3. Click the Nib Shape drop-down list, and then click the 100-pixel-diameter hard nib. Then increase the size of the nib by typing 133 in the Nib Size box, or you can use the elevator buttons to the right of the box to enlarge the nib size. 4. Stroke around the image so the skater is entirely selected. If you’ve gone a little too far, click the Subtractive mode button on the property bar, and stroke over the areas of excess in your selection. Figure 26-5 shows you what your screen should look like. 5. Right-click inside the selection border, and then choose Object: Copy Selection. Note that the toolbox has automatically chosen the Object Pick tool for you now. Also, the marquee lines have disappeared, and selection box handles now are at the edges of the new object. 6. With the Object Pick tool cursor, drag the object from the Skating Claus.cpt document window into the Rink.png image window. 814 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 26-5 Every area you stroke over can be selected. Brush Mask tool ( B) Ill 26-10 7. Close the Skating Claus.cpt document without saving it. 8. Save the Rink.png file as Rink FINAL in PHOTO-PAINT’s native CPT file format. Keep the image open in PHOTO-PAINT. Use the Object Pick tool to increase the window’s size, and then use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom out so you can see all of the fellow in the composition. If you are uncertain about the exact areas you’ve selected with the Brush Mask tool, you can preview the area by using the Mask | Mask Overlay view of your work. By default, the red tint is covering areas that are not selected by your Brush Mask work. Working in the Cutout Lab PHOTO-PAINT’s Cutout Lab is sort of an advanced Mask tool; it provides you with a complete workspace for tracing around the edge of an area you want to integrate with other document objects. However, unlike the other mask tools, the Cutout Lab automatically refines edges that are fuzzy, such as the soft edges of our Santa’s cap and back, as well as producing crisp edges in clearly defined areas. In the steps to follow, you’ll enter the lab and cook up a beautifully refined selection of Santa for the composition. Cutting a Complex Selection 1. If you don’t have the Objects docker open right now, press CTRL+F7. 2. Click the Object 1 entry on the Objects docker list, and then choose Image | Cutout Lab. You can quickly navigate your way around your view by using the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in (push the wheel away from you) and to zoom out (pull the CHAPTER 26: PHOTO-PAINT Effects and Advanced Editing 815 26 wheel toward you). You can also use the shortcut key H to access the Hand tool, and then press the SPACEBAR to return cursor use. 3. Zoom into Santa’s hat. Choose the Highlighter tool, set the Nib Size to 13 pixels in this example, and then choose Black Matte for the moment from the Background drop-down list so you can clearly see the edge of the object. 4. This is the key technique for telling PHOTO-PAINT where to refine the edge of the selection you create: you straddle the edge of your subject—you want to leave a little of the Highlighter both inside and outside the area you define as the edge of your object. Then PHOTO-PAINT will later work on the edge for you, producing refined edges in both soft and sharply contrasting areas where you’ve stroked. Work counterclockwise in this example: start at the cap, stroke along the edge, and if you make a mistake, click the Eraser tool and erase the stroke, and then continue with the Highlighter tool. Figure 26-6 shows the work in progress. 816 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 26-6 Use the Highlighter tool to trace an outline of the intended selection. Highlighter tool Inside Fill tool Eraser tool Straddle the edge 5. Continue tracing at the edge of Santa until you’ve completely outlined him in Highlighter color. When you get to the ropes that Santa’s holding his bag by, completely highlight them. Also, when you arrive at the point where the skate meets a boot, highlight around the negative space—the area through which you can see the background. 6. Click the Background button and then choose None, so you can clearly see Santa’s trousers separated from the background. Click the Inside Fill tool, and then click inside your highlighter boundary. This tells PHOTO-PAINT to leave everything that’s default blue alone. Ill 26-11 7. Click Preview. Your Cutout Lab should look like the following illustration. If some area is grossly missing, you need to choose the Highlighter tool again. The moment you click-drag in the window the preview goes away, and you’re left with your current highlighting work. You will need to fill the highlighted areas again if you do this, and then click Preview. Let’s assume you took your time, and after clicking Preview, the Cutout Lab did pretty well, as shown in the illustration. Your next step is to zoom into the edges and check for any areas that need refining. First, check out the ropes to his sack that Santa is holding. CHAPTER 26: PHOTO-PAINT Effects and Advanced Editing 817 26 Click the Preview button. Change Background to None. