Building complex masks using Save/Combine -v8-0-152

[den]

.
Ref: Creating and Using Masks.pdf

From the pdf on last page, the example steps are:
1) Draw and blur the first region / or load a <*.mask> file
2) Save it
3) Set the entire mask to black
4) Draw and blur the second region
5) Combine the saved mask

Completes with expected results, but if the steps are:

1) load a <*1.mask> file
2) Save it
3) Set the entire mask to black
4) load a <*2.mask> file
5) Combine the saved mask

Results in an Error: No saved mask image

Is this intentional?

...den...

[jsachs]

Loading a mask file first resets the current mask, including any saved mask. This is necessary because once you load a new mask, the instructions for creating the previous one are lost and there would be no way to regenerate the mask when a recalc or edit was done.

Currently I allow a single dependency between a mask and another transformation, via the initial mask. If I allowed Combine to access masks from other transformations, there could be any number of mask dependencies which would make for more complicated recalc logic and would make circular references easier to create and harder to fix.

If you want to make this work, you need to build the instructions from 1.mask and 2.mask into the same mask dialog box so all the information is present to rebuild the final mask later. Or you need to convert the masks to images and combine them using Blend.

This suggests a possible extension to the Masks transformation to make the output image optionally a copy of one of the mask images or possibly a combination of two or more of them.

[den]

Thank you... the current capability makes sense and I do not see a need to make Mask or Masks more complicated especially when it is more complicated than I realized and may be rarely used. The work-around you suggest is fine in the rare instance of need.

The Mask/Masks capability of PWP8 is far and above anything that I know of with other editors. I appreciate the opportunity to delve into the many features and read/learn from/and edit the generated script files.

Thank you...

...den...

[jsachs]

It turned out to be really easy to add features to Masks for the next release -- the ability to convert masks to images or the ability to combine two masks (add, subtract, or overlap).