This tutorial is going to concentrate on a simple masking technique using Doodads again. I will concentrate on this ucl for a few tutorials since this is one of the best to start with in learning UF.

Since this is the third tutorial, I will no longer be walking you through every parameter I change in the formulas. I will focus mainly on those parameters that the tutorial is concerned with. I am assuming that you either have a good working knowledge of UF, or have read my earlier tutorials. Here is the link to the image:[link]

I chose a ufm from the tma.ufm folder and found a nice spiral. I selected a nice shape with Doodads. I returned to the formula tab and tweaked the Julia seed values using the explore feature of UF 4.02 in order to fine tune the spiral. I then tweaked the shaping parameters on the outside tab again to fine tune the shape. If you turn on just my background layer, you will see what I had to start with. You will notice right away that the background area around the spiral is transparent. If you pull up the gradient for this layer, you will find that there is no transparency in the gradient. What I used for making the transparent areas is called the "Mask Threshold". If you scroll down to just below the "Expand+l-Contract" value you will find this parameter. The Mask Threshold value selected the part of the outside area which is colored with just the outside color. That is why when you look at the little layer previews the outside color appears maroon. If you click the little opacity icon on that layer off and on, you will see that color in the background. The way I made it transparent was to go up to the "Solid Color" bar right below the Transfer Function, click on it, and move the opacity slider all the way over to 0. I duplicated this layer and set the merge mode at Multiply and adjusted the opacity. I then made another layer and switched the Mask Threshold value back to 0 and pushed F8 to get a gradient with some nice colors. (F8 lets you specify all the ranges for generating random gradients and I like to use this a lot when I am looking for a lot of colors.) I then duplicated layer 1 and used it as a mask for this layer. I did this by clicking the icon that says "Use as Mask". Since I had already made the background transparent, it was ready to be used as a mask and the mask would have the same exact amount of transparency as the first two layers. This makes everything match up very nicely. If you turn off the transparancy of mask layer 1 by clicking the little transparency icon, you will see all the colors in the background which we don't want. I put a little texture on the spiral with the layer labled: doodad tex 2. I copied the mask by right clicking on it and hitting copy, then right clicking on the iteration layer and hitting paste. The layer that is copied is always pasted above the layer you click on, and since this is a mask layer, it will automatically turn into another mask. I then made a different texture layer for some background texture and made it a different color. I again copied and pasted the mask, but this time I had to go back to the outside tab and check "Reverse Mask" in order to place this texture in the background around my spiral. If you look at the gradients for all these masks, you will see that they are all white because they do not affect the mask. The mask is made with the solid color instead of the gradient. This is an easy way to make a mask and many ucls have this capability. The only drawback is that the edges of the shape are very sharp and you don't have the ability to make feathering effects of colors and textures.

Here is the upr:

