Pick Tool - Selection to Layer Promotion

[Ahakarin]

As much as I appreciate most of the features of Pro X8, there's one deviation which has me stymied - The Pick Tool.

Oh, it works as in my original version, buuuuuut... it has a nasty tendency to automatically promote my selection to a new layer. I cannot use it like this, and I really don't want to have to resort to going back to my old version to get around this behavior. I use the tool to distort portions of my image gradually, and throwing every section onto its own layer ruins this process.

Is there a way to get the tool to knock this off? Or do I have to go from Pro X8 back to 7 to avoid tripping over this nonsense?

[JoeB]

Is there a way to get the tool to knock this off? Or do I have to go from Pro X8 back to 7 to avoid tripping over this nonsense?

Are you talking about going from PSPX8 to PSPX7 or to the old Jasc PSP7? If the former then it does the same thing (i.e., it also promotes the selected area to a new layer). I don't have Jasc's PSP7 so don't know what its behavior was.

[Ahakarin]

The Jasc version.

(Perhaps I should have said "going back to my OLD version...")

[Cassel]

That is a normal behavior because the Pick tool is meant to reshape an element within a raster layer.

It will do that if you have your element selected (with the marching ants around). See if you can deselect (Ctrl-D) and then use the Pick tool.

[Kathy_9]

I could be wrong but it sounds like the OP wants to distort the selection on the original raster layer and not on a separate layer. Once they deselect via Ctrl+D there will be nothing to distort with the pick tool.

If the OP posted a before and after picture of what they are doing with Jasc PSP7 someone might have a recommendation? Maybe the warp brush will do what they are looking for?

[JoeB]

I have Jasc's PSP9 and suspect PSP7 acts the same as 9 does. If I use the Deform tool in PSP9 (which is the equivalent of the Pick tool in the X versions) it also promotes the selection to another layer. So if the OP wasn't getting that action in PSP7 then he wasn't using the Deform tool but, as Kathy suggests, likely the Warp brush.

[JoeB]

The Jasc version.

(Perhaps I should have said "going back to my OLD version...")

The problem is that sometimes people post saying PSP7 or PSP8 and they are actually referring to the X version but omitting the X.

[Ahakarin]

Essentially I have a long, rectangular length, highly textured in a specific manner that I need to preserve as I reshape it. The nature and complexity is such that building it in the shape I need to begin with isn't feasible. The idea is, instead of a straight, flat rectangle, I want to bend that shape into a curve and taper.

The only means I had previously to do this was to select a portion of the rectangle and slightly distort it, then move further along the figure and repeat the process, continuing the process until I get the shape I need. Warp and distortion tools were... too warped, and too distorting, and I need more control than they offer - at least in my antediluvian version of the software.

Now I find every section I distort is automatically pushed to its own layer, forcing me to merge it back down. If I'm doing this some four dozen times, well... this added layer management becomes tedious to the point where it's just faster doing it in the earlier version.

tl:dr -

http://i.imgur.com/9zmAL4m.png

[Forriner]

Have you tried the Mesh Warp tool? If you select a portion of the image, the Mesh Warp tool will only work on that part, though it projects a mesh over the whole image and you can warp all nodes.

[hartpaul]

What I did:

Using PSPX7 (17.1.0.72) and PSP7 (7.00)

1. Set up a 1000 pixel transparent new document.
2. Selected a rectangular area in the middle , filled it with a pattern with the flood fill tool, Selections > Select None

At this point I had a rectangular patterned rectangle on a transparent background.

3. In both versions I used the rectangular selection tool to select the top right corner .


PSP7
4. Chose the Deformation Tool (no Pick tool in PSP7). The boundaries of the whole rectangle were chosen not the Selection rectangle
Any changes to the deformation rectangle affected the whole patterned rectangle not the smaller Selected rectangle.


PSPX7
4. Chose the pick tool. The boundaries of the selection were chosen (unlike PSP7 where the Selection rectangle was ignored).
Any change to the Pick rectangle caused promotion of the Selection rectangle and distortion changes were applied to it.

I could not get either version to provide the distortion that the OP suggests is possible with their earlier version of PSP 7.

Can the OP verify which version of PSP7 they have?

Can they follow the steps I have given and verify if their PSP7 acts differently?

If these are not the steps they are following can they detail the exact steps they are following.

[Ahakarin]

The distortion process I use uses many incrementing steps on the given figure - select the leftmost 10% of the figure, distort it, select the leftmost 15% (including the distorted portion) and distort it, select the next 20%, distort it... repeat until desired shape is obtained.

Note that each selected portion should be floated at each stage, which in X8 (and presumably many other versions) immediately results in the floating selection being promoted to a new layer - the problem in question.

[JoeB]

The only means I had previously to do this was to select a portion of the rectangle and slightly distort it, then move further along the figure and repeat the process, continuing the process until I get the shape I need.

