Select tools and layers

[jimindt]

I open the picture and Add An Alpha Layer.

Then I outlined the image using the foreground selection tool. When I Add Layer Mask etc., everything disappears, not just the background. The model AND the background. All I get is a checkerboard displayed.

This happens regardless of which selection tool I'm using. I'm obviously doing something/not doing something to cause that. I've followed a couple of online descriptions of how to do this and just can't make only the background disappear.

How do I keep the model visible and have the background disappear?

Using Gimp 2.10.14

Jim

[rich2005]

Assuming you navigated the Foreground select tool successfully and now have a selection, then added a black layer mask.
As: https://i.imgur.com/cNu7SJM.jpg

That makes everything in the mask transparent. Click in the layer mask icon toggles active, make sure it has a white border.
https://i.imgur.com/HskAyDF.jpg

Bucket fill in the image canvas to show the selection.
https://i.imgur.com/ELcu2t5.jpg

Kill the selection, Select -> None

Quote:How do I keep the model visible and have the background disappear?

An alternative is:
Invert the selection Select -> Invert
Add a white layer mask
Fill with black.

[jimindt]

Well, that sort of helped.

I outline the model, then create the layer mask with the white border. I Click on the layer mask. The model disappears and a vague outline remains on the checkerboard.

I then go click on the Bucket Fill icon. Immediately upon doing that, the outline vanishes. I try to bucket fill where the model was outlined. Nothing happens.

I'm stumped. It's pretty much where I was before. What step am I missing?

PS Tried the Invert suggestion. Once again the outline vanishes and I have nothing.

TIA,
Jim

[Ofnuts]

(12-13-2019, 03:28 PM)jimindt Wrote: I outline the model, then create the layer mask with the white border. I Click on the layer mask. The model disappears and a vague outline remains on the checkerboard.

If your mask is a white border that folow the outline of the model, then this is normal/ Where Where the mask is black everything is transparent, so only the border pixels remain opaque. Or is it a mater of vocabulary? What does the mask look like?

   

(12-13-2019, 03:28 PM)jimindt Wrote: I then go click on the Bucket Fill icon. Immediately upon doing that, the outline vanishes. I try to bucket fill where the model was outlined. Nothing happens.

Bucket-fill with what? On the mask? Black or white?

[rich2005]

(12-13-2019, 03:28 PM)jimindt Wrote: Well, that sort of helped.

I outline the model, then create the layer mask with the white border. I Click on the layer mask. The model disappears and a vague outline remains on the checkerboard.

I then go click on the Bucket Fill icon. Immediately upon doing that, the outline vanishes. I try to bucket fill where the model was outlined. Nothing happens.

I'm stumped. It's pretty much where I was before. What step am I missing?

PS Tried the Invert suggestion. Once again the outline vanishes and I have nothing.

TIA,
Jim

Guessing you do not have the layer mask active.

A quick 1 minute 45 second demo. Concentrate it is quick. Using foreground select, although you can use any of the selection tools as long as you get the 'marching' ants border. https://youtu.be/VeY5ajRuKFc (bit of an oops, I referred wrong gimp user )





As a exercise. any image, make a black layer mask, make it active (white border), paint in the image canvas with a white brush to uncover the image. Not difficult to understand. Black = transparent White = Opaque.

[jimindt]

If I understand the question, what I'm seeing is the image on the right. Just a white outline on the checkerboard.

I then select the Bucket Fill Tool. Verify that the background color (white) is selected. The instant that I click on the Bucket Fill Tool, the outline disappears and I'm left with just a checkerboard.

If I then click on the checkerboard (image canvas?) I get the original image displayed, while the entire layer itself becomes white. There is no outlined model figure in it.

I'm not able to get back to the checkerboard (image canvas) with the outline.

Jim

[Ofnuts]

The question was actually about the layer mask, i.e. what you see in the mask thumbnail in the layers list.

From you explanation it is also not clear if you bucket fill the layer or its mask or what the selection is, which hints that may you don"t know yourself. At the bottom of the image window, the name of the active layer is displayed. And when the mask is active (target of the paint operations) it says "layer_name mask".

[jimindt]

I want to thank you both. It appears that it's an example if you do something enough the GD software works as the examples provided.

I followed the instructions again, and to my surprise, I got everything which was suggested exactly as I'd hoped.

Still baffled as to why I wasn't getting those same results the first few times. I appreciate the advice.

Jim