The Saturday Special 4.9.11 – Extracting using the pen tool
Hello ladies
my name is Lina (aka LDrag Designs) and today we are going to talk about extractions.
Extractions are generally my favourite thing and it had been the first thing I tried to do as a scrapper!! It requires some skill but using the pen tool things can be a lot easier especially for a new scrapper!!
Ok, first of all I must tell you that I use CS2 so this tutorial is basically for
photoshop users!!
Many people tell me to use the polygonal laso tool to extract but
due to the fact that if you make a mistake and accidentally press another button or a pop up comes in your page then you lose it all, I had decided to use the pen tool which actually makes the same job if not better!!!. So what is the pen tool?
The pen has many uses, the basic tool is used to create actually a mask on top of your layer! So this is what we are going to do too!!
Here is a pic of my son!! He is a cutie isn’t he?
Well I want to extract this pic and put it in a layout!! He looks as if he is standing behind a window doesn’t he? well that is the idea to put him in the window!!
So I am starting to press the tool exactly as the polygonal laso tool works and I create this mask on top of my photo!
But there comes a point that I can no longer see what I extract! So in order to be able to move the mask behind the pic I have to right click on the layer of the pic and click on the “layer from background” and now I can move my mask below the pic so that I can see where I select!
Now this cannot be done with the polygonal laso tool! Meaning that you cannot stop and start again! But with the pen tool you can! You just click on the last point of your mask that you had selected and the mask will be activated again!
Then you continue until you select all the points around the object you are extracting!!
In order to extract this part only you can just click on the mask and have marching ants running around it and copy paste it on the page!! But I want to do a few things more with it!!
So I go click on the mask and I select it and then
I go SELECT – INVERSE and this way I will cut everything around the selected object!
You must always remember to have you layer from background clear otherwise you will not have a transparent background around the object!
No what I want to do is to smooth some lines along the extracted object!
The purple you see is a another layer I have created below my object in order to see better any imperfections that exist so that I can correct them! See here on his fingers the edges are a little pointy so in order to lose this I use a quite big round eraser brush to smooth them!!
Now look at his curly hair!! They look so pointy!! And so unnatural!! In order to lose this you can use the smudge tool!! And in the place of the hair use a brush of around 30-40!!
Now play a little with the smudge tool and try to move along the direction of the hair to make it look nice!
But I won’t stop using the smudge tool here! I will continue now with a much smaller size brush of about 15 to smudge a little all the edges around my extraction so that it will not look so sharp like it;s been cut off with scissors. This way the outcome will look a little blurry on the edge but on the page it will be great as the shadows will look mush nicer!!
After you finish this you just add the extracted layer in your page and use it as you wish!!
Here is my final page girls !! Hope my tut was really helpful!!
I have used Twitter Me Happy {the kit} and the {wordart} by LDrag Designs!
And here is some amazing pages the girls have made using this tut!
by Chel using GeniaBeana’s Designs Verdant Slendor
by Andrea using Lil’ Explorer by WM[Squared]
by Kim using the NEW Fairytale from The Design Girl and her It’s a Beautiful Day kit
and by Karen using EZ Breezy by Erica Zane
Thank you girls!!! Amazing work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Challenge reminders:
-You will receive one point for posting in The Saturday Special thread HERE & in the The Saturday Special gallery. You can receive an additional point for using new Scrap Matters products; please make a note of new products in your post. And at the end of the month you’ll be entered into a random drawing that could earn you some bonus points!
-You have until the end of April to complete this challenge to earn MOS points.
-Remember no double dipping…your photo and/or layout must be unique to this challenge.
-You don’t have to use Scrap Matters products, but we love it when you do!
Can’t wait to see what you create! Have FUN!!
