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Cutting out images


Simon Brown

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see this works for straight things or maybe doesent but i want to find out how say if you had a picture of a man and you only wanted to cut out the picture of the man theres no way of doing it cuz the lasso select isnt so accurate only photoshop has this way to do it

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see this works for straight things or maybe doesent but i want to find out how say if you had a picture of a man and you only wanted to cut out the picture of the man theres no way of doing it cuz the lasso select isnt so accurate only photoshop has this way to do it

magnetic lasso isn't much better, just faster

best way would be to use an alpha mask...but if you really want to spend the money and use Photoshop, then go right ahead

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see people make all these pictures from paint.net like the one above did the person jus touch the picture up or cut the image like that.. its complicated

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  • 1 month later...

I don't get this @ all. I've read, and re-read Simon's tut on cutting images out, several times. I've watched the video too (I think it would help some if there were audio to it, but I am using Google Chrome for a browser, so maybe that has something to do with it) Firstly, I don't have a "Pen" tool. I have a Pencil, a Magic Wand, and everything else from v.3.5.1, but I don't see a "Pen" tool anywhere. I've tried using the Line/Curve tool, but like one of the recent previous posters' put it, on an object such as a person, cutting them out seems next to impossible with a tool that you have to stop using every 1", and start with another one to get around all of the detail.

If I'm missing something, then by all means, PLEASE let me have it! LOL I can take someone slapping me across the back of the head, and telling me to wake up and smell the coffee..... :roll: But like I said, I've been looking, and reading, (read the entire "Help" section top to bottom, and learned quite a bit just from that), and I've looked many other places here. I just don't see how this "cutting" something other than perfectly straight-line objects, works.

OH

Edit: I found this video,

, afterwards. I think the poster may have been indulging in some 'shine, but he gets some valid points across. Anyone, reading my post, and then watching this vid, please give your opinions to it, and any other suggestions you may have to help me out. Thank You!

"Beer is Proof That God Loves Us, And Wants Us To Be Happy!" - Ben Franklin

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Alrighty, then. Here we go, with a little bit different way to show how I'm screwing this up! :oops: What I've done is gone and made my own little tutorial via a product called Screencast. With this, I can show you EXACTLY what I'm doing, and/or NOT doing right. Here is the link to the video I just made of my efforts using Simon Browns' "Cutting out images in Paint.NET" tutorial. As you watch the video, when I initially go to pull up the image I use, if you look REALLY closely, you'll notice that I have a copy of the same image, already cut out, but with an all white background. I have no idea how I did that. So, I'm standing before all of you, with hat in hand, so to speak, and all I ask, is that you be gentle with me.... :wink:

Here's the link to the vid: http://www.screencast.com/t/ZGY1MDI5

As always, Thank You for your time, patience, and knowledge........

OH

P.S. BTW, there IS audio to this vid........

"Beer is Proof That God Loves Us, And Wants Us To Be Happy!" - Ben Franklin

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odeho19:

Re: Video

At tutorial Step 4, in your layers window, you need to click on the background layer

to make it the active working layer.

Then press Delete. ( Step 5 )

Edited by Sarkut
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@ Sarkut, Thanks for pointing that out to me. It worked perfectly. I'm was just missing some the tiniest details I guess.

Now my next issue concerns putting this image ONTO another one. In the previously mentioned YouTube video, the video poster @ about 8:30 of his tut is doing what I want to do, but for some reason I can't get my entire image background transparent. He goes to use his magic wand, and everything of mine looks the same as his. Then as soon as he clicks to choose the magic wand, the ENTIRE canvas turns color, (including his image that he's going to be working with, and it's surrounding area), then he ticks outside of the image area on the canvas, and then just the blank area remains colored. The image itself is now just surrounded by transparent squares. Then he ticks in the colored area, and the transparent area expands to cover then entire canvas.

Mine is NOT doing that for some reason. What happens to mine, is that a solid thin black line remains around the image, and the transparent squares, and NOTHING changes in the canvas field. I have the Selection Mode set to "replace", the Flood Mode is set to "contiguous", and the Tolerance is set @ about 50%. These also appear to be the settings that the videographer uses.

pdn2.png

I hope I'm explaining what my intentions are, correctly, and clearly. I also hope that I'm asking this @ the right place.

:roll:

"Beer is Proof That God Loves Us, And Wants Us To Be Happy!" - Ben Franklin

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odeho19:

Not sure I'm following.

To be rid of the blue, Wand it and press Delete.

To be able to resize, move, etc. the cut-out over a background

keep the cut-out on its own tranparent layer with the background

on a layer below it.

