Cutting out images

[Ego Eram Reputo]

The link in the first post is working (where it says "click here to view"). Transient internet problems....,

[TaggerVirgin]

Thanks for that!

I am new to all this stuff and still learning the very basics! Although it might come across as easy peasy for yourselves I am still a virgin at this!

So this board really helps

xx

[lil j]

thank you all for the great info

Edited January 31, 2011 by lil j

[tom_in_toronto]

I am not afraid to admit it - I am a techno-klutz. I have, ever since I joined, wanted to take one part of an image and paste it into something I'm creating. When I read the Cutting Out Images tutorial by Simon Brown I thought the quandry I've been in for years was over. But I find the tutorial is not Windows 7 friendly. When ever I press Ctrl-I to invert an image, as mentioned in the tutorial, I get a list of my favorites.

Is there an alternative for this direction. I've hot a monitor screen with a 1600 x 900 pixel resolution, and I'm trying to make wallpaper for it.

Edited March 28, 2011 by tom_in_toronto

[Sarkut]

In the menu:

Edit > Invert Selection

[tom_in_toronto]

Thank you very much Sarkut. Does any body know if PdN 3.5.8. allows to creat a collage ?

tom_in_toronto

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Yes. http://searchpaint.net/ + collage should turn up at least one tutorial.

[StarDebut]

Is there an advanced tutorial?

I use a tablet to cut out my images and I think I do pretty well with it. Seeing as I pick HQ large pixel sized images, cut them out and then they are usually decreased in size to fit whatever project (usually signatures) that I am working on.

But saying this I would really like a tutorial, or one on one, to show me how I can cut out images and yet still retain the opaque glow of things like smoke, magic dust, veils, etc...

oops forgot to say Thank you .

Edited April 26, 2011 by StarDebut

[LewisClarkNightOut]

Added video tutorial version - it's a bit jerky, but I hope it'll still be helpful.

OMG where is the link? I know I am a newbie, but so far this forum is nothing but frustrating. All conversation and no step by step instructions. Where is the link to the video?

[pyrochild]

OMG where is the link? I know I am a newbie, but so far this forum is nothing but frustrating. All conversation and no step by step instructions. Where is the link to the video?

The very first post in this thread has a giant link that says "Click here to view."

How on earth is that frustrating?

[iwilleatyou]

Very helpful tutorial.

[sir snake]

I'm a noob but this is the way i figured out how to do it. use the eraser and erase everything but what you want in the picture.

you can adjust the eraser size where it says brush size. save as gif. done.

[JadedLemon]

I left this comment at Simon Browns page, but thought that I would leave it here too.

I'm new to Paint.net (less than a week) and like Peter, Larry, and Tyler above I had the same issue with the checkerboard. When I copied the layer and tried to paste it onto the original image it showed the checkerboard. I think what this tutorial lacks is remembering that it is supposed to be a BEGINNERS tutorial and many of us are not familiar with all the tools that Paint.net uses or even where they are. It took me about 10 minutes to find the Feather tool and even then I don't think I got it to work as it should and gave up. With the checkerboard issue though, with experimentation I found two ways to eliminate it.

1. Use the magic wand and click on the checkerboard. Do CTRL-I to invert the selection, and then CTRL-C to copy. then when you paste it onto another image you only paste the laptop as that is all that was copied.

2. Do Ctrl-A to select the whole layer (checkerboard and all). Add a new layer above the image you want to add the laptop to. and CTRL-V to paste the copied layer onto the new layer. On a new layer the checkerboard does not show.

Telling Beginners that are reading a Beginners tutorial to help familiarize ourselves with Paint.net to "spend some time playing around with layers to see how they work" is unhelpful, when ideally how to eliminate the checkerboard should have been included in the tutorial. We are beginners after all.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

You shouldn't need to eliminate the checkerboard - it's Paint.NET's way of telling you that that region is transparent.

Checkerboard = transparent.

If it disturbs you visually, add a new layer & move it to the bottom of the stack of layers. Use the Paint Bucket tool to fill that layer with white.

