I was looking at a texture this morning that I wanted to lay over the top of a photo and make the texture transparent in the middle of the image. This way, the texture image I was laying on top would only be seen around the edges. I tried the interactive transparency tool and selected "Elipse" and it makes the outer edges transparent and leaves the middle of the image opaque. Is there a way to reverse the effect so that the elipse is transparent in the middle and leaves the outer edges opaque? or is this something I would have to do with some creative masking?
I saw this image and this is sort of the effect I was trying to achieve. Any tips on this? I
When you apply the interactive transparency, do you see the little black and white squares? Those are control points for the transparency. If you want to reverse them, drag a black (or other very dark) color from the on screen color palette to the white square and a white (or other light color) to the black square.
If your image is large enough, you may be able to adjust the size of the transparent area by moving the little slider along the line between the black and white squares.
If you don't need total transparency or total opaqueness, try a shade of gray instead of black or white. Colors can be dropped on these points as well, but only the gray values of those colors will be used to determine the transparency.
Hope that helps.
Have fun!
Val P.
http://www.lvsonline.com "Where learning is fun!"
Val advise is excellent, but if you want more control, you should work with ClipMask.
Regards
Michael CervantesMC Design Studio
Thank you so much for that tip Val. I really apprecite it. That did exactly what I was trying to achieve. I've used the interactive transparancy tool in Draw for years and never realized that was a variable within that tool. I thought they were just the handles.
Thank you again!!!
Glad I could help, Tryp. Michael is probably right about the better way to accomplish what you want with more control. I very rarely use PhotoPaint, so haven't much of a clue when it comes to ClipMasks. Interactive transparency, on the other hand is something that I know about from CorelDRAW. If you want a variable transparency, you can also drag a gray and drop it on any point on the control line to make that color a new control point. (Sort of like a custom fountain fill with points of color along the fill.) You can also do that with the interactive fountain fill tool in CorelDRAW. ;)
Just 2 more cents... you can add even more variations dragging various degrees of gray onto the interactive line, (white being absolute opaque and black absolute transpaarency). I have used this in conjunction with gradients to achieve interesting results. Also, instead of linear, radial, etc. you can select a texture or bitmap in the "transparency types" for interesting effects!
Scott Markham Graphic Scenes
kind of late with this but I'm pretty sure you could just erase with a large, circular semi-transparent eraser
Artemis Graphics And Design 12monthsOFwinter on Deviant Art