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You Know Sarkut......I've been in the "learning" process about different subjects all my life. And this is one of those times where I wish I could just DELETE the entire thing! :oops: I know I'll be learning more, and watching other tuts for a long time to come, here on PDN. And I KNOW that some day, I'm gonna look back on THIS string, and go, "What a frickin' idiot you were"!!!

So, all I can say, is a very humble Thank You, and bow out as quietly as I can...........

OH

"Beer is Proof That God Loves Us, And Wants Us To Be Happy!" - Ben Franklin

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  • 2 weeks later...

How do you make the background of the image transparent, so i can just copy & paste the 2 cutout photo's to a texture & start designing. This cut out is not that good cause it was more of a rough edit & the feathering cut off too much of the photo, so I really just left feathering alone. But, this is what I got:

SAM_0390edit.png

Now, how do I get that background to be transparent & not white.

Note: I tried Tif, PNG & the other formats that we're supposed to make the background transparent, but they all look exactly like this & this file format is actually a png.

PDNSignature.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

I used the line tool to outline my subject but everytime I use the magic wand tool to select the area inside of the outline, it just selects the whole image, except for the outline. When I invert the selection, it just selects the outline. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. This method worked when I used it previously.

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Killerfist, I'm no expert by any means, as evidenced from my recent posts, so take this with a grain of salt. But when you're doing your outline, are you absolutely certain there are NO breaks in it, and that it comes to a complete close? I'm not saying this IS your problem, I'm just posing that as a possibility.

Good Luck!

Odeho19

"Beer is Proof That God Loves Us, And Wants Us To Be Happy!" - Ben Franklin

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A better, more accurate (though slightly more complex) method to cut out is to use the 'Alpha Mask Import Plug in'. This method makes the edge pixels transparent (much like feathering does in the above example) which will help it integrate into your new background later. I started to prepare a video tutorial on this method, but never finished it. I'll try and find it - if I can't - I'll make a new one...

Here goes...

1a.Open image you wish to cut out

1b.create a new layer and fill white, change opacity to suit image (white as possible but clarity of 'background' layer is still required)

2.Create new layer (don't forget to name your layers BTW - it is a good habit/practice to get into whilst learning)

3.Ensuring the newest layer selected, select 'Line/Curve tool' (Keyboard Shortcut 'O')

4.Make sure you select black (you can change the layer opacity ~200 to make it transparent, which will make placing this line easier)

5.Select a line width appropriate to your image size (you want a little overlap, the alias of the line WILL BE IMPORTANT)

6.Use multiple, overlapped lines/curves to outline your object, being careful to line the outside of your line with the outside edge of the object (ie the outline of the area you want) - use the 'nubs/handles' to make the curve meet the edge nicely

7.Once finished, ensure you enclose your shape (ie make the ends meet)

8.Use the magic wand to select the transparent area outside your mask, as well as most of the anti-aliased outside edge (try tolerance about 68-70%)

9.Invert the selection and fill the selection black (the black area is your mask)

10. merge the layer down to the white layer below and return both layers' opacity to 100%

11.select the mask layer and copy to clipboard (Ctrl+C)

12.select the background layer (originally opened image) and use the Alpha Mask Import (Effects > Alpha Mask) - delete the mask layer (unless you want it later)

13. Save the image (save as a .PNG file to preserve transparency - if you didn't delete the mask layer, turn it off first)

14.Open the image you want it in and use 'Layers > Import from file' to open the .PNG you just created

Notice how the cutout object merges nicely into the new background with its own pixels, not estimates feathered in... beautiful...

[img]http://www.geocities.com/gerry_satrapa/PDNsig.jpg[/img]

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Cutting Out using Alpha Mask Import Plug In Tutorial, as mentioned previous post, on YouTube:

[img]http://www.geocities.com/gerry_satrapa/PDNsig.jpg[/img]

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  • 4 weeks later...

How does one take this into account when dealing with trees? I have an image I'm working on that has tons of branches. I want to keep the branches but not the sky behind them. I suppose I could go in and cut out each tiny little hole, but that is far too annoying to do. I've turned the image into a sillouette so that there is only black and white to deal with. I still have to remove the white areas. Any ideas?

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Scryer41,

To get rid of the white in the silhouette.

While holding the Shift key down,

Magic Wand the white.

Press Delete on your keyboard.

Next, go to Adjustments > Brightness / Contrast

Set Brightness to -100 and Contrast to 100.

Or use the silhouette as a mask for itself and apply

Alpha Mask with the Invert Mask box checked.

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