Masks and Content Aware Zoom- what am I missing?

[colin_e]

Note- I thought I posted this yesterday but now I can't find the thread. If this turns out to be a duplicate my apologies, but i'm interested to know the answer, and the first copy of the question seems to have disappeared!

---------------Original Posting-----------------------------
Having just upgraded from Xreme 3.2 to XPGD 6 I have been amusing myself experimenting with the new features.

Although not perhaps it's original aim, the function has some great comic potential when (over-) used on faces. However when I tried to control to effect using a mask, the mask made no difference.

Xara's documentation specifically says that Content Aware Zoom is one of the functions that responds to a mask, but it's not happening for me. See the test case below, I took 2 identical copies of the famous Einstein picture for "before", then on 2 more copies applied a mask to the right-hand one, then transformed both "after" copies using Content Aware Zoom.

(Note i took a screenshot of the mask and placed it over the top right image to show how the mask is positioned, the mask is actually applied to tbe bottom right image).

As you can see, with similar CAZ settings on the two images the results are the same, the mask has had no effect. So, what am I missing here?, why is the mask not being respected, any ideas?

Regards: colin_e

[handrawn]

worked ok for me

and i just followed the instructions in the help section[s] as per:

Using Masks With Content Aware Scaling
Using the mask feature you can provide further control by protecting areas of the picture from being distorted. Masked areas will not be distorted at all. See the Masks chapter to find out more about masks, but here's a brief summary of how to use masks with Content Aware Scaling.

To protect one or more areas from being distorted, select the mask at the bottom of the main toolbar on the left of the Xara Designer Pro 6 window, or the menu Window -> Mask mode on.


Selecting the mask control turns on mask mode


This covers the entire drawing area in a pink colored mask layer. You can now use any of the drawing tools to cut holes out of the mask. The easiest way to protect an area of the photo is to use the Freehand tool and just draw around the object, making sure it's a closed shape (you end the drawing on the start point).

The pink areas of the mask are the 'protected' areas, and so this mask needs to be inverted (you are trying to protect the area you drew around, not the outside area), so click the 'Invert Mask' button on the InfoBar or select Window -> Invert mask.

Now when you use the Prepare button this area will be protected from distortion.

You may need to select the photo to enable the Prepare button. In the Photo tool you can do this just by clicking on the picture.

Note that you can't mask more than half the image. The prepare operation will give an error if you try this.
Adjusting a mask, or adding a new mask
You can't add a mask to an image that has already been stretched. Instead, if you want to add a new mask or adjust an existing one, you have these options:

Click the Reset button and draw a new mask
Click undo as many times as necessary to get back the mask, and then use the normal drawing tools to adjust the mask shapes.
Or, before you select the Prepare buttons, copy the mask to the clipboard. If you want to use this later, perform a Reset on the image, then re-enable mask mode and past the shape back onto the mask layer.
There is another alternative that you can 'fix' a stretched image using the Optimize feature, and then apply a new mask. This is not recommended in most cases because it will produce lower quality results than resetting the image and applying a mask to the original image.

[handrawn]

mind you - thats content aware scaling - and you say you tried content aware zoom

I have not found a reference to content aware zoom responding to masks - so maybe they don't....

help section again.....


Masks
A number of operations can take a mask to indicate which parts of a photo or drawing are to be operated on. The Content Aware photo scaling is one example where you can mark an area of a photo that is to be protected from the stretching operation.


Another example is the photo enhance tool. You can mark part of a photo using a mask shape and then apply the enhance tool only to that part of the photo.


Operations that can use a mask include;

Content Aware photo scaling
Cut / Copy / Delete operations
Duplicate and Clone
Clipview
Combine Shapes (Arrange menu)
Terminology – masks versus opacity masks
In Designer Pro the term "mask" when used on its own refers to the practice of temporarily marking part of a photo or design, such that a subsequent operation makes use of that mask in some way, as described in this chapter. Xara Designer Pro 6 also includes the "opacity mask" feature, which should not be confused with masks as described here. An opacity mask is a way of applying transparent effects to objects and is described in the Transparency chapter.

Appearance of masks
The mask is shown as a pink semi-transparent layer. You can draw shapes onto the mask to mark areas of interest - either to indicate an area you want to work on, or an area that is to be protected, depending on the operation to be applied.

You can use any of the drawing tools to operate on the mask layer. So for instance it's easy using the Freehand tool to draw around any part of a photo. All masks in Designer Pro are vector shapes and you can use the normal vector editing tool such as the Shape Editor to edit the shape outline.

Think of a mask like a transparent pink film overlaid on your drawing or photo. You can cut holes in the mask, or cut out shapes to overlay areas you want to protect.

Not all operations take account of the mask, if you are applying a color fill or transparency to a shape, this will affect the whole shape as usual, irrespective of any mask. However using the mask system it's very quick to make a copy of only part of a shape and then adjust that copied part.

[handrawn]

ok - scrub that - third time lucky

I found a reference after reading through - so I gave it a go [never got round to trying it so far]

in the attached I zoomed right out protecting the nose

maybe you just didn't zoom far enough ?

with content aware zoom the mask protects from distortion it does not prevent it from resizing - therein lies the difference

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello

This works for me too...

If I lasso Einstein's nose (normally painless ) and do the Content Aware Zoom to exaggeration; you can see that all of his face is distorted, except the nose, which is resized (ie. zoomed).



Or in this example, the eyes...



The masked part is protected from distortion, which is what should happen with masking...

Peace

James

[Big Frank]

I confess I never really explored the whole content aware thing after the novelty wore off following its introduction. I can't see any use for it in my day-to-day work, although it seems fun to use from time to time (if I can remember how!!).

[colin_e]

Ah got it.

I was misunderstanding the way to drive the mask feature (I've only just installed V6 and i'm still learning my way around).

I had clearly assumed that the active mask became "attached" to an object if you edited the mask while that object was selected, and then made the mask invisible. I.e. an "object action mask" similar to the object-specific opacity mask.

1) I now see the mask is a single layer (i.e. it works at the level of the action you are performing, not the object level). The mask has to be visible at the time you hit the "prepare" button on Content Aware zoom.

2) I hadn't fully grasped the point that the mask-out region was protected from distortion but not scaling (which makes sense once you think about it).

Thanks for all the replies. Just seeing this working for someone else proves it is worth digging a bit deeper.

BTW I agree that for the most part this seems like a rather pointless novelty function. However some of the results of experimenting struck me as looking really quite like the caricatures of well-known faces one often sees. For those of us like myself with no detectable talent for drawing faces (just make that no detectable talent ;-) ), this could provide a shortcut to an interesting cartoon-like effect.

[gwpriester]

Colin

If you lose a post (I do this all the time) you can do an advanced search for your user name and look for posts in the last 24 hours.

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Colin_e

I have to agree... there are some pretty cool caricature-like effects that can be done quite simply.

Glad you got the Masking thing figured out and are having fun exploring the depths of Xara software.

Take care,

James

[James Allen]

If I lasso Einstein's nose (normally painless ) and do the Content Aware Zoom to exaggeration; you can see that all of his face is distorted, except the nose, which is resized (ie. zoomed). Or in this example, the eyes...

Excellent James. Your Einsteins inspired me to do one myself, and put the poor man’s tongue back. I used Photoshop, so it’s in the Graphics Gallery.

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...408#post391408


Edit - Colin, yours were excellent too.