MaskingExample {
; Copyright © 2006 by Mary C. Thornton.
; Feel free to tweak!
::vA8r9jn2tv5WvttNUc83DQ+OI4n2aRsFvoLeD8htVMgNsiVgun6LF0S02aR3mEd 9F0P87wbS
yLJtOpYrbrEBB5IKxDJ/Lyz5nPJZdHPTyL/mrvKIQWILFsZvk3fbR9mAxBeVbpYWw+ic5WWU
UYwWRxmtStZJ/oornlq6YWnIvQ2r6a3xgfYewvttprW2U/tpLw0F4ww4ZXfluH6BqSI32kzq
2VKLa599BZ8WZRTNbWeTTOPPQKOEgmF00yzKkHZo wwrvqi32CTLtDyE1SRHLcOChiDxxLXGt
4G08IEOGRioxRBV8N1M0cMOMFaJgXvBWaxRzTSx4 rvadTHM4czkhfoQ5MMsoaFdZbFZ3yaWv
OYdRpomXBKisijnvbd1sAYc7Oym96dQXe12ujbK4 zUOp9tvDUD1SAhA382qmcBm9z7KL4wVv
efhMb7Lh2YvkXnLKX11Ih2732snV3YcQ/++MOMJRab3Kchybj34smrbH68KeRZzOpSpUPvk3
J7FicQhoEElQXcT48Y8SSKRdbRpITymd6ZZvH+2uAOtx6WBYh0WZumyqcNJyMWrf766Tssm6
fX1b1VZs+/oTtqOcCxOZ1guCEbBY306sAD4+hLUrm2iKjtZGYuDYYaW1ypKkdgLcmqxiz49F
1b12rYSetxBc1q6ZzMPCYXkDylpdkdlAmYrHPcCr nnHywsMjDaaxsbUaB2+4nqcPdGeQLwDa
BeYGh5mRzpG4VDj+hTE2sOBv8rO91zG0FyguQ0DpSXIjahSaIWZycHju 0ScCDZUYIjCDhdS0
14mFrIMQnMLbCsZpW40GyZiDZi6odmZSc4E1qQUW me2S16LoL0BBi6EI6gARHdhIjOM5oWNy
cxoAltFOeCHzeD69vB/+3QUDQLsD45uXKRaFadRNvk9cdvjcqdRdPYZCf1xr 7XDnO0rz+myi
cGFnShvQYIOFc+Y4ZhO3rjsMnCn7jXO25ymNj9NaZaaaMdSogy8q57 yK1nZsBDgmu5F64W9q
ZusrldU0rsO4sqYqzdVdsvT/j1Dnbl8c2N45xooU1KsC0K9x8KIWK8i7FFwR56Mh ebTGLduS
flV6QBSOc62qyWFkqE8DtujMgJZ00trVu3+eSuXvl2OR272D00CaM8CQCnl2G8j7OdKArfjo
HQsyCOaV3oCA1npmwGPsrz047gByMPXxQRqVl66I dYJRLDr3+OO1blNMI4USEBTWEOfJFtUp
Vtgrj0upVmDOIZZUMVfVlyd2+uW57o00oY141aH4+bVuXJLNmpU7+OGR3CE1HcLGerSsRdXZ
f2eu1oS1d9hNVn1bVZc4tg2ExcW4zPvTms1e5E70 B76dr3BBJz4r6Hu6MnYaaqjimYHPxOx1
tNd88CwSvnuso+WIkvaHXfVTDkyGm/QiGuO16NICOoAS+cghRJBZNlNdQ6CcSScoWON3jA5O
N3DTJRk0lw5GTWY9Y8xdsLnNOKaiLn06lBC0JUJU FQ25+bHBBw2Dqt8OYVrWqmM4wrM1yuS0
tRoCva9Y5RP2gHbwjN4xG+HBboT0K46UjGvkksMNJlqV17AQ84oHMLpzAIeK0D 2c9TBIeS0D
OmB8AKx9RPE8rrX/3C5gDbAtA4Gsb8PjXwZVZdoBUI8hhEsO5+4EeQIBYTgBTwmG6jhKcJcC
TJBuXUhPEngbS8pjKgJ2c3hWYASIOaJN22q+cRgjhgGmSiiJXAowE3eXMBwpPeMhJ1LAPiJQ
TngC0n1JE1eQAPIgHEwDC8ZBEYsSCfxyCkH8KuEC 9U3HQHZCoDMBGvYxC+ErmgGL4RzEYjie
R1O4hLcgxLXWtDeIgA3pvLq2BPAQg6RH5BUbKN0A QM2HJLA19p7hE93Jl/QZDSRnTKcB0An5
47psBgLf08AqSBM93cgvgBeOBPngnTwXwAfBD+3TBDqb81L4zT9CUZg1efERIeaxC0TRPDgn
BwzA4ZA+i5v1gfyFV8z0fmBf88+uk+24fPp8+jJ9d1K4Jk3fMpvlw6SKKwHsiADniv8s+nny
fKDwFk1/CT5PmQ29723m/OJFFmSR2mXGNkWHjopQeN3npPZMlfClkGm6oBwD1 KAhXmgxpxPG
Ug/Safbr3gTw+qF4JF8kCeSBf1C8VLwXtAf1C+0rWwvoempACwc8+AE8cBeuAPXgnLwzF45C
8cB//nL475Z3uprZXd+Z/PKeX2APFgnCwTB4pA8UAeKAPFw/hoA+Tk2w+cL=
}