Help Wanted With Selection Input

Hi Guys - comming to you all for help here before i lose all my hair

Running FF as a stand-alone program I wish to use the FF Selection Imput to input into FF a selection taken from a Photograph in PaintShopPro Vers 9 or any other application

The problem im having is when FF states "The Filter Requires A Selection" - on which i go to FILE > OPEN SELECTION FILE -- and thats where i get lost. I dont know where to obtain this Selection file from or even how to create in the first place.

Every thing i have tried to date just generates the message that - THE SELECTION MUST BE THE SAME SIZE AS THE IMAGE 600 X 600.

I have read all the info i can find (i think) in FF help files, which dose mention the selection file size etc but dosent explain the process very well.

Alternitively is it possible to point me in the direction of a comprehensive tutorial on the subject.

All help really appreciated - Mikita

Mikita,

In case you didn't know (as it wasn't obvious to me), if you use FF as a plugin through a host (like Photoshop, etc.) the Selection component seems to create a black-gray-white image/"result" that corresponds to the present selection (e.g. made in PS). That is, in FF, the Selection component will create a result/image that looks black on your non-selected parts, white on your selected parts, and grey on the transitioned/feathered/mixed parts from the selection.

So... if you use FF as a stand alone program and you choose to then "File->Open Selection" to open an image file (that hopefully has the same proportions as the image you're presently working on), the black-gray-white parts of that selection-image/file will be what the Selection component returns as it's "result" (which you can then use with the Channels->Set Alpha component for using the black parts of that image/file to create transparencies, and the white parts opaqueness...)


In any case, in stand alone mode: FF opens a selection from an image file (and the Selection component uses the B&W info). But when using FF as a plugin: the info used comes from your present selection.



Bleh, that was sort of awkwardly explained... But I just thought I'd mention it, in case it could maybe still be helpful...

Quote
Mikita wrote: The problem im having is when FF states "The Filter Requires A Selection" - on which i go to FILE > OPEN SELECTION FILE -- and thats where i get lost. I dont know where to obtain this Selection file from or even how to create in the first place.

psp saves selections in a proprietary format, '.pspselection'. filter forge does not recognize this format in the open selection menu item. therefore, you cant use it the way you're trying to.

however, you can save selections in other formats; just dont use the 'selections' menu item to save them. pick the item 'promote selection to new layer' and then use the normal 'save as' to save them from that layer.

once you've done that, you can then open the selection in filter forge IF your selection size is the same as the image size in filter forge. and, since you can change the image size in FF, you shld be able to then open your selection in FF.

but, all of that is a very convoluted way to do this whole process. why not just run psp and then run FF from within psp in plugin mode. it's a whole lot simpler.