blurring one edge

[jen0dorf]

Hi

the attached jpeg shows a current project I need to blur the black to red edge whilst leaving the others crisp.

Can someone point me in the right direction asto how to blur the one edge

thanks

Ian

[ss-kalm]

Ian,

I would use a circular gradient fill from black to red - Edit the profile to get the required "blurring".

[angelize]

I did this one by drawing 1 red ellipse, then duplicate it and make it black and align as required. Next select both and apply clipview. now you can feather the black ellipse and everything else remains crisp.

[HayTay]

Ian,

I tried both methods suggested by Keith and Frances and produced acceptable results either way. My personal preference at the moment is the two ellipse, feather and clipview arrangement as shown above by Frances. See my attached picture. The 'feather' shown on my black ellipse is approx 35-40 pixels wide.

As Keith demonstrated his circular fill technique also works. I had to do a lot more fill 'tweaking' before I produced something I was happy with, though. I added some extra color control points and had to manually adjust the colors to get rid of a couple of light color bands towards the red side of the fill before I was happy with the graphic. My results using Keith's fill method is also shown below and displays a more gradual fade from red to black.

Let us know which method you decide to implement. Or maybe someone will come up with another method or two. Maybe something along the lines of a blend between a couple of ellipses or other shapes.

IHTH,
HayTay

[jen0dorf]

Hi

thanks for that, works a treat.

Strange I suppose everyone has their favourite tools and hence are familair with them. Clip view is just not a tool I have experimented with.

Off to play with clipview

cheers

Ian

[jen0dorf]

I like clipview a lot! wish I'd discovered it a long time ago :-)

Ian

[joscari]

You don’t say anything about how to export your job. If it’s going to be exported in a raster format then you could also try to make your own live effect with the camera tool.
Group the two shapes and make a bitmap copy. Cut out a section of the bitmap and use the camera tool to blur it to your liking. This is slightly blurred to -21. With the transparency too you can even have further control of the process.
This, the camera way, works quite well if it’s just the intersection between the red and dark that you want to be blurred. If it’s more that you want the black to gradually turn to red I think the other methods described here are better. I’m especially fond of HayTay’s right suggestion.
Sven-Ingvar

[HayTay]

I like clipview a lot! wish I'd discovered it a long time ago :-)

Clipview is your friend!

If it’s going to be exported in a raster format then you could also try to make your own live effect with the camera tool.

Hmmm, I didn't think of the photo tool. I'll have to try my hand at using that method later today.

I’m especially fond of HayTay’s right suggestion.

Thanks Sven-Ingvar! Now that I've gotten some sleep, and taken another look at the end results, the right circular filled image is looking better. The outer edge of the black/red ellipse appears much cleaner and has less 'jaggies' around the perimeter than the one produced using the feathered/clipped method. Credit still goes to Keith, I just spent a bunch of time refining his suggestion.

Since I alluded to it earlier this morning, here's another way to produce a similar image. This one was produced using two ellipses, one red and one black, a 30 step blend, and Ian's favorite new tool, clipview. While this was fairly quick to implement, it appears to produce an outer edge even more jagged than the images made using the other techniques. You can decide for yourself, though. Of course this is with a screen resolution of 96 dpi, print resolutions of 300 dpi or more should look better.

I hope you like it,
Harry

[joscari]

Now that looks really good IMO. It’s a very good, and I would say photo realistic, image of a CD record. In this case it’s a one colour record that owing to light and reflection also turns in to a second colour. But from the original thread I wasn’t sure if it was a one colour record or if it was a record coloured in two colours symbolizing a company’s logo or so and where he only wanted the intersection between the two colours for some reason to be little blurred. In that case my method could be an alternative. If not, Keith’s and yours methods, are better. Probably much better, even in I my case, but it shows that the program sometimes have options to offer that we even aren’t aware of.
Sven-Ingvar

[HayTay]

Thanks again, Sven-Ingvar. And you're correct, I'm also not sure just how much 'blur/transition area' Ian wanted between the two colors. We'll just have to wait until he posts something he's happy with to find out what he was looking for.

I decided to waste a piece of paper and some ink to see how the labels would look printed. After seeing the print-out, I'm partial to the feathered 2 ellipse method and the 2 ellipse, 30 step blend technique. Although, when printed, the paper and printer settings can make a big difference in the end result. So, I reserve the right to change my mind later.

I moved my three images onto a single US Letter sized page for easier comparison and printing. With Ian's permission, and if anyone is interested, I'd be willing to post the XAR file for other users to dissect and fiddle around with.

I'm off to play with the photo tool,
Harry