Advanced Masking Question

Hey everybody.
I'm currently working a project where you can do the tired
old "dress up a virtual character" in Flash. Of course everything
else was easy about it, drag and drop clothing articles on the
character, etc. However, this particular project had a bit of a
twist. The end-user will be allowed to upload their photo, and then
super-impose their head onto the top of the character they are
dressing up.
Originally I figured we'd just use a pre-sized oval mask, and
have the user resize the photo into the oval mask so that their
head fits in it. But the client is inquiring as to whether it would
be possible to allow the user to perhaps draw an outline around the
portion of the photo they want to extract, and then have Flash mask
it that way.
Do any of you know if this is possible? I presume it's going
to be a mixture of the drawing API and various other actionscript
voodoo, but since I'll be dealing with basically dynamically
masking a dynamically-loaded image, I figured I'd do some research
on the feasability of this before wasting time, since I have one
week left to completion.

you might be able to achieve this with the BitmapData class
draw method, drawn to a MC and then use setMask();

Similar Messages

Advanced Masking/Selection Capabilities

How to select a part of an image for masking based on either color saturation or hue or a certain color (not RGB value but rather a color group), so that I can transform the selection to the Alpha channel.
For example, if I have a photo of a red car on a multi-color, complex background where there are NO other red colors exist on the picture, other than the body of the car, then such selection (that I need help with) suppose to select all shades of red on the photo, which is only the body of the car.
I guess you know what I'm trying to do, right? I need to create a PNG file where certain part of an image (like a body of that car) would be gray-scale alpha channel, so that by placing the image file on colored background - that would simply paint the car into another color.
See an example on this page: http://www.netchain.com/test/Png.asp

Thank you very much for such a thorough respond. Since it seems like you know your way around Photoshop, I thought I would ask you another question, if you don't mind of course.
The reason I was looking for the answer for my previous question, was because I wanted to transform that
selection into gray-scale alpha channel, so that if I save the file as PNG maintaining gray-scale transparency
in the alpha-channel, and if I place that PNG file on colored background on the web, then the part of the
image in alpha-channel suppose to get colored accordingly to the background color.
I was wondering if you can help me with that, since I'm a bit confused about the Alpha-channel. I think I can
apply the alpha-channel to the selection, but it doesn't get saved in PNG file, probably because I am missing
something
You can see the example of the image that I want to make (made by someone else) on this test page:
http://netchain.com/test/Png.asp
As you can see on that page, the sweater on the picture has alpha-channel, so it assumes the color of the
background of each block.
Thank you very much in advance, and God bless you.
Sana

Layer Mask Question

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting, sorry. I am new
to Flash, but I've got a general knowledge of it to help me discuss
this question.
I am trying to build a site that has a homepage with some
images on it. The basic format of the site is broken into a grid.
It is 5x9. It is basically a graphic over the top of the
background. From this home page there are 3 buttons at the bottom.
What I want to happen is when one of the buttons is clicked the
homepage background image, or whatever is in the background, stays
there and the information that the button is calling up to dissolve
one square at a time, or in a combination, to give a nice
dissolve/transition to the next set of information.
What I've tried doing:
I started another scene, which is the contents of the page
after the first button is pressed. My layer stack from bottom to
top is, a copy of the background image and grid from the homepage,
then a new layer that is masked. On the layer is an image with all
the information I want to show after the wipe. So on the mask layer
I have 45 boxes. Each box is set to a zero alpha. As the keyframes
go thru the time line certain sets of boxes are put up to 100%
alpha, and have a white color. But what I'm getting is the
background image is static, and then the white boxes just pop the
masked layer in below. There is no dissolve or anything.
This is probably the wrong way to attack this problem but
with my limited knowledge it is the only thing I could think of.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I could achieve this effect?
Thank you!

