Art [T] Transparent Backgrounds [A]

[Riku]

[CENTER][SIZE=1][FONT=Tahoma][COLOR=Purple]Every now and then, you see pictures with a unique background of it's own and probably thought, "OMG!!1 I've seen that picture before, but on a different background! How do they do that?!"

Well, boys and girls, this tutorial will teach you two different ways how to remove a background from the picture and making it transparent, thus putting the picture on your own work. So, onto the magic making!! *insert applause here*[/COLOR]

[U][B]Version One[/B][/U]

1. First, open whatever graphic program you always use. I'm using Photoshop 7.0, but you can probably do this on any other Photoshop program (PSP people, I don't know if you can do this on that program, but you probably could). Now, open whatever picture you would like to have a transparent background. Since it's Christmas time and I feel KH obssessed, I'll use this picture of Santa Sora.


[IMG]http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5376/1os2.png[/IMG]

2. Now before you do any cool things, you'll have to do a bit of duplicating. Some pictures are on a layer called Background, and is locked so you can't move it. All you do to remedy this is duplicate the Background layer (ctrl- J), click on the four- way arrow on the duplicate to unlock postion (allowing it to move), and delete the Background layer (click either the trash can at the bottom of the Layers window or click Layer -> Delete -> Layer) and wah- lah! You can now do whatever you want with it!

[IMG]http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2793/2sp3.png[/IMG]

3. With all that done, it is time to do the magical part. Somce picture, such as this one, are easier than most because of it's white, simple background. There isn't any other crap that the Wand Tool can select. So, in this case, put a new layer under the picture so you can see what's going on, select the Wand Tool, click on the white background, causing it to select every thing but Sora. Now press the backspace button....

[IMG]http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/7135/3nz3.png[/IMG]

And wah- lah!! You get a picture with no background!!

[B][URL=http://img91.imageshack.us/my.php?image=santasora1ri5.gif]Holy Night Santa Sora[/URL] [/B]

...but with a few holes in Sora's pants and such where the sonwflakes used to be. This occasionally happens when parts of the picture blend with the background. But, do not fret! That was only one way to cut out the background, which is more simpler than this one, but promises to cut out the picture all the way.

[U][B]Version Two[/B][/U]

1. I opened a new Santa Sora picture with a background to let me see what I want to cut out. So, if you do this, do everything in the above tutorial until selecting the Wand Tool. Instead, we will select the lasso tool, which helps you out a lot more. Fine the Lasso button and hold it down until other options come up. Then pick the Polygonal Lasso Tool.

[IMG]http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/2897/4pg6.png[/IMG]

2. Again, add a new layer under your picture. Then, zoom into your picture until it's big enough to see your picture pixelated. This makes it easier to hie your mistakes and such. Now, with the Polygonal Lasso tool, start to go around your desired picture with it, slowly and carefully so you won't mess up.

3. When you've finally selected a little bit, connect the lines together and click to select the part you want cut off. If you want to see what you've cut more clearly, zoom out and press the backspace button to delete it. Now some part of your picture is transparent! Continue to do this until you have cut out the whole background around the picture.

[IMG]http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/955/5fw0.png[/IMG]


And tah- da! You are now finally done cutting your picture out... thus letting it have a transparent background! Now all that's left is to save...

*If you want your picture to be transparent, you [B]MUST[/B] always save it as a .GIF file. .GIF files keep the transparency safe and sound so you can do whatever you want with the background.

*Click Save- As, name your picture whatever you want and choose the .GIF file to save. Then, another little box will come up, so make sure you have these settings. (Also, this is the settings on my computer and it always works, so you can do whatever you want.)

[B]>Palette[/B]: Make sure this is on Local (Selective)
[B]>Colors[/B]: 256
[B]>Forced[/B]: None
[B]>Trasparency Box Checked[/B]
[B]>Matte[/B]: Whatever color background you want it to be. (For the OB, the color number is # EDEDED.)
[B]>Dither[/B]: None

And there you have it!! In the end, you get this result...
[IMG]http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1357/santasora2hu3.gif[/IMG]



If you have any more questions, comments, concerns or anything else, just ask me in this thread and I will help you to my fullest extent. If you'd also like to post what you've done from this tutorial and would like to show me, go ahead nad post it here! I would love to see what you've done.

I hope that this tutorial answered your questions and helped you out so you can have your pictures on a cool transparent background.[/FONT][/SIZE][/CENTER]

[Delta]

[COLOR=#656446]Had I looked at this thread earlier, I never would've crammed the Magic Wand/Lasso Tool part of my tutorial. XD

Wonderful job, KW! You even listed what specs to check/uncheck after saving. I have a suggestion: perhaps you could include saving transparent images as .png files?[/COLOR]