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Unlocking the transparency


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The release notes for the latest beta said that there were some improvements to the PS compatible plugin processing so I tried to use Topaz's ReMask 4. Previously I was presented a message telling me that I needed to create a duplicate layer (even though one existed), but this time I got the message:

 

Transparency is locked, please unclock the transparency.

 

Clearly this message means that I should "unlock" the transparency, not "unclock" it (and I filed a minor bug report about that) but can anyone tell me how to "unlock the transparency" on a single background layer? All I have done is open a raw image, make no adjustments and go directly to the Photo Persona. The layer is selected and a duplicate created so no adjustments have been made (beyond anything AP might do automatically when the image was opened). What am I being asked to do?

 

Thanks.

 

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  • 7 months later...

I am also trying to use Topaz Remask, but I'm using Remask 5. I received the same message. I have the same question: How do you unlock the transparency on a layer?

 

The original question was posted over 7 months ago. The misspelling of "unlock," which MikeFromMesa reported, has not been corrected. Also, his question has gone unanswered. 

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Hi PatrickH,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

We are still working/improving Photoshop plug-in compatibility. It's not a trivial task that involves plug-in devs support and solving some sandbox issues/restrictions related with the Mac App Store. Currently Topaz ReMask doesn't work correctly as you discovered. Most of the others work as expected.

 

The error message's misspelling comes from the plug-in itself, so only Topaz can correct it.

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I am also trying to use Topaz Remask, but I'm using Remask 5. I received the same message. I have the same question: How do you unlock the transparency on a layer?

 

The original question was posted over 7 months ago. The misspelling of "unlock," which MikeFromMesa reported, has not been corrected. Also, his question has gone unanswered. 

I have addressed the issue by using Topaz's photoFXlab plugin. I assume Topaz designed that plugin for exactly this kind of situation since it solves the problem. AP and APB will run the photoFXlab plugin properly and it, in turn, will run all of the Topaz plugins properly so the process of calling the Topaz plugins becomes a two step process - call photoFXlab from AP and then call the plugin (or plugins) from photoFXlab.

 

By the way, I have reported the unlock spelling error to Topaz although they have done nothing about it these past 6 months.

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I am also trying to use Topaz Remask, but I'm using Remask 5. I received the same message. I have the same question: How do you unlock the transparency on a layer?

 

The original question was posted over 7 months ago. The misspelling of "unlock," which MikeFromMesa reported, has not been corrected. Also, his question has gone unanswered. 

Try painting in some transparent parts in the layer before using Remask. Does that work?

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I don't know if this is good news or bad news for AP users who want to use Topaz's ReMask but the upgrade to El Capitan has apparently complicated the use of ReMask.

 

Having just bought a new Mac Mini I started to reinstall my Topaz plugins. The installation of ReMask 4 gave me a warning that it was incompatible with EC and installing it might damage my computer. OK. Perhaps I do not really believe that, but I did stop trying to install it and turned to ReMask 5. ReMask 5 installs properly (and works very well) but does not seem to have a standard plugin. It does provide a Lightroom plugin and says that there is a plugin for Photoshop, but there is no normal plugin for it that I can find on my system after installation, nothing with a plugin suffix. Further, it is also incompatible with both FusionExpress 2 and photoFXlab so I can not call it using either of those.

 

My only choice is to use the stand-alone ReMask 5 app (which means I can not use it from AP) or the Lightroom plugin (which means I can not use it from AP). So, unless AP intended to implement an external editor call for apps I can no longer even try to use it from AP or APB.

 

It is rotten news for me, but does make it clear that there is no way to use ReMask 5 from AP under current conditions and, short of new functionality from Serif, no real expectation for the future either.

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  • 1 year later...
  • Staff

Hi gatorpromo,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

The error message's misspelling comes from the plug-in itself, so only Topaz can correct it. Currently Topaz ReMask is not compatible with Affinity Photo.

Photoshop plugins compatibility is still being worked and in some cases we also need plugin developers support to get things running.

Letting them know you are interested in using their products with Affinity Photo can help to improve things.

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  • 8 months later...

@Frogger I can confirm that the latest update v1.1.6 to Topaz Studio seems to have broken the compatibility with Affinity Photo. I too had gotten Affinity Photo and Topaz Studio to play nice by manually creating a plugins folder for Affinity Photo in my /Applications folder and copying the Topaz Studio plugins from inside the Resources folder of the Topaz Studio.app application bundle. That no longer seems to work with the new version, and I get the same error message when trying to launch the plugin from inside Affinity Photo. Annoying. Perhaps we can both report this issue to Topaz? For now I'm rolling back to an older version from a backup.

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I've also sent a help request to Topaz re: the transparency issue.  Photo and Studio worked fine together for me through v1.0.9, worked ok in 1.1.5, was broken in 1.1.7, and still broken in 1.1.8.  Very annoying.

 

EDIT:  I can open an image in Paint.NET, then send it to Topaz Studio as an .8bf plug-in, and TS opens it with no problems, no issues with "unclocking" transparency.  I also mentioned this to Topaz.  I'm starting to wonder if this is a Photo issue?  or both?

 

Edited by JustGeorge
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Hi Frogger, littledetails, JustGeorge,
I believe it's due to the changes/improvements Topaz has made to the program that now may require some functionality that we don't support at the moment. The same issue happens with ReMask 5 for example. I already logged this to be looked at. Thanks all for the heads up.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 29/08/2017 at 5:52 PM, littledetails said:

@Frogger I can confirm that the latest update v1.1.6 to Topaz Studio seems to have broken the compatibility with Affinity Photo. I too had gotten Affinity Photo and Topaz Studio to play nice by manually creating a plugins folder for Affinity Photo in my /Applications folder and copying the Topaz Studio plugins from inside the Resources folder of the Topaz Studio.app application bundle. That no longer seems to work with the new version, and I get the same error message when trying to launch the plugin from inside Affinity Photo. Annoying. Perhaps we can both report this issue to Topaz? For now I'm rolling back to an older version from a backup.

 

On 31/08/2017 at 4:58 PM, MEB said:

Hi Frogger, littledetails, JustGeorge,
I believe it's due to the changes/improvements Topaz has made to the program that now may require some functionality that we don't support at the moment. The same issue happens with ReMask 5 for example. I already logged this to be looked at. Thanks all for the heads up.

On 28/08/2017 at 6:15 PM, Frogger said:

I got Topaz Studio and the plug-in worked well in Affinity Photo, then Topaz Studio said there was an update, so I installed the update and now all I get is "Transparency is locked, please unclock the transparency"

 

On 31/08/2017 at 4:58 PM, MEB said:

Hi Frogger, littledetails, JustGeorge,
I believe it's due to the changes/improvements Topaz has made to the program that now may require some functionality that we don't support at the moment. The same issue happens with ReMask 5 for example. I already logged this to be looked at. Thanks all for the heads up.

 

 

Just to let you know. I just updated Topaz Studio to V1.4.2 and the plug-in now works.

 

 

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17 hours ago, littledetails said:

@Frogger Current version of Topaz Studio is v1.3.4, so I'm not sure how you could be running v1.4.2. Is this issue actually fixed, and if so, in what versions of Affinity Photo & Topaz Studio does everything work as it should?

Sorry I just realised this is the Mac section, so maybe the Mac version of Topaz Studio has not been updated yet to version v1.4.2. The windows version of Topaz Studio is v1.4.2 and works with Affinity Photo 1.5.2.69 and Affinity Photo beta 1.60.85. 

 

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