I agree with @hartpaul that more detail is needed. You say that you used to select a portion of the rectangle and slightly distort it. With what tool did you make the portion selection? Then, with what tool did you slightly distort it?

As I said previously, unless PSP7 acts differently than PSP9 then if you used the Deform selection tool to do the selection and then the Deform tool to do the deformation then the deform tool would automatically be promoted to a separate layer. If, as you said earlier, your method in PSP7 did not create a new layer then you did not use the selection and deform tools as I described. And if you didn't, then why are you trying to use them in PSPX8? You should be using the same tools that you used in PSP7. Your lack of detail as to the process is making it difficult for those of use trying to help.

[Ahakarin]

It honestly sounds like you're confusing Jasc PSP7 and Corel PSPx7.

When you use the Deformation tool on a floating selection in PSP7, it does not automatically promote that floating selection to a new layer. At some point in the near two decades between that ancient technology's release and today, this changed.

The original question is, is there a way in x8 to prevent the equivalent of the original Deformation tool, the Pick tool, to mirror this behavior? Is there some setting or means such that, when I use the Pick tool on a floating selection taken from a raster layer, that that floating selection remains floating and is not promoted to its own layer?

[hartpaul]

OK some new information that the OP has given us since my last post.
He has now informed us that he is applying the deformation to a floating selection. This was not mentioned at all in the OPs first 3 posts and only mentioned as a note in the 4th.

"Note that each selected portion should be floated at each stage, which in X8 (and presumably many other versions) immediately results in the floating selection being promoted to a new layer - the problem in question."

And yes I was using PSP7 and PSPX7 because I did not have PSPX8 on my main computer . I will check PSPX8 on my laptop , but I suspect it will be the same as PSPX7.

So in detail your steps are in PSP7

1. start with the patterned image on a transparent background , thus a raster layer.
2. Make a rectangular selection of 10% with the Rectangular Selection tool.
3. Float the selection (the missing information) using Selections > Float
4. Choose the Deformation tool and the box surrounds only the floated selection.
5. Using Shift and Control together (to get Free deformation) move the outermost corner away from the original image (moving it inward any changes are swallowed up in the original image).
6. Choose the Pan tool (to deselect the Deformation Tool \
7. Selections > Select None This step cannot be done while the Deformation Tool is active thus the need for Step 6.
8. Selections > Defloat.
9. Repeat 2- 8 but increasing the proportion selected from 10 %

In PSP X7 and X8 the steps are roughly the same as PSP7 up to step 5

In Step 5 as soon as you try and Deform the selection , the Floating selection is promoted to a full layer called Promoted Selection
Step 6 as normal
7 and 8 can now be combined as Merge > Merge Visible
9 Repeat steps 2-8.

So using the process in X7 , X8 is actually shorter by one step and so more efficient.

The change from leaving the selection to promoting the selection to a layer occurred in PSP8

[Ahakarin]

You're... really conflating this far more than necessary.

OK some new information that the OP has given us since my last post.
He has now informed us that he is applying the deformation to a floating selection. This was not mentioned at all in the OPs first 3 posts and only mentioned as a note in the 4th.

"Note that each selected portion should be floated at each stage, which in X8 (and presumably many other versions) immediately results in the floating selection being promoted to a new layer - the problem in question."

And yes I was using PSP7 and PSPX7 because I did not have PSPX8 on my main computer . I will check PSPX8 on my laptop , but I suspect it will be the same as PSPX7.

So in detail your steps are in PSP7

1. start with the patterned image on a transparent background , thus a raster layer.
2. Make a rectangular selection of 10% with the Rectangular Selection tool.
3. Float the selection (the missing information) using Selections > Float

Actually, floating the selection is achieved simply by clicking on the selection using the Selection tool. There is no need to utilize any menu options. This is the default behavior in x8 as well.

4. Choose the Deformation tool and the box surrounds only the floated selection.
5. Using Shift and Control together (to get Free deformation) move the outermost corner away from the original image (moving it inward any changes are swallowed up in the original image).

Pan is unnecessary.

Simply return to the Selection tool. Go back to step 2, increment % selected. When the new selection is then floated, the original floating selection is simply anchored back into the original layer, and then included in the new selection as it is floated.

The problem is, at step 5, on x8, the floating selection is immediately promoted on deformation. This necessitates merging the formerly floating selection back down. Otherwise the previous deformation isn't included in the next, ruining the process.

This is the extra step I'm seeking to avoid.

Originally, I could use this process in PSP7 using only one layer, the selection tool, the deformation tool, and nothing in between. PSPx8 forces me into additional steps of layer management in between every deformation, making it wildly inefficient by comparison.

The Pick tool automatically promotes floating selection onto their own layer. This is the behavior I want to avoid. Is this possible, or am I stuck using PSP7 for this process?