Yes, as Michael pointed it to you, you are seeing your edit below the arm layer, and Photoshop processes layer from top to bottom.
See these documents:
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=426625
http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/layers/intro.htm
See also all these Key concepts: http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/keyconcepts/articles/concept_index.html

Complex Masking question

Hello,
This may be rather difficult to explain but, I'll do my best. ( I have attached an image to better help explain my challenge)
I am trying to make a 3d hologram effect, I have ran into an issue with my masks. I am trying to create a shape, that appears to be on top of another shape, but still retain the transparency and the illusion that a mask is hiding the element below it. When I animate the shapes, I would like the mask to continue to mask the shape below it.The problem that I am runnung into is that I can't seem to retain the proper masking of my shapes when I animate the objects.
Below is an image of the desired effect I would like to achieve.
I think need a little bit of help setting up a mask for this effect.
Thanks in advance guys!

The conundrum can be solved withe the use of a track matte. Make a cicle shape or circle wipe on a solid. Scale it to match the size of the existing circle, and parent it to the existing circle.. Use it as an Alpha Matte for the square. It needs to be on the layer directly above the square.

Clipping Mask question

Hello
For example in illustrator CS2 I have a photo of someone and I want to make a Star shape mask of the head. No I normally select both the photo and the star shape and go to Object>Clipping Mask>Make.
And it works fine, it masked out the bits that I don't want perfectly, but I still get the highlight/outline edge of the shape of the original photo when I select the star shape, how can I do this so that when I make a clipping mask it will not show the original shape of the photo?
I think I've managed to do this once before in the past but forgot how I did it.
Hope that makes sense, thank you very much in advance.

MW,
You may perform the otherwise dirty destructive deed:
With the mask selected:
1) In the Transparency palette dropdown, select Multiply, or anything else but normal;
2) Object>Flatten Transparency.

Matte/mask question - very basic

Really dumb question- I have never fully understood the terminology, though I know conceptually what I want to do. I want to create an image matte I believe. An example would be - I have a photograph of a television set. I have made the entire screen (slightly oval) all pure black. I wish to have a layer (video) underneath it snow up, but only through this layer of black, so the image is cropped around the edge of the round-ish screen (it's an old TV). How do I do this? I'm always confused at all the composite modes - matte, mask, add, yada yada.
I know this is very basic, so I'm looking for some guidance on how to accomplish this so I know the terminology and the basics.
Thanks

qft.
Nothing wrong with that either !
In the interests of science and bad family entainment (which I know Mike likes to inflict on relatives. Sorry Mike, had to throw that in, still get a laugh when I think about that post) ... there is more than one way to skin the cat
Mike - if you wanted to use a matte and not a mask then you'll want to composite the image you want to use in the screen part of the tv using that part of the tv.
You'll want the "black" portion of your screen to be white. Then you'd use on another layer above that white "matte" the image or layer of video you want to appear.
So you'd have your tv box on one layer- then your white screen on anther layer - then an image/video above using Travel Matte Luma from the composite mode.
It's quick - but offers less cntrol, imo.
I like masks - personal preference only, tho'

Forwarding / Masking Question

So ive searched the forums here and I've found a bunch of answers to most of my questions... however I'm still having an issue with my website masking.
I built a site for my mothers store http://walnutandvine.com
However when you go to the site it shows my mac address.
I bought the domain through godaddy... and under the forwarding section I enabled Masking and set my Masking Title to www.walnutandvine.com
I also setup some Masking Meta Tags and keyword tags.
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong... any help would be great.
I also have the site setup through zoneedit.com not sure if that tidbit of info helps.
Oh and under Forwarding what is 301 Moved Permanetly and 302 Moved Temporarily?
Thanks again

Forwarding tells the domain what url to display.
I believe what you are need to look at is "cname"
You should be able to find related posts.
Also there is information here:
[http://alyeska.altervista.org/en/iWeb_FAQ.html]
With godaddy you can do it yourself in your account area.
They also have good support.
Actually the above url has a specific reference to godaddy setup.
good luck
Message was edited by: Chuck Usher

Bonehead layer mask question: CS5

I am new to photoshop.
I am running PS CS5 on a Macbook Pro.
I have a document with two layers.
The top layer is a black & white adjustment layer with mask.
Opacity is set to 50%
The bottom layer is a colored background layer.
I don't know what the little square is called at the lower left of screen.
The background part is set to white and the foreground part is set to black.
When I select a brush and try to reveal some of the colored elements below nothing happens.
Do I need to activate any other settings to make this happen?

