Still having trouble with masking in Designer

[Tokamak]

Designer Version 1.0.5

 

I'm making a comic, and I need to take full images, and mask out just part of them to make panels. I can do that easily enough with hard edges, but in this case I need soft edges. But masking isn't working the way I think it does.

In photoshop, I'd make an object with black and white portions, where white is what I want to show and black is what I want masked off, when I use it as a mask.

So I've made a mask object that looks like this:

 

 

But when I use it as a mask, it just acts like a hard-edged rectangle. Rasterizing it doesn't change that.

What am I doing wrong? How can I get the mask to look like you'd expect it to, from the object I'm using?

 

(I can't use the gaussian blur trick, because that extends both inward and outward from the edge of the mask, and I need to have ahard limit on how far the mask goes out. I can explain the issue in detail if needed)

[NotMyFault]

You have several options.

1. If Available, use Photo (or Designer on iPad) and „Rasterize to Mask“. This will give the intended Result.
2. Unfortunately Designer on Desktop does not have this functionality directly. As workaround, you can convert the color channel information into the alpha channel. A channel mixer adjustment will do that, nested to masking position. Then move the masking layer again into masking position of the actual image.

below you find a screenshot (from iPad) showing the layer stack. I used your screenshot containing the blue selection edge, which of course gives a unwanted effect.

[NotMyFault]

Another option is to create a vector (curve) layer used as mask and directly manipulate the alpha channel, e.g. using the transparency tool. You can add multiple gradients to layer, e.g. one for every side. 
 

Or create your custom vector brush and use it as stroke. 
 

I‘m sure others will find countless more solutions

[loukash]

5 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

create your custom vector brush and use it as stroke. 

This is actually a clever idea!
Did just that:

Note that it may require several unique brushes with different opaque-to-transparent gradients, depending on stroke alignment inside/outside/center. 
Then set the stroke to Erase. (will rasterize everything below!)
This method enables quite a few edge feathering options, especially with the Pressure attribute: Can be used as a workaround for Directional Feather as known from InDesign. 

[lepr]

10 hours ago, Tokamak said:

Rasterizing it doesn't change that.

Try 'Rasterise To Mask' instead of 'Rasterise...' 

[Tokamak]

I'm clearly missing something or doing something wrong. I'm trying the first thing, with the channel mixer. I'm using Designer for Windows so it looks a little different, but I set it up like this...

Then I right click on the thing I'm trying to use as a mask, and select "mask to below", and I get this...just a hard edged mask. And there is no longer a "channel mixer" icon blow it, like in your example.

 

So I've also tried one of the other suggestions, "rasterize to mask", but then it masks out ALL panels, not just the one I want to mask. Basically, I need to have a number of comic panels, and each one needs its own soft edged mask. Here I made two "panels" just to show how it works.

Before:

 

After selecting "rasterize to mask":

So the mask is working with the soft edge, but it's masking off BOTH panels, not just one, meaning the other panel is just invisible now. I need the mask to apply to just one image, not everything below it.

 

I think I'm just fundamentally misunderstanding something about how all of this works. Like I said, I'm mostly familiar with photoshop, and I can get this effect in seconds with that, so I am apparently really confused as to how masking in Designer works, or something. I'm sorry if I'm missing something obvious...

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Tokamak said:

So the mask is working with the soft edge, but it's masking off BOTH panels, not just one, meaning the other panel is just invisible now. I need the mask to apply to just one image, not everything below it.

Crop it (to use Affinity terminology) to the image you want to mask. If you hover the mask layer correctly over the image layer, you will see an immediate preview on the canvas of what's gonna happen.

In general, the easiest and non-destructive way to create such soft edge masks is a solid color vector shape with a layer efect, either Blur, or – if you want more fine control with a slightly different effect – Outline with a solid-to-transparent gradient.

[loukash]

You can build up quite a lot of cool things with just one vector mask and a bunch of layer effects with blend modes:

Note that some layer effects (and adjustments, for that matter) will have no visible effect on alpha channels – which is what a mask essentially is.

[lepr]

5 hours ago, Tokamak said:

So the mask is working with the soft edge, but it's masking off BOTH panels, not just one, meaning the other panel is just invisible now. I need the mask to apply to just one image, not everything below it.

Nest the Mask for the left panel inside that panel instead of keeping it above all panels.

[NotMyFault]

1 hour ago, ,,, said:

Nest the Mask for the left panel inside that panel instead of keeping it above all panels.

The video tutorial might help. Its from Photo, but same applies to designer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fiCvurH0is