masking a transformed layer in Designer

[ericosmosNEW]

When I use a mask layer (with a curve shape) to hide parts of a transformed (morphed) font layer the edges of the mask don‘t seem to correspond with the underlying font to be masked. It seems like the mask is referring to the font before it is morphed which gives weird results.

 

[NotMyFault]

Das ist ein bekanntes Problem in der aktuellen Version 2.3

[ericosmosNEW]

Hmmm. Ok. Danke 

[Lee D]

@NotMyFaultCan you confirm which known issue you're referring to as I can then update the report with new information.

[NotMyFault]

1 hour ago, Lee D said:

@NotMyFaultCan you confirm which known issue you're referring to as I can then update the report wit new information.

Actually I don’t find the report any more. Sorry for giving unclear information here.

@ericosmosNEW the issue is probably caused by the specific layer structure.

it seems you have a black mask inside the warp group, and added 2 filled curves.

• this combination seems strange to me (adding a nested curve to a mask layer), I don’t understand the actual purpose. It might work, but is not a workflow I have seen before.
• never the less, the nodes of the curves get impacted by the warp group, but the mask itself won’t. I assume you created the warp group first with only text layer active, and added the curves later. The curves can lie outside the surrounding box of the text layer. This will cause unexpected distortions. To check, make a copy of those curves and position them above the text, and activate node tool.
   

[ericosmosNEW]

So, maybe I'm using it wrong. To cut right to it: What would be the correct way of masking out certain regions of a warped group?

[NotMyFault]

It depends.

• Do you want to mask at the source (text)? 
• or after the warp operation?
• do You want to mask with curves / vectors?
• Do you want to mask with mask layers?

You need to consider that warp groups affect all vector layers, but ignore pixel layers.

In case your final export is faster format, you may use a bitmap mesh warp filter which treats all contend below equally and could be easier to master.

[NotMyFault]

I would try to use a curve as base layer, and nest the mesh warp group to it. 
so filter with curves, after mesh warp.

actally clipping, not masking.

[ericosmosNEW]

Yes, that is exactly what need! Thank you!

Clipping, masking whatever… as long as it does the job 😁

[Alfred]

33 minutes ago, ericosmosNEW said:

Clipping, masking whatever… as long as it does the job 😁

When you clip the mesh warp group to the curve, the visible extent of the group is determined by the containing curve, but the invisible parts are merely hidden rather than being removed. If you use the curve to mask (or crop) the mesh warp group, you are cutting off the parts of the group that lie outside the containing curve, albeit non-destructively. The difference is particularly noticeable with the 3D Effect: a masked/cropped object will have the effect applied after masking/cropping, making the effect visible all around the object; a clipped object, on the other hand, will have the effect applied to the original object, so some of the 3D edge will be obscured by the clipview window.

[ericosmosNEW]

On 2/12/2024 at 1:17 PM, NotMyFault said:

I would try to use a curve as base layer, and nest the mesh warp group to it. 
so filter with curves, after mesh warp.

actally clipping, not masking.

So, this worked as hoped. Now here's the next issue. When I export it as a PDF (incl. text to curves) the masking/clipping appears wrong. See here:

Is this a known bug?

[ericosmosNEW]

here a screencap from Designer before the PDF export for comparison.

[NotMyFault]

We would need the actual file, simplified to contain only the relevant layers. 
simply copy / paste them into a fresh document and check if reproducible. 
 

I assume the result can be rasterized, so you may choose a PDF export preset which flattens all layers to avoid the issue. 

[NotMyFault]

Layer FX and passthrough blend mode are frequent causes for issues with PDF export. 

[ericosmosNEW]

I can do that and see if it is reproducable. But rasterizing everything is not an option. I want all font-based elements to be vectors for sharp lines.

[NotMyFault]

Then try convert to curves before exporting, with mesh warp „baked in“