In order for the feathering tool to work, the region of pixels you want to feather must run up against a checkerboard=transparent region. That's the way it works.

[JadedLemon]

You shouldn't need to eliminate the checkerboard - it's Paint.NET's way of telling you that that region is transparent.

Checkerboard = transparent.

If it disturbs you visually, add a new layer & move it to the bottom of the stack of layers. Use the Paint Bucket tool to fill that layer with white.

In order for the feathering tool to work, the region of pixels you want to feather must run up against a checkerboard=transparent region. That's the way it works.

The problem was that I and other BEGINNERS where getting this effect when we pasted the cut image onto another image. Because we are BEGINNERS reading a BEGINNERS tutorial and unfamiliar with the workings of Paint.net things like adding layers did not spring to mind at first. All we could see was an annoying checkerboard on the image.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

The tutorial itself has a link to Myrddin's excellent filetype mini tutorial - the checkerboard is explained several times there.

The checkerboard pattern is also explained in the third and fourth supplementary posts following the main tutorial.

Beginner tutorials are to assist you learning new techniques - not necessarily teach you how the program itself works. For that you should read the online documentation. Press F1 in Paint.NET to access the online documentation or access it via the Help menu (Help | Help Topics). There is a wealth of information in there that you really need to see.

[karadotcollett]

dope tut. been using pdn for forever but this is so much faster than the way i used to cut out images.

[barbieq25]

The tutorial itself has a link to Myrddin's excellent filetype mini tutorial - the checkerboard is explained several times there.

The checkerboard pattern is also explained in the third and fourth supplementary posts following the main tutorial.

Beginner tutorials are to assist you learning new techniques - not necessarily teach you how the program itself works. For that you should read the online documentation. Press F1 in Paint.NET to access the online documentation or access it via the Help menu (Help | Help Topics). There is a wealth of information in there that you really need to see.

 

 

 This should help you...

[ScifiGirl]

I'm quite familiar with cut out procedures, having used PS and Gimp for a while. What I couldn't quite work with this is the magic wand, it seemed to want to select stuff on its own, rather than just the outline I needed. So I used the Lasso select which worked fine.

 

My only problem is with the smoothness of the selection, I tried using the feather tool, but it didn't do much at all, as you can see with my cut out of Jen Garner.

 

Also, are there any further options with the eraser? Such as shape, opacity etc?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Often your cut out object has a thin edge that doesn't blend well with the new background.  Placing the object on it's own layer and running AA's Assistant once or twice softens the edge making it blend nicely.

 

You can find AA's Assistant here: DPY's Plugin Pack

[ScifiGirl]

thank you Ego, I'll give that a try

[shumi31]

A very well written tutorial it is and thank you for adding the video version of this tutorial too.

[phamdinhnam3]

i get it

[shumi31]

Cutting out image is a process of removing background from any image. Lots of tutorials are available to know this process.

[Cc4FuzzyHuggles]

I realize the comments about struggling with the checkerboard pattern are old, but I wanted to comment about it for future new users.

 

There are already plenty of comments on how the checkerboard pattern represents transparency, and how transparency is what you want when removing backgrounds, or cutting out objects, and it's needed for using some plugins. However, some people seem to be confused, as they say they “copy” the checkers with their object. There was sort of an answer to this in an above comment, but here is a different way of explaining things. Hopefully others who experience a checkerboard issue will find this helpful.

 

If you copy and paste your cut-out object, be sure you paste it onto it's own layer. If you don't paste it onto it's own layer, the transparent areas might “erase” or “delete” the image or new background that you paste onto, which can then give the impression that you are copying/pasting the checkerboard pattern.

 

1. Cut out the object as seen in the tutorial.

2. Copy the object.

3. Add a new layer to paste your object onto. (How? Click Here to learn about layers.)

4. It is recommended that you save your image as a pdn format, so that you can keep your picture in layers and have the ability to edit the object later. Then re-save the image as a normal format to use it with other applications, such as saving it as a png (best quality) or a jpeg (smaller file size).

Edited November 18, 2015 by Cc4FuzzyHuggles