Soft Edged Mask tool or plugin?

Hi there,
if I got this right, there is still no way in CS5 Premiere Pro to do a simple soft edged mask like in AE. Is there tool or plugin known for Premiere Pro that could do this at least allows cropping an image and soften the new edges?
Thanks!

No masking tools like you're accustomed to in in After Effects (make a feature request like most of us have). Depending on the shape you need, you could use the Track Matte effect for this, though.
Diesign a shape in the Titler or Photoshop (either as white on black for a Luma matte or as a shape on a transparent background as an Alpha matte), drop it on a track above the clip you want to mask, and apply the Track Matte effect to the clip you want to mask. Set up its parameters to use the shape you created to mask parts of the clip. You can drop a blur effect on the matte clip to soften the edges of the mask, without affecting the video within the mask.
Pixelan SpiceMaster also offers some on-clip masking tools.

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Soft edged mask

Hello, I'm sure this topic has come up before but does anyone
know of a way I can create a soft edged mask? I have tried one
tutorial which kinda worked but when I tested it, the whole movie
slowed right down as soon as the mask started to reveal the image,
then returned to normal speed when the mask stopped moving! The
tutorial showed me how to make a gradient mask using layer blending
options. Is there any other way? And why would doing it the way I
tried it cause my movie to slow down?
Thanks for your help.

slow processing is common when using motions with gradients,
and alpha transparencies, the processor has a lot of work to do in
order to recalculate each pixel on each redraw, doesn't mean don't
use them.
A good way to make a mask that has gradient or a soft (alpha
transitioned) edge, is to draw the mask object a break it apart
into a bitmap, then place it in an MC and turn on the
'cacheAsBitmap' property, when using a mask with transparency, both
objects (mask and maskee) must have this property assigned to true.
Now make the MC layer into a mask layer. go to the Object MC you
are masking and turn on the 'cacheAsBitmap' property. If you have
several Objects or layers that are being masked you will need to
place them within a single MC instance to use this method.

Soft Edge Eraser Tool Missing

Hi All
I am currently running Photoshop CS5.5 64-bit and all of a sudden my soft edged eraser brush is missing.
I have tried the 'reset brushes' option, which did not resolve the issue. I copied the the .abr files from another computer to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (64 Bit)\Presets\Brushes which also did not resolve the issue. Anyone have any other suggestions, before I try an uninstall/reinstall?

Hi,
It sounds like you have the Mode for the Eraser Tool set to Pencil instead of Brush.

Suddenly the soft edge of a brush leaves a hard line

Hi all,
System...
Photoshop CS4, on a MacPro, Snow Leopard, with a Wacom Intuos, PSD file, 16bit.
Document...
I have a full-height portrait with an almost--white background. In photoshop, I added a layer and painted full white to cover the background. Added a mask to the new white layer, now I am using a paint brush to mask out the white on the people in the portrait. On the floor of the portrait, I use a soft brush to transition from the pure white painted layer to the actual white floor, allowing the natural shadows on the floor to be revealed.
Issue...
I have done this a million times without an issue, but for some reason, the last two sessions where I have tried to do this, there is a cleanly defined (though faint) border on the outside edge of the softness area of the brush. Take a look at the enclosed screenshot. You will see the size of the brush as defined by the black circle, then outside of the brush (near the edges of the screenshot) you will see a faint outer ring where the edge of the softness stops somewhat abruptly. Although faint in this screenshot, there is clearly an outside edge to the brush blur. As a result, I cannot paint a clean transition with the mask tool.
Thanks for your help.
Matt

Howdy Cowboy,
I have never seen this problem either. I can soften the edges of the mask with both the blur tool and a blur filter. But I prefer not to have to do that workaround.
I did some additional testing.... Painting on a clean layer gives a clean soft brush. The problem only reveals itself when painting on a mask.
As I mentioned before, this problem suddenly appeared, with no changes between the brush working properly and now.
As a double-check, I made sure that none of the brush parameters had changed (such as wet edge, etc) and everything is set properly.
Thanks for the reply.
Matt

Soft Edge looking not so soft.

