non linear Graidents--- is there a way?

[fish~]

Aloha. In 3DS MAx im making displament maps from autocad topo lines.

Currently i just fill each level with a corisponding grey level in photo shop then blur the result. But the porblem is that this dosnt make a smooth gradient bewtween lines as the blur is locked to specific radius. Are there any tools that will make a nice smooth non linear gradiet between 2 vector lines?

I own & use the CS2 suite, max 8, autocad 2005

[CCThrom]

There isn't -that I know of- a tool in photoshop that will do exactly what you describe, but since you're using CS2 you might try experimenting with some of the new blur filters... probably not quite as good as you're hoping for, but after some tweaking box blur and lens blur seem to do a better job with it than good ole' gaussian blur.

[CaneHoyer]

You are giving the answer yourself.

PS is a pixel-application, it uses also vectors for some operations, but it's no vector based software.

Why don't you do a normal gradient in PS if you do the gradient you can set all attributes of the gradient. I add a screenshot, so you can see what I mean.
To get to this option just click in the small shown gradient in the above menue.



If you wish to work on in vectors, use Illustrator, this is a vector application and there is a funtcion to combine 2 lines and let the colors mix.
Then you can save the whole thing or export it to a pixel file!

But don't ask me how, I also have the CS2 Suite, but use Illustrator very seldom!

[fish~]

yeah i rarely use illustrator because autocad takes are of all my vector needs.

I looked around in the illustrator menus, but i have yet to see a gradient function work like I need.
The only thing close was the mesh tool