Masques et motifs

Masks and patterns

We will produce a "mineral butterfly" which could be used as logo. The goal of this tutorial is to familiarize you with the masks and the patterns; but also to show you there are several methods to obtain the same image in Photofiltre. We will also have the occasion to see two methods of applying a mask - the first by application of effects (associated image and mask), the second while bypassing Photomasque.

Begin by downloading the butterfly image (which will be used here as a mask), the black mask and the following mineral patterns. Open the image of the openwork butterfly in Photofiltre and copy the 2 mineral patterns to the "Patterns" file of the software and the black mask to the Masks file.



A. Creation of the 2 "pattern" images

1. File / New image
File/new image. Width 640 - Height 480 pixels / Background pattern / malachite. You have just created an image with the same dimensions as the butterfly image.

2. File / New image
Width 640 - Height 480 pixels / Background pattern / amethyst. You have created another image with the same dimensions as the butterfly image.

B. Creation of the malachite areas of the butterfly.

3. Activate the openwork butterfly image.
Filter / Sharpen / Sharpen more Edit / Copy or CTRL+C Then activate the malachite background (green).

5. Edit / Paste special / Assemble.
Assemble on the right Edit / Copy or CTRL+C You have just created a mask associated with an image.

6. Edit / New Image.
Backgrounf white - 640x480 pixels

7. Edit / Paste special / Image with linked mask.
Right-click / validate paste. Edit / Copy or CTRL+C (prepares the following stage) You have just completed the image which will be used for following collation.

C. Creating the amethyst areas of the butterfly.

8. Activate the image containing the amethyst pattern.
Edit/ Paste. Right-click / paste options:opacity 100 - Transparency white 50 - uncheck antialising. OK. Right-click / validate paste..

D. Creation of the final image with Photomask.

9. Filter / Photomask
Select the butterfly mask/ Opacity 100 - Color: White - Mode: Color - Blur- Stretch mask -reverse black and white. OK.

10. Filter / Artistic / Comics strip
This filter transforms the butterfly into stained glass

11. Image / Mode / Indexed colors
256 colors, Diffusion This adjustment makes it possible to apply a transparency to the image

12. Image / Color of transparency
Adjustment: White, Tolerance 30

13. File / Save As
Save as GIF format in the file of your choice. You have just created a transparent GIF for the Web.

For information: the mask used in Photomask was created by filling black in the JPG image of the openwork butterfly (with the brush, for good precision), then saved in GIF forrmat for use in Photomask.

Click here to see the final result !

Another method with the arithmetic plugin for comparison !

First of all redo stages 1 to 3; then save the 3 images obtained in the same file (in jpg format), then add the downloaded black mask to this file. You must have 4 image of 640x480 pixels. Then open the images in the following order to have the same order in the plugin (you can use the explorer of images for more facilities).


Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Then: Tools/Other/Arithmetic, and recreate the following formula in the Plugin window.:

((I3*I1)+(I4*(#FFFFFF-I1)))/255+I2      in fact 255 = #FFFFFF = Blank palette

Then redo stages 10, 11, 12 and 13. The result is the same.