I am using PS CS3 on Mac OSX 10.5.8. I recently had my hardware replaced with a 2.66GHz Quad Intel.
My brush tool is rendering a hard edge when I have done everything to make it soft.
I am creating shadows and using a brush that has it's edge set to 0% hardness using a 90%K for color. I have adjusted the opacity of the brush across the entire range 0-100%. I have switched the apply mode from multiply to normal and there is no change. I have checked the info to get a reading of the ink density at the transition edge and it reads as a very smooth transition. 0% Background and a 1% on the edge.
Why is it looking like such a harsh edge? Is there a setting that I missed resetting that is causing this to look different?
I attached an example image.
Thanks

Thanks J,
You are correct. The Eye One is a calibration device.
The issue I am having is not a cast it is that the transition from a white background to any "soft edge". the brush setting is down to 0% and the edge is still a very visible edge. However if I slide it over to my secondary monitor it is fine.
I have rebooted, swapped plus for the monitors, checked contrast and brightness settings for both monitors. Checked icc profiles.
Edit to Add:
Calibration. I calibrated 9 times. Finally got a smooth edge.

Mask Pro 4 vs. Photoshop CS5 masking tools?

There hasn't been an update to OnOne's Mask Pro 4 for several years and I was wondering if it still has any improvements over the masking tools in Photoshop CS5? If so, is it worth buying? Thank you

As set out in my own original post elsewhere, I was not satisfied with the results I was getting with Refine Edge, although others seem to be happy with it. I am not here to promote, but would suggest that if you are in the market you should at least take a look at the Topaz Labs solution ReMask 3 (which was relatively recently updated) after demoing it, I liked it and bought it. Refine Edge to me seems a little kludgy in comparison. I think I am getting pretty nice results with it, but I have no basis of comparison with the OnOne solution. Its got a relatively short learning curve, and the 30 day demo does not watermark, etc., so you can give it a good look before you decide to purchase.

Where do I find the Edge Highlighting Tool

Where do I find the Edge Highlighting tool in Photoshop CC

The Refine Edge Command is generally much better than the old extract filter.
A couple of videos:
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/the-russell-brown-show/masking-basics-in-photoshop-cs5/
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/creative-suite-podcast-photographers/how-to-remove-a-background- from-an-image-in-photoshop-cs5/

Is there a masking tool for Aperture 3?

Hi all,
I am looking for a tool or plugin to remove background on images. Something along the lines of Topaz Remask or Onone Software Mask Pro, products which unfortunatly does not support Aperture 3...
Thanks in advance,
François Meehan

Hi François. There is not -- at least not one you'll be happy with. You'll need a graphics program for that. Aperture is a superb digital photograph storage, development, and publishing platform, but it doesn't do compositing, which is what you asking for.
This message contains some more information.
Note that should you wish, you can open any Image in an external editor of your choice, edit it as you wish, and save your changes back to Aperture. The use of an external editor breaks the non-destructive workflow at the heart of Aperture, however.
Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger

Clean soft edge with two clips overlayed?

I have two clips in my timeline with one over the other. The top at 50% transparency and moved over to the left a bit. I"m trying to get a nice smooth soft edge on only the right side of the top clip. Basically compositing them together so I don't see the hard edge on the right. Is there any way to do this nicely in PP? I've tried various options and nothing really works well.
If your answer is, After Effects, I"m wondering if there are plugins available that can do this more simply within PP. Thanks!

Works great Richard, very much appreciated. I"m coming from another video editing platform for many years and am finding simple things are sometimes beyond my grasp. I'll put this in my favorites folder!

Blurred Edge Mask

Is there a way to create a blurred edge mask? I have tried
creating my mask layer, changing it into a movie clip and adding a
blur filter to it. When I create a mask out of this, the edge is
hard and not blurred. I have also tried creating a mask layer that
has a linear gradient from 100% to 0% opacity. The same thing
happens when I create a mask out of it.
Does anyone have a suggestion? Can this be achieved using
actionscript?
Thanks.

cheesewagon,
> Thanks for the response. I do not see where I can sign
up
> for a free preview in order to view the tutorial?
The freebie is for 10 days, and you can get to it by
clicking the Join
CMX link in the upper right of the site. In the new page,
click "Monthly
with 10 day Trial." Even if this particular tutorial doesn't
give you what
you need, you may be pleasantly surprised to find bunches of
other stuff,
including tutorials on other Adobe products and even
non-Adobe technologies.
> I am trying to have this mask wipe across the screen
> revealing anothr image. Will this explain how to do
this?
The technique in that article will certainly give you the
footing to
accomplish what you're after, but it isn't an article on mask
tweening.
I've used this technique to apply soft-masking to a video
clip that moved
around the stage, so I know that it a) gives masks a soft
border and b) can
be animated. :)
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."

How do you use the MASK tool with 4K footage?

Hi everyone!
Normally when I use the mask tool, I drag it onto the footage and four nodes appear on the clip, one in each corner - and then I can move each corner to where I want it...
I've just shot some 4k footage using a Canon 1d-c and for some reason, when I drag the Mask onto the footage, the four nodes still appear but I can't move them around!
Does that make sense?
Any help would be massively appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

There shouldn't be any difference in being able to adjust them just because you're using 4K. I can't reproduce the problem and can't think of a reason why it would happen. Hopefully someone else will chime in.
Russ

Third party setup and config softs, utils and tools.

