Drawing a Curved Line

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Marpel
Posts: 692
Joined: September 13th, 2009, 3:19 pm
What is the make/model of your primary camera?: Nikon D810
Location: Port Coquitlam, British Columbia

Drawing a Curved Line

Post by Marpel »

Can I presume correctly that there is no tool to automatically draw a curved line (similar to the straight line tool)? I have tried to use the Spline Mask tool by drawing a curved shape, then repeating the same shape and moving it a few pixels over from the first shape, but using the subtract button rather than add, for a resulting fairly thin line-like shape (the unnecessary portions have to be deleted), but have found that is difficult and imprecise in its application. And my freehand curved lines look, at best, like a very bumpy road. Any suggestions??

Marv
jsachs
Posts: 4203
Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: Drawing a Curved Line

Post by jsachs »

There is no curved line tool. The only work-around I can think of is to use the spline tool to create a mask and then the Edge transformation to turn the edge of the mask into a line. I don't expect the results to be particularly good from this technique, however.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
den
Posts: 856
Joined: April 25th, 2009, 6:33 pm
What is the make/model of your primary camera?: Canon EOS-350D/Fuji X100T
Location: Birch Bay near Blaine, WA USA

Re: Drawing a Curved Line

Post by den »

Hmmm... Hmmm... There are curves, then there are curves...!

1) Create a Curve Line image using MS Paint on a 50% tone background with an initial preference Line color/width...
Curve01_Composite-HardLight.jpg
Curve01_Composite-HardLight.jpg (67.24 KiB) Viewed 4512 times

2) Open an Input image and the Composite-Hard Light transform with the Curve Line image as the Overlay and Alignment = 3-point (shift/rotate/scale/shear)... ...Use points 1 and 2 of the Input image to locate curve end points... ...Use point 3 of the Input image to shape/skew/invert the curve...
Curve01_Composite-HardLight_Preview.jpg
Curve01_Composite-HardLight_Preview.jpg (31.46 KiB) Viewed 4509 times
;-) ...den...
den
Posts: 856
Joined: April 25th, 2009, 6:33 pm
What is the make/model of your primary camera?: Canon EOS-350D/Fuji X100T
Location: Birch Bay near Blaine, WA USA

Re: Drawing a Curved Line

Post by den »

...
P.S... ...originally I had thought about suggesting that the curve be added to the Input image using MS "Paint.exe" to simplify the workflow but by using PWP's Composite-Hard Light transform, the Input image's: color bit depth, color profile, meta data [EXIF/IPTC] and file type should be preserved.

...den...
den
Posts: 856
Joined: April 25th, 2009, 6:33 pm
What is the make/model of your primary camera?: Canon EOS-350D/Fuji X100T
Location: Birch Bay near Blaine, WA USA

Re: Drawing a Curved Line

Post by den »

...
The following Curved Line image with 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 pixel wide lines was created in PWP using the Line transform and the Fan transform with Curvature=25.0... ...Feel free to download and use with no restrictions...
25Fan_2.5_5.0_7.5px_wide_600px.jpg
25Fan_2.5_5.0_7.5px_wide_600px.jpg (17.87 KiB) Viewed 4388 times
To use:
1) increase or decrease curvature with the Fan transform with a 50% gray tone fill background...
2) Paint over the non-preference line widths with a 50% gray tone Paint brush...
3) When used as the Overlay image in the suggested Composite-Hard Light transform in the OP... ...relocate if necessary the 1 and 2 Alignment points to the prefered curve ends...
4) Line color can be changed in the resulting Composite-Hard Light transform image using the Flood Mask Tool with an Invert; then Paint with a color of choice [as long as the composite image area is not black next to the line]...

Wavy lines are easiest created with the likes of MS Paint... ...reconizing that the output image may be limited to 24-bit sRGB colors with no comments or profiles and possible compression artifacts...

...enjoy...

...den...
den
Posts: 856
Joined: April 25th, 2009, 6:33 pm
What is the make/model of your primary camera?: Canon EOS-350D/Fuji X100T
Location: Birch Bay near Blaine, WA USA

Re: Drawing a Curved Line

Post by den »

...
Continuing to explore possibilities utilizing Tile, Drop Shadow, and 4-point Composite-Hard Light Alignments
of the suggested "3 Curve image"...
Curve01_Composite-HardLight_Preview-2.jpg
Curve01_Composite-HardLight_Preview-2.jpg (27.57 KiB) Viewed 4339 times
...den...
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