how to copy circumference area of the lasso tool?

[Killer Rob]

okay, maybe this might be a little hard to explain, but let's say I have 2 images at 600x400 opened up in Paint.Net. Now let's say on the first image, I take the lasso and make a circle in the middle of the image. Now, how can I ONLY copy the selected lasso circle and paste it directly to the other pic, but NOT the actual colored pixels within the lasso circle??

See what I mean? I want to use the same lasso circle design that I made in the 1st image and apply it to the other image, but I don't want to paste the colored pixels from the 1st image over the area of the 2nd image. I just want to post the actual circumference of the lasso circle to the 2nd image that way I can crop both pics to the same exact lasso coordinates while at the same time both pics will still remain with their original colored pixels.

See what I mean? It's kind of hard to explain, but I know someone understands what I'm trying to say. Any help would be much appreciated!

[Sarkut]

Killer Rob,

Make a new (transparent) layer,

fill the selection with any solid color.

Use the new layer as a template to recreate

the selection with the Magic Wand, at will.

[Killer Rob]

hmmm...thanks for the quick response Sarkut. So far I've been able to copy the circumference of the lasso circle to the 2nd pic, but when I paste it on there, it is not transparent, it is checkerboarded. I'll give your advice a shot and see what I can come up with and report back.

[Sarkut]

The gray-and-white checkerboard is how

transparency is indicated in Paint.NET.

[Killer Rob]

yeah, but when I save it the finished image where the lasso circle was is whited out. I just want to copy the exact shape of a circle I made to another pick and have the circle still be transparent on the 2nd pic like it is on the first, so I can still see what is going on in the 2nd pic and not have a giant checkerboarded circle in the middle of it. Surely this can be done, can it not? But so far no luck with your advice above, still messing around with it.

[Sarkut]

If you save as .jpg filetype the transparent part

will be filled in with white.

Save as PNG.

The checkerboard will only show in Paint.NET or another

editing program that uses it to indicate transparency.

It isn't part of the image.

If you want to capture the appearance of the actual lasso selection

border as part of the image you'll probably have to make a screenshot

of the image with the selection active.

http://www.take-a-screenshot.org/

[Killer Rob]

oh, okay, so there is no way to keep the selected area transparent while working in paint.net?

for instance, take both pics here, is there a way to copy this selected area but obviously not the tower and sky within the selected area, and paste it on the 2nd pic? just the selected area and keep it transparent like it is in pic 1?

[Sarkut]

What I said first:

Copy/paste the template layer into the new picture as a separate

layer and use the Wand to recreate the selection.

Edited April 21, 2010 by Sarkut

[Killer Rob]

see, while working in paint.net, if I copy that transparent area and paste it to the 2nd pic, it's not transparent anymore it's checkerboarded which makes it hard to see what's going on if I want to move the selection area around to center things up and whatnot...

[Sarkut]

Paste it into its own transparent layer above the background image.

[Killer Rob]

oh, okay, sorry just bare with me here. at first I wasn't getting ewhat you mean't in your initial post, but now I think I see what you mean...I'm gonna try again and report back.

[Killer Rob]

I'm probably making this harder than it really is huh? 2 things:

1) what is the exact way to amke a transparent layer of an image?

2) what do you mean by recreating the selection with the magic wand? -I get the filling in the selection with color part, but what do I do with the magic wand after that to recreate the selection onto another image?

[Simon Brown]

1. Create your selection and copy it.

2. Open the destination image.

3. Create a new layer and paste into it.

4. Select the magic want tool and click outside of the pasted image.

5. Press Ctrl-I.

6. Delete the layer.

[Sarkut]

1) what is the exact way to amke a transparent layer of an image?

1) Click on the left-most icon at the bottom of the Layers window.

2) what do you mean by recreating the selection with the magic wand? -I get the filling in the selection with color part, but what do I do with the magic wand after that to recreate the selection onto another image?

2) Copy the layer you've just filled in:

Ctrl A

Ctrl C

Ctrl D

Next:

Hold down the Ctrl key, and the Alt key,

and press V.

This will copy/paste that layer into its own new file.

Save as a PNG file. Name it SelectionTemplate.

Open your other image and import that PNG file.

In the top menu -

Layers > Import from File.

Click on the filled in solid color with the Magic Wand.

In the Layers window, remove the checkmark from the imported template layer.

Simon types faster than I do.

Both ways will work.

[Killer Rob]

okay guys all set! thanks for hanging in there with me on this, sorry about any confusion or lack of experience on my part. Cool thing is, I was thinking this was a lost cause but sure enough, now I'm able to do exactly what I wanted in the first place so I appreciate the help and you go ahead and take the rest of the day off haha. Seriously, thanks a lot and have a good weekend!

[Sarkut]

Glad you got it sorted.

Edited May 5, 2010 by Sarkut

[csm725]

And also, install the newest version of Paint.NET (Click Help > Check for Updates [?]).