Hello everyone,
I found, as expected, a lot of If-Then-ElseIfs in setting up servers, sure there's the worksheets, hords of PDF and Docs, video trainings, but what's more interactive?
Example: For FileMaker Pro, there are third party softwares like WiM's Analyzer which gives new insights to FMP.
Where are compared sets of soft, utils and tools for Mac OS X Server Tiger and/or Leopard?
I searched out but still feel I haven't found the "Why did I not get this in the first place" list of things.

Maybe my question is too general or the answers already on the web.
My best wish is to find a software in which that I could drag and drop computers, airports, other switches and OSes and click on it to configure in order to design networks, server and clients, Mac, Win and friends.
The Visio cousin somehow.
I received Leopard server today. Oh joy!

Three days ago I replaced an earlier Adobe Flash with version 10.1.85.3. This has not appeared in the list in Tools/Addons/Plugins to permit me to enable it in Firefox, and I can't find the answer in the knowledge base.

Re. installing/enabling a Flash plugin
1 I'm running Firefox version 3.6.10 on Windows XP SP3.
2 Three days ago Secunia PSI informed me the installed version of Flash was a security threat so I uninstalled it then installed the latest version 10.1.85.3 . It appears in the Control Panel add and remove programs listings.
3 As of 2 days ago BBC iplayer keeps telling me I need to install (latest version of?) Flash.
4 I don't have this problem using my fallback Internet Explorer.
5 Assuming I needed to enable Flash in Firefox I went to Tools/Addons/Plugins but Flash is not listed there.
6 Firefox Support/Knowledge base/Installing the Flash plugin doesn't help - in step 2 I don't see the yellow 'Additional plugins are required...' bar when I go to the Adobe test page, but then why should I, it's already installed.
6 What's going on - please help!

I have the same problem as luiszamarreno. I tried using the following to update:
sudo apt-get --purge remove adobe-flashplugin flashplugin-nonfree; sudo apt-get --purge autoremove; sudo apt-get clean; sudo apt-get upgrade; sudo apt-get --purge autoremove; sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
Now I have the "flashplugin-nonfree" v. 10.01.218+really9.0.283.0ubuntu1 and it still doesn't work for the Facebook plugin. I get the notice it has crashed and needs to be updated. I also get a notice to update on the plugins page under tools --> addons. When I try that, it goes to the Adobe Web site, which I have seen on Ubuntu support sites that I do not want to upgrade from there.
Does anybody have an answer to this?

Can't get "Type Mask Tool" to work

I'm a newbie to the program and have been able to understand how to use all the tools so far EXCEPT the Type Mask Tool. The Product Help in the Adobe Help Center is very brief and vague. I searched all the online avenues and didn't see my problem addressed.
With my photo as the background layer, I created a new layer and did a New Fill Layer / Gradient. I then used the Type Mask Tool to create some text I wanted to cut out of the gradient layer to paste onto a new layer. I can type the outlined text on the gradient layer but that's it. I can't get it to separate the text from the rest of the layer. If I switch to the photo (background) layer, the outline text is there too and it will cut out the text from the photo/background. But I don't want it affecting the photo/ background layer.
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Scott,
You can use the Type Mask on an adjustment/fill layer's layer mask... you just need to fill the selection or the area outside the selection with the appropriate gray-shade to give the degree of transparency/opacity you want.
For a simple example, if you have a background layer, and a gradient fill layer over it, and have selected the gradient fill's layer mask - when you use the type mask, once you have the marching-ants marquee, fill the selection with black to allow the background to show through the gradient in the shape of the text mask. Or, invert the selection and then fill with black to hide all of the gradient fill except the text shape.
While this may seem more complicated at first, a bit of practice will demonstrate that the added flexibility is well worth the time it takes to understand the concept.
HTH,
Byron

How to add a border without a soft edge?

I want to add a border to a graphic but I don't want a soft edge. Anyone know how to do that? I'm using Elements 5.0
Thanks.

Karla,
A simple hard edged border can be created by increasing the canvas size and
filling the added area with a color. Go >Image >Resize >Canvas Size and
fill in Width and Height. Next select the added space and fill it with the
color (>Edit >Fill Selection). There are more sophisticated ways to it, but
this will get you on the way. If you use >Select >Modify >Border, you only
get a soft edge.
Juergen

Soft Edged Mask tool or plugin?

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