The Detect Edge tool lets you create an image composed of the edges in an image. The resulting grayscale image can be used as a matte or to produce special effects. You can apply the Detect Edge tool to a color or monochrome image. This tool has many applications, the most useful include:
The Detect Edge tool replaces the source alpha channel with an edge map of the source alpha.
The Detect Edge tool has the following parameters:
| Use: | To: |
|---|---|
| Outer Distance | Control the width and offset of the outer edges. |
| Inner Distance | Control the width and offset of the inner edges. |
| Outer softness | Add blur to the outside extremities of edges. |
| Inner Softness | Add blur to the inside extremities of edges. |
| Link Distance | Link the Outer and Inner Distance sliders so that the alpha edges are thickened by an amount of twice the slider value, centered about their original position in the input image. By default, the Link button is enabled. |
| Link Softness | Link the Outer and Inner Softness sliders. By default, the Link button is enabled. |
| Invert | Create negatives of Edge Mattes, by simply inverting the output alpha. |
| Remap Alpha Curve | Remap the alpha as the last step in the internal pipeline. |
| Reset | Reset the alpha remapping curve. |
(a) Front input Image (b) Alpha (c) Detect Edge applied
(a) Outer edge distance increased (b) Inner and outer softness added (c) Alpha remapped towards 1.0
