Tab and Source Category – Mounts and Masks

Mounts

Under the Mounts and Masks Tab, you will find 24 monochrome Sources that can be used for a variety of tasks. Sources 1, 3 and 5 represent a set of rectangular Mounts with Sources 3 and 5 being offset to allow for the bevelled border effect one finds where two pieces of mounting card have been used. Sources 2, 4, 6 likewise represent a set, but they are elliptical in shape. Sources 6 to 12 are used for fading areas of your artwork and Sources 13 to 24 are geometric patterns and shapes that you can use to create Pop Art patterns.

Unsharp Mask

There are 10 Sources under the Unsharp Mask Tab organised in 2 Blocks of 5 Sources. Despite their name (derived from the days of film compositing) the Unsharp Mask Sources are designed to actually sharpen the edges in an image. The effectiveness can be seen if you put an original photo in the Palette and then put Source 3 or 4 in the Stencil and move the Stencil’s Brightness/Contrast Mixer to around 90,50.

Masks

Arranged in two Blocks (as described below), the 21 Sources in the Masks Tab are generated by analysing your original image to find regions and objects of importance and interest. This process is also called feature extraction and means that content-sensitive visual data can be isolated on a Source to add depth and widen the dynamic range of your artwork.

The Sources, which are colour tinted red, are organised into 3 Blocks as follows:

• Block 1 consists of 12 Sources where the four edges of the image have been located and then extended, or grown, into the image based on objects and regions that are near the edges. As you move from Source 1 to Source 12, you will see that area found extends further and further into image.

The purpose of these 12 Sources is to add unique ragged-like edges to artwork. Assuming you already have a picture in the Canvas, try the following steps:

• Click the Stencil radio button.

• Select Source 1 or 2 from the Masks Tab, click on it - it will then load into the Stencil.

• Click the Stencil’s Invert icon.

• Click, hold and drag the Stencil’s B/C Mixer hard right to threshold the Stenci

• Click the Palette radio button.

• Choose a colour from the Solid Colours Tab - it will then load into the Palette.

• Click on the Fill icon.

• Lastly set the A/B Mixer to 100,50 Replace, or choose your own Blend Mixer setting.

Try the above steps again but use Source 7 for the Stencil and Main Edges 3 for the Palette.

• Block 2 consists of 9 Sources, which have been generated by using combinations of the inverse of the regions found during the analysis for Block 1. With the A/B Mixer set to 100,25 Darken, you can build-up an interesting under-painting by using combinations of these Sources.

• Block 3 consists of 2 Sources which have been generated by combining three content-sensitive masks.

Red Masks, Blue Masks and Green Masks

There are 31 greyscale-looking Sources available under each of the Red, Blue and Green Masks Tabs. The whiter areas in the Sources mean that the analysis by ArtMasterPro’s picture-engine has found certain colours, as follows: the Red Masks Sources approximate to the Caucasian skin-colour; the Blue Masks Sources approximate to a clear blue sky; and the Green Masks Sources approximate to green foliage.

For each of the Red, Green and Blue Masks, the Sources are organised into 4 Blocks with the following characteristics:

• Block 1 consists of 7 Sources and have been generated using Main Colours 1 to 7.

• Block 2 consists of 4 Sources that have been generated by smoothing versions of Sources 1 to 4.

• Block 3 consists of 4 Sources that have been generated by increasingly simplifying Sources 1.

• Block 4 consists of 16 Sources that are geometric distortions of Sources 1 to 15, plus one more for good luck!

Other than being helpful additions to add depth, tone and dynamics to your artwork, the Sources help you identify particular coloured areas that you might want to include or exclude from a picture.

Rough Surfaces

There are 16 Sources in the Rough Surfaces Tab, all of which are designed to help you add texture to your pictures. The content of the Sources are as follows:

• Sources 1 to 4 are rough surfaces that, reading from left to right, increase in scale and area.

• Sources 5 and 6 are textures surfaces that have been blurred.

• Sources 6 and 7 are tiled watercolour images – Source 6 runs vertically and Source 7 runs horizontally.

• Sources 9 and 10 are embossed versions of Sources 6 and 7.

• Sources 11 and 12 are scans of natural media watercolour washes.

• Source 13 is a small scale cross-hatched pencil image.

• Sources 14 and 15 are tiled cross-hatched pencil images.

• Source 16 is a large scale scanned-in cross-hatched pencil image.