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stallion
Very Respected Poster
Joined: 22 Jan 2005
Posts: 203
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 Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:54 pm Post subject: Cutouts - Photoshop Tutorial |
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Not to bash anyone but I've noticed that most people who work with photoshop don't do a very good job with their cutouts. I'll show you one of the methods that the professionals use for cutouts... using the Pen Tool. Now, if you want to follow along, download the Pretty Virgins image and open it up in Photoshop.
tinypic.com/view.php?pic=w1fqrt&s=4
Okay, let's get started. This tutorial assumes that you have a copy of Photoshop installed on your computer. You should be able to follow along with any version of photoshop that has the pen tool.
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STEP 1:
On the bottom right of Photoshop, there's what's called the Layer Palette. Double click on the layer entitled "Background". Then hit OK on the dialog box that pops up. That serves to unlock that layer so we can do all the edits we need and also our cutout will be its own layer when we're done.
STEP 2:
Zoom in closely to the pic because this is a detailed work. You need to see the pixels well. 400% is good.
STEP 3:
Now in the toolbar on the left hand side of Photoshop is the Pen Tool. Select that, then at the top of the screen make sure you're have "Paths" selected. We're going to be tracing a path around what we want to cut out... in this case... the girl in the pic.
STEP 4:
Now we're going to do a quick, rough trace around her. You don't need to take much time to do this. This should take less than a minute. Stay a couple of pixels inside the edge of the girl in the pic. You're placing points at the natural corners of what you're tracing. As you place the each point, straight lines will automatically appear between them. Don't worry about them being straight because we're going to make them curvy in the next step. Don't use too many points. Generally the more points you have the more accurate you can be, but it takes more work and time. We want to be accurate, but this is also supposed to be relatively quick. So, you don't want too many or too few. That's why I suggested to put the points at the natural 'corners' of whatever you're tracing.
STEP 5:
When you make a complete trace all the way around the girl, you will end off by click on the first point you created. When it's done your trace should look like this. Zoom out and take a look at it. If you didn't trace the open area between her legs then don't worry about it. You can do that later. You can just repeat the process for that area after you're done.
STEP 6:
Using the shoe as an example, we're going to be editing the curves between points in the path. Make sure you still have the pen tool selected. Hold down the Alt key then click and hold on one of the points... then drag away from the point. You'll see that you are pulling out handles from the point. Pull them out and move it around to see how you can manipulate the curve of the line on either side of the point. As you move it you'll notice that you're moving BOTH of the handles at the same time. Now let go of the handles, then Alt + Click just one of them, and you can manipulate that one by itself. That way you are only manipulating the curve on the one side of the point. Fit the curve close to match the edge of the shoe, on both sides of the point. Then, move to the next point and do the same. You're going to do this all the way around until you've got an accurate path tracing the girl. This is the part that takes the longest. The more time you spend here the better the end result will be.
Alternately you can hold down the CTRL key and Click & Drag a point to move it.
NOTE: If you make a mistake, then hit CTRL + Z to undo.
STEP 7:
This is basically what you want your trace to look like at this step. You can see how many points I used. I used too many points, so you don't want to emulate me exactly. But, then again, you don't want to take forever figuring out exactly where to put the points.
STEP 8:
Now it's time to take our path and do something with it. Making sure that the Pen Tool is still selected, right click on any part of the path then "Make Selection."
STEP 9:
Now you're done with the Pen Tool and you can zoom out. See now all the points are gone and you are left with a selection around the girl. But we want to change that and get rid of the background.
STEP 10:
img224.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=50166_Step10_123_491lo.jpg
At the top, in the menu, go to "Select" then "Inverse." That will change the selection from the girl to the background. With the background selected you can easily get rid of it by hitting the DELETE key.
STEP 11:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=21kwcxf&s=4
Then you're done. You should have a nice, clean, sharp-edged cutout. Granted, hair can be a really tricky thing to cutout. There are different methods of cutting out hair. Depending on how the hair is styled, you'll want to switch to a different method. But, I'll leave all that for another tutorial in the future (if I get enough demand for it). Now, with your fresh cutout, you can do whatever you want with it. Have fun experimenting. |
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flarejet
Respected VIP club member
Joined: 28 Nov 2007
Posts: 531
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow, USA
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| Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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WOW thanks for the tips that will make things alot easier.
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He who laughs last, thinks slowest. |
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GrumpyOne
Respected VIP club member
Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 709
Location: Grumpytown
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| Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:35 pm Post subject: Excellent tutorial! |
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Well put together tutorial.
I use a similar technique in some of my work, but I find that it works better for some artwork than for others. If one is not careful, the image is so crisp, that it looks as if it were cut out with scissors and pasted to the background and the overall result does not look right.
I find I have to clean up the edges a bit with both the eraser and history tool to smooth things out, and finally apply a 2 - 3 pixel gaussian blur at a 70% - 80% transparency on a copy of the original in a layer below the image to blend the image with the background.
As for the hair. I totally agree. That takes a lot of work to get it to look right. |
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Abraxas
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Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 2303
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Nfan
VIP club member
Joined: 31 May 2006
Posts: 327
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| Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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Great, i see some tutourials!
Have someone another side where it give so things?
In german language?
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