Good advice above, but one more thing (sorry for a very basic question): Have you targeted the mask? You have to click on it before you can paint on it.
Just reviewing... With your Opacity at 50% your image will still have some color, and painting black on the layer mask will hide the effects of the Black & White layer and reveal more color.
If you're still having trouble, please capture your entire screen, save as a JPEG, and post it here using the little "camera" icon just above the edit box. Usually people can home right in on what's wrong by seeing the various Photoshop indicators on the screen.
-Noel

Excel for iOS data masking question..

Hey guys, the contracts I use for my biz require me to have fields masked (when typing in a customer's credit card info) - I had special excel agreements built and had to give up my iPad and
go out and buy a thinkpad tablet.
I'm really curious though and wondering if someone can tell me whether data masking is supported yet within excel for ios. I realize macros are not...Any help would be much appreciated..Thanks

This is the Power View forum.
Try asking here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_mobile-excel-os_device_ipad?sort=lastreplydate&dir=desc&tab=Threads&status=&mod=&modAge=&advFil=&postedAfter=&postedBefore=&threadType=All&tm=1406945625798
Thanks!
Ed Price, Azure & Power BI Customer Program Manager (Blog,
Small Basic,
Wiki Ninjas,
Wiki)
Answer an interesting question?
Create a wiki article about it!

Clipping mask question 2.

Hello, so about a week ago I was having some trouble with my clipping mask I had posted a question Here about it. Over the week I believe i see what the problem maybe but i do not know how to fix it (once again) This is what I mean:
As you can see in the image above, there are little pixels around the image after i finished coloring and erasing my mess. (i used a wacom tablet to do this by the way.)
In this image I created a clipping mask over the image above and i began "shading." But the color went over once again. I Believe it has something to do with those little pixels.
May someone please help me by telling me why those little pixels are There and how i can get rid of them. Also If you have an idea at why the mask is not working also let me know as well

I suspect you are flat out going about things in the wrong way. I can't see reason you'd need or want to clip layers to achieve what you are doing. The spill is probably anti-aliasing from the brush or erasor. Niether tend to achieve 100% coverage with one pass.
Rather an use the erasor, much better to make a selection and add a layer mask. This will produce a hard edged editable layer.
Try drawing your lines on a roughing out layer, and then colouring on an underlying layer using different layers for each colour. When done, Ctrl (Cmd) click the colour fill layer which will load its outline as a selection. You can then go Edit > Stroke with black on a new layer higher up the stack.

Advanced Security question

I hope I'm asking this question right. Do any of you know if Advanced Security supports IOS module 12.4 13 on a 2811?

Hi,
For your first question about exception list: If Windows Firewall is blocking a program and you want to allow that program to communicate through the firewall, you can usually do that by selecting the program in the list of allowed programs (also called
the exceptions list) in Windows Firewall.
For the second question, that means Firewall allow your Skype to communicate through Firewall.
You can add items manually, or just choose following settings after installing or configuring first open network app:
Eg.
Kate Li
TechNet Community Support

Feathered selection, transparency, mask question

1) On a transparent canvas, fill a feathered selection at 100% opacity.
2) Cmd-click layer icon to load the selection (of the pixels).
3) Add its Layer Mask.
When I Enable/Disable the Layer Mask, the pixels change (the border changes).
This does not happen when a similar selection is made on a non-transparent canvas.
What is going on with the transparency and the Mask that I am missing? That is, why does Mask change the image?
Thanks,
Sonny
OS 10.5.8, PSCS4

