Transparency/clipping problem

[Washishu]

I’m working in Designer (V1) and am attempting to create a digital mock-up of a framed painting.

My problem is to do with transparency. The painting is on a very irregular deckle-edged paper. In the olden days I would have made a selection of the outer edge of the painting in P’shop, created a workpath from that and exported that path to AI to use as a clipping mask.

How can I achieve the same result in AffD?

Thanks.

[walt.farrell]

If I understand you, you want to eliminate the white between the image and the frame?

What should it be? There would have to be some backing board under the image, in real life.

[thomaso]

In AD the workflow is quite the same – just without creating a workpath from the pixel selection: For instance …:

Choose AD's Pixel Persona –> select the white area around the painting …

… –> Increase the selection with the "Rectangle Marquee Tool" in "Add" mode …

… –> Invert the selection …

… –> Click the "Mask Layer" icon in the Layers panel to create a mask from the selection and get it automatically nested in the layer of the painting.

[Washishu]

Thanks for responding each. Walt—the white areas surrounding the painting should be transparent.

Thomaso: I feel just a touch foolish now. I've not had the need to use the Pixel Pesona previously, but it did occur to me to create the mask that way. This Flood Select Tool looks very much like what I'd call the Magic Wand; I'll try that. It didn't work—no selection. Like you do when the world doesn't behave as you expect it to, I kept trying, with the same result.

I read your response this morning and opened the file again. Immediately I realised my mistake of yesterday: in looking for a solution I'd been fumbling through the palettes and the Layers palette was hidden, so I hadn't noticed that the image layer was not active. Once I made the image layer the active layer it worked just as I expected it to work yesterday and as you describe. (With the exception of the Rectangle Marquee addition as it's only the white areas around the picture that I wish to mask.

Thanks again each.

[Washishu]

And, as if by magic, here's the job done. Thanks for responding thomaso. The contrast/brightness of the picture looks very slightly flat after the masking, compared to the original P'shop jpeg. An artifact of the masking?

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Washishu said:

the white areas surrounding the painting should be transparent.

Thanks. I was a bit confused as I have never, in real life, seen a painting framed the way you show just above, floating on top of the frame itself. They have always been within the frame, with some kind of colored background surrounding it.

[Washishu]

It's called a 'St. Ives' frame Walt (although the pattern goes by other names too). Here's a pic from the maker's site with a picture behind the inner frame. But you can also mount the painting on top of that inner frame to achieve the floating effect. In this case it would be done that way to preserve the strong deckle of the paper. Cheers.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Washishu said:

But you can also mount the painting on top of that inner frame to achieve the floating effect. In this case it would be done that way to preserve the strong deckle of the paper.

I have seen floating before, but always completely within the inner frame, above a matte board of some kind. That leaves the deckle exposed, with the matte visible around the paper. I have never seen it floated on the frame itself. 

Thanks!