Is It Possible To Directly Warp A Mask (selection)?

[Richard Feltner]

John, I've attempted to warp a mask using the source, set to selection, in the editor window. But, that seems to work on the selected image area not the mask itself. I've tried different permutations of the settings with the mask active versus inactive as well. No joy. So the question - how do I, or can I, directly warp a mask without affecting the underlying image? The workflow I'm envisioning would be: make a selection, warp that selection and then enable the selection to paint back into it. Is that even possible in Studio Artist? Thanks!

[John Dalton Synthetik Software]

Yes, you can warp a selection.

You need to set the Interactive Warp Source to Selection.

And you need to set the Composite to Replace Region Selection.

This will use the contents of the selection buffer as the input to the interactive warp, and then route the output back to the selection buffer ( as opposed to placing it into the current canvas layer).

...

So here's my starting selection

Here's a screenshot in the middle of doing the interactive sphere warp on the selection

And here's the finished selection at the conclusion of the interactive warp process

All 3 of the above screen shots are from a section of the current canvas. I have the Mask checkbox turn on for the first and 3rd screenshot, so i can see the contents of the slection as a mask on the canvas. I have Mask turned off for the second image (when i am actually doing the interactive warp), because i don't want to use the selection to mask my warp. I want to warp my selection mask.

I assume this is what you were asking to do. If i mis-interpreted your question let me know.

[Paul Perlow]

Thanks John

I always wondered about this. It opens an entirely new universe for me. Exciting!

[John Dalton Synthetik Software]

You can use this same working metaphor to take any of studio artist's processing effects and use them to manipulate the selection mask. Like anyy of the Ip Op effects for instance.

Here's the Geodesic Recursive Growth ip Op control panel, configured to process the selection (it will generate an adjustable feathering effect).

The last selection mask (#3) in the post above was used as the input to the ip op effect shown above (configured to use the selection buffer as it's Ip Source input, and output to the selection buffer (again by setting Composite to Replace Region Selection. The result of using this ip op with this particular set of edited parameters to process that selection mask is shown below.

[Richard Feltner]

Yep, that ought to do it. I overlooked the replace region selection option totally. And, I was using the self rotate warp which threw me off since I didn't actually see any rotation just a translation.

This brings up one more question related to warping. Is there a throttle control for sensitivity when warping using a Wacom? The new Macs are incredibly efficient and fast compared to the older models. I overshoot the warp (or adjustment) all the time. Seems "twitchy" (non-linear) with the Wacom. It would be nice to have a setting where the pen movement-to-warp/adjustment effect occurred over a larger physical distance on the tablet thereby translating into a more linear (smoother) increment of adjustment or warp. This scenario applies to the actual warp or adjustment of an image (not the mask).

Thanks again.

[John Dalton Synthetik Software]

In studio artist 3.5 you could use the s key as a modifier to slow down the effect of mouse movement on interactive warp.

This appears to kind of work in version 4, but it looks like there might be some issues with it that need cleaning up so that it works more consistently and correctly across all of the different warp types. So you can try that, your results will vary depending on the warp type.

In my tests it seems to be very inconsistent in it's effect, depending on the particular warp type. Sometimes it's useful, other times it seems to not be working, or not working like you would really want it to.

So i'll look into cleaning up the behavior so that it's more uniformly consistent, and making sure it gets added into the version hot key guide once we get it fixed up and working properly.