Rotating selections in X6 ?

[ausair]

Whenever I rotate a selection in X6 it creates a promoted selection layer and then makes a copy of my selection and rotates it.

Is there a way to rotate a selection without the copy ?

[Cassel]

Yes there is. Once you have your selection, go Selection > Edit Selection. This will turn your selection to red/pink and you can manipulate that selection as if it were a separate object. When it is edited, rotated as you wish, go back to Selection > Edit Selection again to remove the red and get back to the "normal" selection with the marching ants.

You can also use the first icon on top of the layer palette, Edit Selection to do the same.

[ausair]

Cassel, thanks, that's a nice tip.

My problem is that I want to rotate the pixels inside my selection without it making a copy of the pixels.

[Cassel]

I don't understand then, You cannot manipulate only part of an image directly on the same layer, that is why it gets floated. Would you mind explaining more what you are trying to achieve and how?

[ausair]

I am texturing a 3d model aircraft. PSP is being used to create the textures for the aircraft.

I have a raster layer called markings. On that raster layer are many markings such as stencils, lettering, insignia etc.

Sometimes some of the lettering or insignia isn't aligned quite right on the 3d model and I have to rotate that lettering or insignia in PSP to align it correctly.

So I don't want to rotate everything on the layer, I only want to rotate the selected area of the layer.
Currently it works fine but always creates a copy. How do you do it without the copy ?

[LeviFiction]

You can't. That's the way PSP works. But I'm curious as to what the issue with the copy is. Merging as the last step in the edit or just saving out will usually flatten the image.

If you need the selected area filled in with the background color instead of a direct copy being made, that I can understand as being a problem.

[ausair]

Hi Levi

Thanks for the response. I come from a photoshop background and am new to PSP so finding many things quite quirky about PSP and am unsure if it is bug or that is the way it is designed.

Lets use raster image of a star shape as an example to point out the issue.
After rotating my star, I then have to go back and delete the original star so that when the image is output in its flattened format I don't have 2 stars overlapping each other with different rotations. So the whole process of rotating parts of image is a lot more work than it needs to be. To me this behaviour is quite odd.

PSP is the only drawing/painting package I have seen that automatically makes a copy when rotating selections.

[Cassel]

What you can then do is this sequence:
- have your selection
- promote the selection to a layer
- back down to the original
- delete that selection on the original
- back to the promoted layer

You can record a script for this sequence and have it done in one click of you prefer.

[ausair]

Thanks cassell, seems like a good workflow, will try it out with a script.

[hartpaul]

Hi Ausair,
I am curious to know what you mean about being able to rotate a part of an image without leaving a trace behind and without duplication. I am able to use Photoshop CS2 and select an area and then do Selection Transform Selection and then rotate that, but it just rotates the selection marquee and not the images. Can you give the steps you use in Photoshop to get what you want so that I can try and reproduce.

[ausair]

In Photoshop

Select area of image to rotate. Then go to edit->Free Transform (Ctl+T)

or

edit->Transform->Rotate

[LeviFiction]

Personally I love the versatility of a floating layer.

Okay I may have an answer for you.

PaintShop Pro does do what you want, but not in the most intuitive way.

1) Make the selection

2) With the selection tool still active click once inside the selection you just made. This will float the selection and it'll erase the content beneath it.

Using this method instead of the pick or move tools will solve your duplication problem. On Background layers it'll fill in the selection with the background color from the materials palette. With a raster layer it'll just delete the area leaving it transparent.

[hartpaul]

In Photoshop

Select area of image to rotate. Then go to edit->Free Transform (Ctl+T)

or

edit->Transform->Rotate

OK I see what you mean . But rotating a part of an image eg your star in Photoshop would still leave you with areas of background color that still need filling in with the texture / color of the original image surface.

I was getting the impression that when you rotated in photoshop some type of content aware algorithm was filling in the area you had moved from , but that is not the case.


As Levi has mentioned the floating selection is more versatile, and if you were rotating a star you would just have to select a larger area with star surrounds and could rotate and then defloat / merge down and you would not have any repair work to do at all.

[ausair]

Paul

All the objects I wish to rotate are generally been drawn on a layer with a transparent background.

If the background of the layer is coloured then yeh, I would still have to patch it up as you would do in Photoshop.

Levi

Cheers, will try that tonight when I get home and have access to PSP. Seems like a pretty simple solution but not obvious to a newbie to PSP. I don't think its in the help files either.

[hartpaul]

Aah you did not mention the transparent background in your original statement.
Just tested , made a star on a transparent background over another image eg a plane (without that star) .
Chose the star layer , used the pick tool and was able to rotate the star distort it (all on its own separate transparent layer ) . No need for selection process at all. when I have star in correct proportion and position, just merge down and the star is now in the plane layer (or can be kept separate and saved as a Psp file for later editing - like psd file)