Free- GML Matting - anyone get this to work?

[Tallis]

I found a free plugin to do cutouts-- it was also just updated. From the description, it seems to be the type of plugin supported by XaraXP.

But when I to go do a matte, in the dialog I just get a blank white screen instead of the image I selected to matte. No way to see the edges obviously to highlight any boundries...

Anyone take a shot?

http://research.graphicon.ru/image-p...l-matting.html

ps- edit - from the help file there's talk about applications not supporting opacity channels... does that include xxp3?

=========================
MSU GML Matting User's Guide

Alternative output (for host applications not supporting opacity)Note: this section covers applications that do not support opacity channel. It is inapplicable to applications with full opacity support, such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Paint Shop Pro.

Normally the plugin requires a layer with opacity channel as input. However, some image editors do not support opacity or do not pass opacity channel to the plugin. In such applications input layer looks like background layer for the plugin, so you get the message asking you to promote background layer:



Figure 1: Error message appearing when layer doesn't have opacity channel



If you can't do this because of limitations of your image editor, you should check Host application doesn't support opacity and click OK. This turns on alternative output mode (the setting is remembered and this dialog no longer appears).

With this mode you can normally work with the plugin. When you finish and press OK button to store the result the following dialog appears:



Figure 2: Selecting alternative output




First option allows you to store alpha (opacity) channel as grayscale image.
Second option allows you to store foreground color channel. It differs from original image in semi-transparent areas. In such areas foreground image contains no background color, while in source image foreground color is mixed with background color (mixing coefficient is exactly the opacity value).
Third option allows you to store a composite on fixed color - the one you selected in Display combo box (see Interface).

Regardless of what you select in this dialog and whether you press OK or Cancel, matted image is saved into temporary file (GMLMatting.tmp in your TEMP folder). If you invoke the plugin on another image of the same size, you will be questioned whether you want to store another channel from previous image you worked on, or work on new image. If you press Yes, the dialog from figure 2 appears and you can store another channel from previous session. This allows you to store alpha channel into one image, and foreground channel into another image (for example to create a composite later using another image-editing application). In this case Composite option creates a composite using current image as background, not constant color.

Thus, do the following steps to create a composite using arbitrary background:

Apply GML Matting to your image.
Matte the image and click OK.
Select any channel or just click Cancel.
Open your background image in the same application. The image must have the same size as the source image (use Resize functionality of your application if necessary).
Invoke GML Matting and click Yes confirming that you want to store another channel.
Select the third option (Composite). Click OK.
This will create composite of your source image onto new background.

Note: if your application supports opacity but does not pass it to the plugin you should also use alternative output. One of such applications is Serif PhotoPlus. See notes on this application in Compatibility notes section.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

©Copyright 2007 MSU Graphics and Media Lab. All Rights Reserved.
=================

[Soquili]

Tallis, I think this is one plug-in that can be counted as non-functional with Xara Picture Editor and Xtreme.

As you observed the work area of the plug-in never displays an image to work with.

You may contact the developer and have him look into making his plug-in compatible with Xtreme.

It appears this is a work in progress as it is only version 0.2. A zero major version number usually indicates it has not reached the developers idea of the application he wants to eventually create.

[handrawn]

appears to work with ps/pse and painter, but not with xara as Bill confirmed

[Tallis]

Yeah, does appear to work with larger packages but not xara. Drat. I even tried futzing with the ini file. No go.

Maybe somehow someday we can get full-fledged support for plugins like PSP, PhotoImpact, and of course PS. These applications seem to have more failsafe plugin support. I know plugin support was upgraded ( I think?) in XaraXPro 30, but still, it would be nice to have give it given some more attention.

Thanks, guys.

[Tallis]

Follow up.

Why does something as simple and free as xnview do a much better job than Xara at handling this plugin? If xnview can do it cost-free, why can't Xara integrate this easily into a professional product, just wondering here...

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multime...s/XnView.shtml

( Tried it with the above-mentioned plug in and it worked great )

[StevenWWinters]

But when I to go do a matte, in the dialog I just get a blank white screen instead of the image I selected to matte.

It is working for me, in XXPro 5.1.2. The plug-in version is now up to .3, so maybe they have made it more compatible.

I had not tried it in previous versions.

I've only tried it on one image, with hair, and while it works, it still has limitations, I think, but I don't know if there is anything that will do well with that.
.
I've only spent a little time with it and so perhaps there are ways to adjust the output that I've not discovered.

I'm curious how it compares with Corel Knockout 2, which I do not have. Anyone?