Where to blend?

Adam-80UK · July 18, 2017 at 6:59 PM

For the best result, should I erase up to near the beach, the green, dark, or blue water in this example pic?

drhotwing1 (IPACS) · July 18, 2017 at 7:33 PM Official Post

Here's a quick alpha that i did on your image to show you how it should be done. Where the (deleted) alpha section is it will pull the default image below it to make it blend in much better.

Adam-80UK · July 18, 2017 at 8:04 PM

Cheers!

Spit40 · July 18, 2017 at 8:27 PM

Sharp line like you did or does it benefit from feathering?

Adam-80UK · July 18, 2017 at 8:48 PM

After exporting to TIF, do we need the original BMP still it was created from?

drhotwing1 (IPACS) · July 18, 2017 at 8:51 PM Official Post

Quote from Raging Beard

After exporting to TIF, do we need the original BMP still it was created from?

No. Just make sure that all other image files are changed to TIF to avoid issues. To be honest, i'm not sure if you can change only the image files that you edit to TIF and leave the others as BMP. I never tested that

But, to answer your question, once you have the TIF, you can delete the original.

Adam-80UK · July 18, 2017 at 9:03 PM

Thanks Jeff, I will try with TIF and BMP before changing all to TIF if required.

drhotwing1 (IPACS) · July 18, 2017 at 9:08 PM Official Post

Quote from Raging Beard

Thanks Jeff, I will try with TIF and BMP before changing all to TIF if required.

Be sure to let us know if that works.

whitav8 · July 18, 2017 at 9:36 PM

I wonder how it would look if we also did a strip near the edge that was 50% transparent. It's probably not worth bothering though

Rodeo · July 18, 2017 at 10:03 PM

Hi,

I tried several times mixed conversions of BMP and TIF. It worked all right.
But of course you need TFW for all your files and have to remove the obsolete BMP.

Nethertheless Jeff's advice can avoid unknown problems.
See my USGS tutorial how to convert to TIF in an easy batch process.

I did not try semitransparent alpha editing, because I'm not very familiar with gimp.

I was happy I could describe the way with 100 percent alpha channel for the tutorial.

But it is certainly worth a test.

Rodeo

Trespassers · July 19, 2017 at 10:23 AM

You can apparently also blend by using multisources (1 BMP for picture, 1 BMP for mask) but I haven't totally figured out how it works in the GeoConvert tool...

I also couldn't figure out what the TFW file is supposed to bring - I see strictly no difference when compiling with our without TFW file, the resulting AIC file is exactly the same afterwards and the compiled result also... Can anybody at IPACS please provide some detail about it?

Cheers

Antoine

admin · July 19, 2017 at 11:09 AM Official Post

The INF and TFW file support in GeoConvert is just for convenience here. GeoConvert needs to know what part of the world a certain aerial image is covering, the definition for this is in the AIC file. GeoConvert tries to convert INF and TFW files to AIC ( Aerial Image Configuration ) automatically, again just for convenience.

The TMC file is completely different from this and is not linked to the AIC file at all.

Using the TMC file you just specify the region where GeoConvert should generate aerial images and with what resolution.

We will try to make this clear in the Wiki soon.

Trespassers · July 19, 2017 at 1:21 PM

Quote from admin

GeoConvert needs to know what part of the world a certain aerial image is covering, the definition for this is in the AIC file. GeoConvert tries to convert INF and TFW files to AIC ( Aerial Image Configuration ) automatically, again just for convenience.

Thank you so much for this much welcome information.

This tends to confirms my understanding that once we have the AIC file(s), everything GeoConvert uses (and needs) is actually :

- the source image file(s),

- the corresponding AIC file(s)

- and the tmc file.

Is it right ?

Can you please confirm that when I manually change something in an existing AIC file, it is taken into account and won't get overwritten when I relaunch the GeoConvert tool, whatever the INF/TFW files ?

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Antoine

admin · July 19, 2017 at 1:32 PM Official Post

Yes, all your assumptions are correct.

Trespassers · July 19, 2017 at 1:37 PM

Great, thank you so much !

Spit40 · July 19, 2017 at 5:27 PM

admin - can you let us know if geoconvert is happy with feathered edge transparency masks? I just went round the isle of Skye masking water with a soft feathered brush in the hope that the blend with base scenery would be smoother. Sadly geoconvert went wrong, bur i don't know if it was the feathering or something else.

Trespassers · July 19, 2017 at 5:48 PM

Quote from Spit40

admin - can you let us know if geoconvert is happy with feathered edge transparency masks? I just went round the isle of Skye masking water with a soft feathered brush in the hope that the blend with base scenery would be smoother. Sadly geoconvert went wrong, bur i don't know if it was the feathering or something else.

Hi Phil,

I tried a slightly feathered mask in a small scenery test and it went through, but I definitely need to test if on water to try achieving a soft blending...

Too many issues to fix first...

Cheers

Antoine

admin · July 19, 2017 at 9:58 PM Official Post

Soft blending will be looked at with the next release of GeoConvert.