Gradient of a gradient...

[Gabriele Greco]

I'm sorry if it's something easy, but I'm a software engineer that sometimes has graphic editing needs and I usually solve them using pixelmator.



Since yesterday I have a problem that i cannot solve.



I need to create a alpha gradient that dissolve in three directions, having the alpha 1 in the center top and dissolving with a certain rule to lower alpha values both to left and to right and also to the bottom.



It's easy to do it in a way that dissolve only to the bottom (I've added a green background level to see the transparency, that background is not exported in the final image).







Then I created two extra levels, for the left and the right part of the gradient that I want to use to raise the transparency going to the edges, the following picture show the image with only one of these levels visible:







The problem is that I do not find the correct tool to do this "subtraction", since the alpha level in the top is very different from the one in the bottom. I found that I can do something barely useful changing the "eraser tool" opacity to 10% and drawing vertical lines on the Left or Right level, but the goal is to not be able to see the lines and I cannot achieve this with an hand made procedure...

[Andrius]

Hey Gabriele, I'll be honest and say I'm not 100% sure about the result you'd like to achieve so forgive me if this advice isn't relevant. However, if I've understood correctly, you'd like to fade one layer to transparent in multiple directions. In that case, here's the easiest way I can currently think of:



1. Group your original layer twice

2. Apply layer masks to the original layer and each of the group layers

3. Click to select the layer mask of the original layer

4. Choose the Gradient Fill tool, select a black-to-white gradient and fade the layer out in whichever direction you need

5. Select the layer mask of the group layer above and fade it using the Gradient Fill tool, as described in step 4

6. Select the layer mask of the top group layer and fade it using the Gradient Fill tool as described in step 4



Here's the result I got:



I used Pixelmator Pro for this, but the same should most definitely be possible with the original Pixelmator.



Oh, and also, here's what my layers look like:

[Andrius]

Oh, and actually, instead of using three grouped layers, you could also use one but instead use a black-to-transparent gradient to paint on the layer mask rather than black-to-white.