In Remask we can save a mask to our computers as a tif file. If we want to carry on editing the mask later we can just open the photo up in Remask again, load the mask and carry on from there.
I would like to see something similar in Studio 2 because I’m an old woman with arthritis and can get very tired when doing fiddly masking. It would make life so much easier if I could just save the mask and reload it with the photo I’m working with some other time.
I think it would also open several creative opportunities for using and creating masks. Once you can save and import masks, you can create and edit masks external to Topaz. It would be a very powerful feature.
And once the Image layer feature is added to Studio 2, saved masks could be used as a mask or an image. Which further increases creative options.
Maybe something like this?! This is the masking tool in PictureWindowPro.
First row of buttons left to right:
Tools like saving a mask as an image or combining masks
Help
Undo/Redo
Mask all
Clear mask
Mask all at 50% grey
Invert mask
Mask left half/right half/top half/bottom half
Second row of buttons:
Add to mask
Subtract from mask
Overlap - if a mask is already applied, drawing in overlap mode keeps mask where you overlap
Invert - inverts where you draw
Select color of the mask overlay you see while drawing it - red, green, blue, white
Select the opacity of the mask overlay from 0 - 100% in increments of 25%
Third row of buttons:
Freehand outline
Rectangle/oval/polygon/spline - they can be moved and adjusted various ways before applying
Feather - +/- values, 3 choices for falloff method, rounded or squared corners
Blur - radius up to 1000
Color range - choice of HSV/HSL/RGB
Paint - can set brush size, transparency, softness, spacing - selection of which pixels are effected, whether overlapping strokes accumulate
Curve - use full function curve tool to create mask, 4 curve types - stair step, line segments, smooth, or gamma, can be applied to choice of any HSL/HSV/RGB channel
Flood fill - can set size threshold
Separate base on 2 colors
Texture
Linear gradient
Oval gradient
Remove pin holes
Median filter
Mask brightness curve
Maybe a bit over the top, and I’m not proposing Topaz implement all of that. But it’s an example of a very robust mask editing tool. I haven’t seen anything close to this in other programs, though I’ve never used PhotoShop which I’m guessing has much/all of this or more.
Masking works well in Studio but there is still space for improvement. The possibility to save/load masks to disk would be really useful indeed.
Another big step forward would be the ability to see the mask in full resolution, not only in the tiny thumbnail preview. Of course one should be able to switch between different visualizations of the masking: choose overlay color as well as b&w/greyscale on the image itself.
If you save your image with the masking as a Studio 2 project file (.ts2), then at any time after you can re-open the project file, and the project file retains the masking.
I’ve found save as project file and am now trying to figure out how to load the saved project into Studio 2 as a PSP plugin. I’ve found how to open it in the standalone version.
PS: There’s no way I can find of opening a project file when using Studio 2 as a plugin. It looks like the finished version from the standalone version can only be exported as Jpg, Tif or PNG etc. It’s better than nothing but I’ll have to open one of these formats and turn it into a PSP file before I can carry on doing other things with it.
PPS: Another suggestion. Seeing as we can save Project Files from the plugin version, please let us open Project Files in the plugin version as well.
Correct, you can’t open a project file in Studio 2 if Studio 2 was opened as a plug in from a host editor, but you can save a project file in that mode.
Having to subsequently open Studio 2 in freestanding mode to be able to open the project file may not be optimum, but it may save you having to redo complex masking. After making what ever changes are necessary, export the image from Studio 2 as TIF/TIFF and then open that in Photoshop or Affinity or whatever host editor you use. You may have to redo some of the previous post Studio 2 editing, but that is possibly less finicky than having to redo all of the masking from scratch.
Studio 1 does allow you to both save and open project files when used as a plug in, (at least that is the case when it is used as a plugin from Affinity Photo. I don’t use Photoshop any more so I can’t confirm it’s the same for that). When you open the project file it becomes the active image in the image pane/panel and after any changes you make is returned to the host editor when you click on OK.
Hopefully at some stage that functionality can be added to Studio 2
I just checked and Studio 1 as a plugin could save and open project files using PSP images. As you said, let’s hope opening project files is added to the plugin version of Studio 2.
I’ll experiment with TIF/TIFF and see what results I get.