Tutorial
Click on thumbnailed images to enlarge
Character extraction has become one of the main things to know when making a layout or wallpaper. With this we can remove the whole background to an image leaving the character alone to put another background. This also allows us to add more effects to an image that we couldn't do without extracting.
There are many ways to extract a character and you can use different tools for it (Eraser tool, Lasso tool & etc..).
I'm going to show you how to extract a character using the: Pen Tool.
First, open the image you want to extract and paste it on a new PSD document:
[Ctrl+A, Edit >> Copy]
Next you make a new document and set background as Transparent.
Next you: [Edit >> Paste]
Now take the Pen Tool:
Set the properties for the pen tool as shown:
We'll now keep adding anchor points to the image, right on the border of it, on the parts we want to take off. It may be useful if you Zoom the image a lot, just like I did. The pen tool is quite similar as the polygonal lasso tool (though this can be changed using some pen options but we won't be using them at the moment) so make sure you put the anchors next to each other or the extracted image will look too polygonal.
Once you're done with an area (it doesn't have to be the whole image), right click and click on "Make Selection". A box will pop-up. Then, set the feather as 0 and Anti-aliased as showed below.
Now it should look like this:
Now press: [Ctrl+X]
Since there are still some left overs, you should use the Erase Tool or the Pen Tool for some clean up. :wink:
Make this with all the parts you want to take off the image until you're done with all of them, just like below. Happy Extracting!!
There are many ways to extract a character and you can use different tools for it (Eraser tool, Lasso tool & etc..).
I'm going to show you how to extract a character using the: Pen Tool.
First, open the image you want to extract and paste it on a new PSD document:
[Ctrl+A, Edit >> Copy]
Next you make a new document and set background as Transparent.
Next you: [Edit >> Paste]
Now take the Pen Tool:
Set the properties for the pen tool as shown:
We'll now keep adding anchor points to the image, right on the border of it, on the parts we want to take off. It may be useful if you Zoom the image a lot, just like I did. The pen tool is quite similar as the polygonal lasso tool (though this can be changed using some pen options but we won't be using them at the moment) so make sure you put the anchors next to each other or the extracted image will look too polygonal.
Once you're done with an area (it doesn't have to be the whole image), right click and click on "Make Selection". A box will pop-up. Then, set the feather as 0 and Anti-aliased as showed below.
Now it should look like this:
Now press: [Ctrl+X]
Since there are still some left overs, you should use the Erase Tool or the Pen Tool for some clean up. :wink:
Make this with all the parts you want to take off the image until you're done with all of them, just like below. Happy Extracting!!
Tutorial Comments
Showing latest 2 of 2 comments
Wow, thank you!
By cereazlinda on Nov 19, 2007 1:16 am
wat do u do if u dont have the anchor point ur talkng about?
By lilia on May 25, 2007 5:38 pm
