Re: Newbie question: Transparent gradient

[D. R. Evans]

Thanks to all who replied. I finally got it to work.

The missing piece of information in everything that I had been trying 
is that, unlike any other GUI-based program I have ever used, it 
seems that there are Gimp functions that one cannot find by wandering 
through the menus! The trick was to discover that I had to do an alt-
click to be able to edit the layer mask, which I eventually 
discoevered in the Gimp manual, when I did a PDF search on "layer 
mask". I could find no menu item that allowed me to do this, just the 
alt-click trick.

Thanks for everyone's help.

  Doc Evans

Re: Newbie question: Transparent gradient

[Guillermo S. Romero / Familia Romero]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (2000-11-13 at 1629.40 -0700):
 I have a small layer sitting on top of the stack. I would like to 
 "fade" the image contained in that layer, left to right, so that one 
 side (the right side) is completely opaque and the other side (the, 
 er, left side, I guess) is completely transparent.

I think what you need is a layer mask. It the appears as another
thumbnail near the layer it is attached too. It works as a gray image,
deciding what is trasparent and what not. Search the docs about how to
use layer masks, or Grokking the Gimp site, it is a tech used a lot
for logos and compositions.

GSR
 

Re: Newbie question: Transparent gradient

[Seth Burgess]

Hi Doc,

Right click on the layer in the layers dialog, create
layer mask.  Edit that, then right click on layer and
apply layer mask.

Alternately, click on the quick mask selection, and
draw a black-white gradient across the mask.  Quick
mask back to selection, and cut.

I'd also suggest checking out
http://www.gimp-savvy.com if you are looking for a
more approachable manual.  The author has really done
an excellent job on this book (you may consider buying
it even after viewing it online in its entirety).  

Happy GIMPing,
Seth Burgess
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

--- "D. R. Evans" [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 OK, I'm sure this is simple, but I spent a couple of
 hours last night 
 trying to figure out how to do it. I also looked in
 the User Manual, 
 but basically I find that pretty close to
 incomprehensible. 
 Experience shows that I understand what it tries to
 tell me only 
 after I've figured it out for myself.
 
 Anyway, here's the simple question:
 
 I have a small layer sitting on top of the stack. I
 would like to 
 "fade" the image contained in that layer, left to
 right, so that one 
 side (the right side) is completely opaque and the
 other side (the, 
 er, left side, I guess) is completely transparent.
 
 So far I figured out that I need to add an alpha
 channel (which I 
 think I've done OK), and then I probably want to put
 a simple left-
 right gradient in that channel, but I'm blowed if I
 can figure out 
 how to edit the alpha channel. It doesn't appear in
 the list of 
 channels on the Layers, Channels, Paths dialogue,
 but I'm pretty sure 
 that I've created it OK.
 
 So how do I get the alpha channel visible so that I
 can edit it?
 
 Thanks so much for any help. And remember, I'm a
 newbie so please be 
 nice to me.
 
   Doc Evans
 


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