Using mask with Paint, Clone etc

[Marpel]

I seem to recall, when I tried this way back in PWP7, that if I wanted to paint, or clone, on an image, I could use a (pre-made) mask in the same operation, to prevent the brush from painting in a certain area.

I just tried this and can't seem to get the brush to paint/clone anywhere on the image. The tool remains as a hand or +, and does not paint or react to sizing the brush. The mask is present on the image in it's "live" mode.

I've clicked on the dialogue box header to activate the brush, but this doesn't seem to work.

Marv

[jsachs]

Two things--

1) The Paint tool only works when you click and drag on the output image, not the input image.

2) The mask works the reverse of how it works in PWP 7. You can paint where the mask is white and where the mask is black is protected. This is consistent with the way other transformations work.

[Marpel]

Aaaah,

OK, got it now. Somehow didn't see the couple sentences in the help file where it actually explains to paint on the output image.

Thanks for clarifying.

Marv

[doug]

2) The mask works the reverse of how it works in PWP 7. You can paint where the mask is white and where the mask is black is protected. This is consistent with the way other transformations work.

This is a welcome change. I have used masking for these "tool" operations in PWP 7 and always have to remind myself that it works the reverse of what seems natural -- in terms of how transforms work with masks.

[jsachs]

The original idea in PWP 7 was to emulate masking fluid used by artists which covers part of a picture so you can paint over it and then peel it off, but it was really just confusing.

[doug]

The original idea in PWP 7 was to emulate masking fluid used by artists which covers part of a picture so you can paint over it and then peel it off, but it was really just confusing.

I totally "get" that way of thinking about it. That mindset is one of the things I have always particularly liked about PWP. It seems that in thinking about how to achieve an editing result, you often visualize and emulate how it would have been done in a different real world setting -- such as a wet darkroom. That approach seems very logical and more intuitive to me than the somewhat different protocols employed by other software to achieve the same objective.