Hi Sonny
Michael has some good insight into this.
No matter what, these topics are definitely hard to grasp and I too have struggled with how does all the transparency, selections, layer masks, alpha channels all work together (or not) and the differences between all these names and their function. My experience is how learning works for one person may do nothing for another. Thought I would give it a shot based on my understanding. Sorry if this is wordy yet you ask very good and tough questions.
First for the Transparency/Opacity
When you create a feathered selection and fill it over a transparent background you effectively have created a transparency mask for that layer right within the artwork. The fuzzy edge is the transition from full 100% opacity (transparency = 0) within the red square to 0% opacity outside the square (transparency=100%). This defines one of the two transparency masks that each level can have. The transparency mask does not get a lot of press because a thumbnail for it does not show up anywhere. The second mask is the Layer Mask. The total opacity is determined by multiplying the Layer Mask with the Transparency Mask (ignoring the opacity/fill sliders and Blending Options). The effective total opacity for the layer is seen as familiar checkerboard pattern.
When you pressed CMD (Ctrl on PC) and clicked the artwork thumbnail, you pulled up the transparency mask up as a selection (I'll talk about the marching ants and the hard edge it portrays later on). By copying this selection into the Layer Mask you now have effectively double masked your artwork (Layer Mask X Transparency Mask). The transparency mask still sits within the artwork and is now duplicated as a Layer Mask. This will make the total mask look like it has shrunk. Why?.... Right in the middle of the transition edge of either mask you will have 50% opacity. When you double up on the masks that same point will now have 50% x 50% = 25% opacity. The bottom line is the the opacity edge will go through a steeper and faster transition when you have this doubling up of masks.
If that is not what you want there are several ways to avoid this
1) Just don't use a layer mask since the red object is already created with a smooth transparent edge within a transparent field (why do you want the layer mask?)
2) Create the initial selection with a hard edge, move it into a layer mask, select it and then Select>Refine Edge for the Layer Mask to create a smooth transition.
Either way you won't double up on the masks.
Selection Mask
The selection mask is its own beast and not associated with any particular layer. Think of it as a mask that hovers over the entire layer stack and that it can be applied to whichever layer is active (highlighted). The selection mask with its marching ants gives the impression that it has a hard edge. This is misleading because anytime you have any feathering you are creating a mask with a gradual transition or a mask that on the edges has partial opacity/transparency. Almost all the selection tools have the ability to do feathering.
Unfortunately tyring to represent the mask edge is problematic when it is not a sharp transition. The marching ants just represents the point in the feathering where the partial transparency of the selection =50%. When you have no feathering the edge is sharp and the marching ants are exactly right on top of that edge. Other than that, the marching ants are somewhere in the middle of the edge transistion.
Clear as mud right?
Hope that helps
John Wheeler

Able to advance past question with wrong answer

The following applies to a multiple choice question in Captivate 3.0.1 Build 589. You are able to advance through a question even if you have selected the wrong answer by doing the following:
Answer a question incorrectly. A box saying "Try Again" pops up.
Press the previous button on the Captivate navigation bar to go to the previous slide.
Press the next button on the Captivate navigation bar to advance to the question slide. The incorrect answer is still selected.
Press the next button on the Captivate navigation bar while the incorrect answer is still selected.
Captivate advances, even though you have not answered the question correctly.
This is a major issue for me for two reasons. A) It allows learners to advance without demonstrating that they learned what we are trying to teach them, and B) It actually misinforms learners by letting them advance with the wrong answer selected, so they may actually believe that what they answered is correct.
Does anyone else have this problem? Anyone have any ideas how I can fix it?
Thanks very much for your help,
Marc

Marc,
Do you know what wrong answer options you have selected? If you do not want the user to advance when they select a wrong answer, you can make sure they do not. On the question slides of interest, go to Edit Question. Select Options. Under "If wrong answer" section, select Infinite attempts. Now the user will not be able to advance until he/she gets the answer correct. The only side note on this is the user will get the Incorrect Answer message only one time. After that there are no response message until the correct answer is chosen. Hope this helps.
Darin

