Edge controls, feathering and Brush Strokes

[Sheff]

The feathering thread got me thinking about this.

Currently we don't have an option for any practical way of applying a bitmap to a stroke that doesn't become a fill.

If there is a method of putting bitmaps into brushstrokes that align along the path that would be great. It would also be great if that bitmap could have bitmap transparency that also goes along that path.

If this is possible, I'd like to use it as an edge on a shape.

Sometimes, I'd like to see a mix of hard and soft edges instead of feathering. It would be nice to be able to apply a bitmap transparency that moves along the path, like feathering, but more customizable. Imagine if you were to scan a burned edge or some pattern made by a watercolor brush and then take that edge and apply it to a shape so that instead of having simply smooth feathering, you have a varying hard edge that moves along the path.

If this can't be done, is it possible to use a fractal that goes along the edge and control the start and end values of transparency?

[jvila]

Jeff,
Let me see if I understand you mean with putting bitmaps into brushstrokes that align along the path
I made a brush with a bitmap to get that, please see the picture to tell me if it is what you need.
To this stroke you can apply it a feather if you want.
Un abrazo

[handrawn]

Javiar

If you take a line in xtreme drawn with the freehand brush. or other tool, you can give this color but not fill

If you convert it to shape you can give it fill - but if you do this, then like all fills in xtreme the fill is static if you move the shape - that is the shape moves across the 'clipped' fill that is behind

What would be nice would be to have a line 'colored' by a bitmap/object, so that when you move the line the bitmap/object within the line moves with it - that is it squashes and stretches and reshapes automatically in accordance with the changes made to the line

the closest we have to date is the rather limited mould tool....

[jvila]

ok, I was not sure about the idea, no it is clear.
Un abrazo

[morphonius_821]

I think it would be hard to design a function to work as you wish it to and to work well under all circumstances unless the subject image was optimized for tiling...

If i understand you... you would like to scan in some flames then have the ability to smear these flames around the edges of an object and like set it alight etc...
i.e Simply chaining a repeated tile would obviously not work... unless the image was tweaked to perfection and even then it would have to be scaled and transformed to neatly follow the outline and flow with it.

The other option as i see it would be for the function to pick random chunks of the image (be it a relatively large one) and marry them together, blending them smoothly into a harmonious effect and also having it fade out and jagged edge controls around the edge ETC.....and this would involve the subject image being amenable to this type of random sampling....
Perhaps not so practical....
I don't know....just my thoughts...
Perhaps it can be done the first way... I just can't immediately imagine how it could be done well practically (of course that does not mean somebody else could not conceive of a clever way).

Perhaps if it just repeated the image with reasonable overlap and blurring to blend the tiles together and also having a fade out around the edges with the ability to roughen up the edges with additional shapes (saw tooth, wavey, jagged ETC) then this would do the trick provided the source image was suitable for tiling and hi-res??? This may be useful.