Canvas: mask an image and preserve its alpha channel?

Question

Here's what I'm trying to do:

1. Get image A, and image B. Image B is a black and white mask image.
2. Replace image A's alpha channel with image B's red channel.
3. Draw image C on the canvas.
4. Draw image A on top of image C.

Everything seems ok until step 4. Image C isn't visible at all and where image A should be transparent there's white color.

cx.putImageData(imageA, 0, 0);
var resultData = cx.getImageData(0, 0, view.width, view.height);

for (var h=0; h<resultData.data.length; h+=4) {
    resultData.data[h+3] = imageB.data[h];
}

cx.putImageData(imageC, 0, 0);
cx.putImageData(resultData, 0, 0);

Answer 1

Simon is right: the putImageData method does not pay any attention to compositing; it merely copies pixel values. In order to get compositing, we need to use drawing operations.

We need to mess with the channels (turn red into alpha) with the pixel data, put that changed pixel data into an image, and then use a composite operation to get the desired masking.

//copy from one channel to another
var assignChannel = function(imageData, channelTo, channelFrom) {
  if(channelTo < 0 || channelTo > 3 || channelFrom < 0 || channelFrom > 3) {
    throw new Error("bad channel number");
  }
  if(channelTo == channelFrom)
    return;
  var px = imageData.data;
  for(var i = 0; i < px.length; i += 4) {
    px[i + channelTo] = px[i + channelFrom];
  }
};
/**============================================================================ 
  * this function uses 3 or 4 canvases for clarity / pedagogical reasons:
  * redCanvas has our mask image;
  * maskCanvas will be used to store the alpha channel conversion of redCanvas' image;
  * imageCanvas contains the image to be masked;
  * ctx is the context of the canvas to which the masked image will be drawn.
============================================================================**/
var drawOnTopOfRed = function(redCanvas, maskCanvas, imageCanvas, ctx) {
  var redImageData = redCanvas.getContext("2d").getImageData(0, 0, w, h);

  //assign the alpha channel
  assignChannel(redImageData, 3, 0);

  //write the mask image
  maskCanvas.getContext("2d").putImageData(redImageData, 0, 0);

  ctx.save();

  //draw the mask
  ctx.globalCompositeOperation = "copy";
  ctx.drawImage(maskCanvas, 0, 0);

  //draw the image to be masked, but only where both it
  //and the mask are opaque; see http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/the-canvas-element.html#compositing for details.
  ctx.globalCompositeOperation = "source-in";
  ctx.drawImage(imageCanvas, 0, 0);
  ctx.restore();
};

jsfiddle example

A doodle with the example:

Answer 2

Because in step 4 you are using putImageData which perfectly replaces pixels. You want to draw image A on top of image C, so you can't do this. Instead you will want to use drawImage()

So do:

cx.putImageData(imageC, 0, 0); // step 3
// create a new canvas and new context,
// call that new context ctx2 and canvas can2:
var can2 = document.createElement('canvas');
// set can2's width and height, get the context etc...
ctx2.putImageData(resultData, 0, 0);
cx.drawImage(can2, 0, 0); // step 4 using drawImage instead of putting image data