Some more cutout stuff

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:13 am

To clear things up (or further obfuscate them): the rectangular eye pieces have a sharp border, no feathering. All other body pieces with their irregular shape were cut with a 1px feathered border.

dm · Post by dm » Sun Jul 26, 2009 3:59 pm

Well, that's interesting. That wasted my earlier explanation entirely. (which I neglected to include that you can set feathering in the tool info bar too)

So, here's another: is it safe to assume you drew those rectangles freehand? If so, Photoshop will let you choose space in subpixel units. When you put that subpixel cutout into a new document, it does add in additional space to make it a full pixel dimension document. So, 58.5px x 102.5px would become a 59x103 new document (with the smaller dimension image in it) Once it's out of Photoshop space, I think everyone else deals with it in full pixel dimensions, so there's a little bit of accumulated error. Perhaps that's where your outlines are coming from?

Going into a test being aware of this, I was able to manage perfect layer alignment with a preset pixel dimension cutout, but it was really hard to do. There are a few ways for this to show up.

Maybe you were careful anyway, and it's just a bug.

Why did you cut those out with a hard edge? Just happened that way?

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:57 pm

It's a bug in AS. There is a "line" or "edge" when layering image layers. A soft edge transparency can minimize this edge but only a bit. I think this edge can be dark or light depending on the overall value of the images. General I notice a dark edge.

-vern

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:14 pm

I didn't draw rectangles, I just used the marquee selection tool in PS to cut out things. As you know, this tool can only select whole pixels. So yes, it's definitely a fault on AS' side.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:23 pm

I'd try and rectify this by selecting "extra smooth images" when you render out, or render twice the size and then reduce back to normal size post. I haven't read the whole thread so don't know if someone's already said this. Its a bug I've encountered too before. Feathering I think would work. Kind of sucks a bit, but hey.

SpaceBoy64 · Post by **SpaceBoy64** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:24 pm

Interestingly I did some very similar animations for a friend's video project for some monks. I didn't have Anime Studio then though. I used Photoshop and After Effects to animate some illuminations.

Anime Studio has taken some getting used to. The fact that it doesn't allow image formats that use an alpha channel is really odd to me. I had to find and download a special plug-in to allow Photoshop to save a PNG in the correct format, and even then I had to put my cut-out on a transparent layer with no background. It still just throws any alpha channel away. I think though that it saves a 32 bit file, RGBA, not just a 24 bit RGB. I was having trouble with this same problem until I got that plug-in, Super PNG:
http://www.fnordware.com/superpng/

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:40 pm

Uhm, Photoshop is quite able to create PNGs with alpha. Just have your artwork on a transparent BG, then either save it as PNG, or export it as "for web" which gives you some more options.

SpaceBoy64 · Post by **SpaceBoy64** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:56 pm

slowtiger wrote:Uhm, Photoshop is quite able to create PNGs with alpha. Just have your artwork on a transparent BG, then either save it as PNG, or export it as "for web" which gives you some more options.

Maybe it's gotten better in more recent versions, but version 7 lacked this ability. I had this problem that you were having until I downloaded and used this plug-in. Then all was well.

Still, in a 24 bit file, there is no actual alpha channel. It's just RGB, not RGBA.
Does Photoshop now save 32 bit RGBA files? or just 24 bit with transparency?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 6:19 pm

24 bit with transparency is the same as 32 bit RGBA is the same as RGB + Alpha, given that the alpha channel is 8 bit.

SpaceBoy64 · Post by **SpaceBoy64** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:07 pm

slowtiger wrote:24 bit with transparency is the same as 32 bit RGBA is the same as RGB + Alpha, given that the alpha channel is 8 bit.

Yes, but in that case it's a bit confusing to call it 24 bit. If it's actually RGBA, it should be referred to as 32 bit, if each channel is 8 bits.
Here's more info I looked up:
http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngfaq.html#png8-png24
I found that Super PNG plug-in via that web page.

Still, even if that extra 8 bit alpha channel is there, it's embedded and not visible as an extra channel in Photoshop. If I create an alpha channel in Photoshop and save as PNG, that channel is ignored and tossed away.

My point was that the Super PNG plug-in for Photoshop solved my problem and I think it might help others who are getting this fringing effect.