no waveform there. But I would really encourage you to reconcider the upgrade, I think you might be amazed at the amount of improvement over 6.5 (Couldn’t list them all in one post)”
Yes, I’ve looked at/played with Pro, and I’ll acknowledge it’s a vast improvement over 6.5–but another factor for me is that it’s XP only, and I’m still locked into win2kPro.
Got a dell lappy coming this week with XP installed, so maybe I’ll make the leap; just keep 6.5 around for time-lapse.
And no, not imported time-lapse footage or doing it from video but literally USING 6.5’s time-lapse capture options to create time-lapse animations.
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Sorry; 6.5.
And hey, you lost me utterly. Waveform? IRE’s?
Perhaps those options are available only in Pro and later versions?
(Kinda stuck on 6.5, ’cause Pro dropped time-lapse, which is a function I require in this studio).
Meantime, thanx heaps, for responding.
Best,
M -
Guess I bragged too soon, Al.
Got debugframeserver to work one time–but every time I’ve tried to use it since, it either yields only half of the video project, or else results in a DVD that’s not playable.
I’m saving movie as debugFrameServer, then, with the server still running, I load the resultant frameserver .avi into MyDVD and create a DVD.
Like I said, it worked fine the first time, but never again.
What are your settings, when saving out as a frameserver movie?
I just choose the first (rgb24) option, with nothing else checked. I’m pretty sure this is what I set when I got it to work the first time.
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That’s pretty hot, Al.
Not only did you just save me a 20-gig render on my hard drive, but it took minutes instead of several hours.
This is amazing.
Thanx heaps, for the tip.
Best,
M -
Wrong? No way, daddy.
(If I bring this one in under deadline, that’s exactly what I’ll be buying: a 3- or 4-hundred gig HD, USB, so I won’t have this kind of headache again).
Course, the next guy will want me to produce a four-hour video, and I’ll wish I’d held out for a 1- or 2-terrabyte drive.
Grateful for your attention, Craig,
M -
[Vincent Becquiot] “I understand the not wanting to go with the latest, but PP 6.5 was a little like Windows Me if you know what I mean. There’s a reason they restarted at 1.0 🙂
A few more stabs, when you reinstalled did you delete all the folders in program files?
Excellent suggestion. Though I did do an uninstall, I did not go through and delete everything pertaining to 6.5.
You might also be able to find some other codecs online and install them to see if “they work”.
Yeah, I’ve got DivX; should give that a shot.
I still think that it probably is an OS issue… A least you know a new clean install “will work” however painful it is.”
Late last nite, while looking for Premiere tailings to delete, I came across my old install of Prem 6. Decided to try loading the project into it. Surprise! It loaded and then saved out my movie as a Microsoft AVI DV without a glitch.
When all else fails, go retro . . .
Thanx a meg, Vince, for your thoughtful response to my query.
M