Blurring with tool and putting it in an action does not work! :( (PS 7)

[dudders]

I dont think what youre asking is possible, as photoshop would have to record every position of the cursor. Have you tried the lens blur filter, it uses an image to blur from. not sure if this in CS only though

[KawaTaki]

Hmm, thats sad. I mean, if its gonna record actions why just things that apply to the entire image. But, eh, pff, wheres the lens blur filter then? in filters => blur?

[highsk8]

filters/blur/lensblur.

Btw, PS cs does record it here, are you using the blur on the right layer?
Be sure you select the layer wich contains the object to blur!

[KawaTaki]

hmm, there aint no lenseblur in filters=> blur. The only options are:

Blur
More Blur
Gaussian Blur
Motion Blur
Radial Blur
Smart Blur

And I'm using PS 7 btw, as I said in the first post. Though I am trying out the select layer part now, incase you have to do that.

EDIT: Nope, didnt help selection the layer. It only records me selecting the blur tool. But not the actuall painting part pff :shrug:

[T-Stop]

Photoshop will not record a manual action. You blurring specific areas will not be recorded.

[KawaTaki]

heh, I think we have come to that conclusion now, mabye if you knew a solution that would be helpfull :thumbsup:

[little5points]

Just curious, by setting up an Action do you plan on applying your manual blurring effect on the same type of image multiple times? For example, do you have 10 images of football helmets (just with different logos) and you want to apply the same blurring to each one?

Can you elaborate how you will use the action?

[KawaTaki]

Kinda, I read that the guy behind Rustboy who creates a 3D short. Exports his sequences to images so that he can apply effects afterwards in PS. So in short, I got a scene which is bird view of a ground with a mud puddle on it. Rain comes down makes ripples in the puddle. I want blur in the foreground and background, though I cant just like use radial blur and zoom the blur, I must be able to blurr different areas. And then I will batch this action on to the 50 frames in one foldier (2seconds of footage). Thats what I am trying to do :P. And the camera isnt moving so it shouldnt be a problem as long as every frame has the same amount of blur on the same places.

[little5points]

ok...what about this:

let's say you have a scene which is a bird's eye view through tree branches (foreground) and a mud puddle (background) on the ground below.

If you have each of these elements on a different layer (foreground and background) you can create an action that will apply the blur filter at 1-10% to the foreground or background layer. Each time you hit the action, it will blur it a little bit at a time making it look like it's going out of focus. And to reverse the effect, you can create an action that goes backwards in the history palette. So when you compile the composited images you get the effect that the camera is changing focus.

If you only want to apply blur to a very specific area, you could use the blur action I mentioned above, but apply it through an alpha mask that you created...don't know if you've done this before

does this help?

[davpunk]

photoshops actions do not record any sort of drawing information. It records interface, palette and menu options. You cant record yourself making a drawing with the brush tool.
You can action script the filters though-but no actual x and y placement of pixels.

[KawaTaki]

All great tips, though I cant use that when my image looks like this:

[little5points]

Is the blurring going to be in the same area for each frame (the outer edge, it looks like)?

[KawaTaki]

Yup thats right. As the blurr is on that image, they are to be on the rest.

[little5points]

Then you could apply a blend through a mask. You can create alpha channel mask with brush strokes, filters, etc. and simply apply a blur through the mask.

[KawaTaki]

Hmm, sounds interesting, though I dont got much experience in PS about masking :), would you mind typing a small step-by-step or something? :love:

[little5points]

It's not as hard as it seems. One way to think of a alpha mask is like a cardboard stencil that you might use to spray paint letters on something. Basically when you make a selection with the magic wand, lasso, marquee, etc., it's like a temporary stencil

But if you go to that little button beneath your foreground and background swatches on your toolbar (there are 2 buttons, each depicts a square with a circle in it), it cycles between your selection (the marching ants) and Quick Mask mode (the right button).

Quick Mask mode gives you a visual representation of your selection in the form of a transparent color. If you use the lasso, draw a round shape and then click on the Quick Mask mode button, you should see your shape surrounded by a transparent red. The red area indicates the masked or safe areas.

Now, the cool thing about masks (and the difference with regular selection tools) is that you can apply filters, brush strokes and have different levels of opacity -- and it will change your selection accordingly.

For instance if you had an image and went straight to Quick Mask mode, and went to Filter--->Render--->Clouds, you would see red, pink splotchiness as your mask. Now, if you cycled back to Standard Mode (the button on the left) you should see marching ants that follow the pattern of the clouds. Hit delete and you should see how parts of your image disappear based on using the clouds as a mask.

If you have a regular selection (marching ants) you can save your selection as an alpha channel mask. Select---> Save Selection. This lets you keep your selection/mask in your Channels pallette. You can store a lot of these and call them up whenever you want. No need to re-select areas over and over.

To use one of your saved alpha masks, just go to Select---->Load Selection. If you look in your Channels pallette, you can even see a black and white representation of what your mask looks like.

Sorry...if I over-explained all of this! :)

So for your situation you could do this:
1. Open your file
2. Click on the Quick Mask mode button
3. Draw or paint the area you want to preserve (you can smudge the areas here in Quick Mask mode)
4. Click on the Standard Mode (left button)
5. Save your selection
6. Load you selection if it isn't active
7. Apply the gaussian blur filter

You should have blurring only in the areas you didn't paint in your mask.

[KawaTaki]

Thanks m8!! :) Cant wait to try this out :D

[little5points]

It will take some experimentation to get it right. let me know if anything goes weird because I might haven't explained something properly

[KawaTaki]

It worked out perfect, thanks again m8 :)

[little5points]

cool :)

Hopefully we can see the results when you finish

[KawaTaki]

Well its not much I had just played Resident Evil 4 on my gamecube and was amazed by their mud puddles in caves. So I wanted to see how close I could get, and, I got a bit close. Anyway, I needed to learn how to apply those selection maps to get more depth. And its not really meant to be photoreal, more, fantasy game like.

http://web.telia.com/~u52221489/3d_puddle.mov
(right-click and save as)

[little5points]

very cool :)

[KawaTaki]

thanks, this will come handy when (if lol) I start my short film soon, though mite take a while because of all other stuff :D. Anyway, thanks again.

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