A Flash Developer Resource Site

Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Feathering Edges Help!

  1. #1
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    104

    Feathering Edges Help!

    I did it once and I suddenly forgot. I'm trying to feather/smooth out edges of a selected portion. I used the wand tool to extract a part of a cloud. I cut it and placed it on a new canvas. The edges are very rough and I need to feather them. While selected, (marching ants-Wand Tool) I go to Select>Feather>Radius 25%. Nothing happens just the marching ants become more circular. What I am doing wrong??

  2. #2
    Senior Member RUSHVision's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    Pacific Northwest
    Posts
    5,441
    There isn't going to be any visible difference in the marching of the ants themselves, but the feathering has taken place nonetheless. I had the same confusion that you are experiencing when I first started out. Your problem lies in the order in which you are performing your actions.

    When I first started delving into image editing I would have an object on a separate layer that had jagged, crisp edges. Much like yourself I would select it, then I would feather the selection and then wonder why nothing was happening. "The command clearly stated that it would feather the edges, didn't it?"...I thought to myself. This was actually a matter of great frustration to me at the time because I couldn't see anything happening either. The thing is that it actually IS feathering the selection, but it is doing just that...feathering only the selection...it is not doing anything at all to the pixels in the image at this point. The fact that your selection becomes more circular is a sure indication that the feathering has taken place. So what you have to do is either feather your selection prior to copying and pasting, or you can feather the selection, invert it (Ctrl+Shift+I), so that everything that wasn't selected before is now selected and everything that was selected now is not, and then hit the delete key.

    Keep in mind that instead of using the magic wand tool on a layer that has a separate element on it, you can click the layer name while holding down the Control key and it will automatically select everything on that layer for you. Just a handy little tip.
    mrush


    > .. _ .: Join the FK ARENA!:..:RUSHVision vs. JWin:. _ .. <
    ..:: "Why aren't the lockout programs working?!?...Release the monkey!" ::..

  3. #3
    xerogravity.net Firefuze's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
    Posts
    406
    Feathering just makes the edges of the image fade ******ds. If you want the edges to be perfectly cut out i suggest you use the polygon lasso tool, pen tool, or whatever you like to manually cut around the image.

  4. #4
    Senior Member RUSHVision's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    Pacific Northwest
    Posts
    5,441
    Originally posted by Firefuze
    Feathering just makes the edges of the image fade ******ds. If you want the edges to be perfectly cut out i suggest you use the polygon lasso tool, pen tool, or whatever you like to manually cut around the image.
    I think you missed the point of the question.
    mrush


    > .. _ .: Join the FK ARENA!:..:RUSHVision vs. JWin:. _ .. <
    ..:: "Why aren't the lockout programs working?!?...Release the monkey!" ::..

  5. #5
    Senior Member Black_phoenix's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2000
    Location
    Leeds, UK
    Posts
    2,194
    Hi, another way if u have rough edges is to duplicate the cut out layer in question and in filters add some gaussian blur, if u duplicate the blurred layer again it will add more softness to the edges, you can then turn down the opacity of the layer/s until its just right, then merge the two layers you have blurred and drag the blurred layer below the untouched one, this will give u the crispness of the original with added soft edges

    **if it all goes wrong u can turn off the layers that are wrong and use the pure layer u started with**

    sound complicated but once you have done it a few times, it takes seconds to do

    i use this when the cut out is very small, as the feather does nt always control well when cutting small pixel areas

    bp

  6. #6
    xerogravity.net Firefuze's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Toronto, Canada
    Posts
    406
    out-war is censored?

    I think you missed the point of the question.
    No, i just elaborated

  7. #7
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    104
    Thanks alot guys!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  




Click Here to Expand Forum to Full Width

HTML5 Development Center