Feature request: Merge masks in mask manager

Software darktable
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We all love masking! I really found this one of the most awesome feature of darktable. It got a bit learning to get used to it. Coming from Capture One, I was used to defining a mask and then applied all the edits to it. Where darktable is the complete opposite.

But here is the thing I sometimes struggling with. Sometimes a number drawn masks forms a group (nicely supported by dt).

But I get regular in situation where I actually would only use the group. Especially with subject or background masking. Then the group consists of 4, 5 or sometimes even more masks. But only as a group the masks have meaning.

I have been experimenting with AI subject masking and vectorizing external raster masks and then this is especially true: then masks themselves are not ver useful: only the group is

So what I would love to see is that it would be possible to merge the group into one single mask, so that the mask manger (and also the select mask dropdown in a module) is much less cluttered.

2 Likes
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Stay tuned, I have a major mask overhaul proposal in the making. A POC is ready, I just have to document it before I can share it to gauge the community’s interest.

Among other things, groups become first class citizens.

11 Likes
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Thanks already for the effort!! I definitely will stay tuned!

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I thought that was already possible in Dt :thinking:

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Yes, it is possible in dt to use a group. That is working for years… This is about merging the group into a new single mask.

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If that is the case wouldn’t adding another type of entry make the drop down even more cluttered?

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I am not taking about another type… I am talking about merging a group in a single mask and deleting the group and all its sub masks… So I a group is made up of N masks… I lose 2N+1 entries…

1 Like
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Got it. I thought you meant having the option to “merge” from a group, not do away with the idea of a group altogether.

Just organizing the dropdown differently seems like it would be an easier clutter solution?

I guess we can wait to see what @Masterpiga does

1 Like
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Eager to see what your proposition will be! I too find the mask editor too cluttered, I understand it, but it’s overly complicated imo, could be much more clean.
At least if everything that is group would not show up as a single mask as well that would clean things up nicely already.

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That would indeed be a big improvement in self!

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Its out and there are builds available…

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Well Masterpiga is more targeting the mask tools below the modules… will wait a bit how it all works out…

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Yeah I just gave it a shot and I see no change under the mask manager, even though the flexi mask seems nice.

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The mask manager/editor is subsumed by the flexi mask.

As I said in the other thread, with flexi you can combine multiple raster masks in the same mask, as well as combine them with other shapes and parametric channels. This offers an alternative way to reuse and combine one or more “subject masks”. You can create the mask in one module and then reuse it as a raster, instead of having to deal with the individual shapes.

2 Likes