LocalConnection Advanced use question

Does anybody know if it is actually possible to have two
flash movies talk to each other when one is in an iframe at a
different domain and one is in the page containing the iframe?
I spent quite a bit of time yesterday going through varoius
permutaions on naming the connections. The closest I got to
anythign was when I got my sender movie in Flash to successfully
talk to the reciever movie in the browser, that was accomplished
having an underscore in front fo the connection name in sender and
reciever. But when the reciever swf is in a page containing an
iframe with the sender swf nothing appears to happen.
Since I got flash player (and an executable version of the
sender) to commicate with the browser based reciever I figure this
should be possible. But i can't seem to figure out what I'm missing
in the browser based versions.
The intent of this exercise is to allow technology I am
helping to delop to be included in a page using an iframe while
providing feedback to listener movie in the site the iframe is
embedded in. From there we would provide an api for interacting
with the listener movie so that sites wishing to embed our
technology could handle certain events. I realize of course that
interframe communication between frames at different domains is a
violation of the same domain rule at the heart of most browser
security. So, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't possible. And
yet, I could communicate between flash player and the listener so I
still wonder at the possibility.
Does anybody know if what I'm attempting is even possible?
And if so, any clues as to what may be the problem? If anybody
chooses to help with the problem or innovate a work around I would
be happy to share the source files I've been playing with, which
are simple bare bones swfs.

"> One more question along this topic of advanced usage
> of LocalConnections ... is there a reccomended method
> of dealing with multiple windows being open with the
> same reciever movie so that the sender movies aren't all
> sending back to the originally opened movie?
What about sending an arbitrary id as one of the parameters
with your
message? All movies listen, but when a message comes, each
movie checks to
see if the id param matches a correlating id of its own. This
could be a
variable stored in the root of each listening movie. (Am I
movie "A"? Yes?
Okay, I'll follow these instructions.)"
The problem with the arbitrary id is that I have to send it
somewhere, and I need to know the name of the connection to send it
to, but each connection name must be unique. That is why if you
open a new window messaging goes to the first window, the
connection command in the second window will fail because the name
will aready be taken in window one. And the other movies won't know
that and will all send to the named connection which is still in
window one.
The connect function will fail if a connection already
exist.s So, on the one hand all I have to have is a loop that keeps
trying to connect until it finds a free connection. The problem I
am thinking about is having two movies in the same window, one in
the page displayed, and one in an iframe, as I set up on that demo
page. I'll want the one in the iframe to communicate with the one
in the outer page for validation purposes. If all there is is one
window then that's fine. But if sombody were to hit Ctrl+N in IE
they would get a new browser window with the same page. The problem
is how to make it so that the two movies in each window know to
only communicate with each other in only that window?
My thought is that I can use the incremental connection id
technique in each movie and figure that if the increment is
firstMovie_2 in one movie then it should communicate with
otherMovie_2. What I'm worried about in this scenario though is
what happens if the user is caffienated and hits Ctrl+N five times?
Will the two movies increment correctly for each browser window? Or
will there end up a couple windows with a firstMovie_3 and
secondMovie_2 because things didn't load in a controlled sort of
way?
I think the incremental technique would be fine for if a
window closed because that would free the connection id and the
loop would always start at 0, so if you had five windows opened and
closed the first one and opened a new one, the new window would use
the ids with the _0 increment.
Anyway, its helping me to write this stuff out. I'm going to
implement the incremental id thing and I'll report my findings.
As to looking deep into the technotes and docs. That
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/fplayer8_security_05.html
article was great for the table it has in the middle of it which
outlines what is needed for the various ways you try to connect
movies.
My only other reccomendation is the help docs and Excedrin
since it has both Acetometaphin AND caffeine and both are useful
for trudging through the fine points of the flash docs ;).

Animated mask question.

When i try to test a simple animated mask using test movie command, it looks like my animation stops on frame 1. Anyone seen this before?
Thanks, Mike

Thank you for all the input. I think I may have stumbled onto the the problem. For some reason, if I use a merge object for my mask object everything works fine. I was using multiple drawing objects for the mask. Apparently that's not allowed.
Thanks to all of you who gave my problem some thought.
Mike

Advanced Masking Question

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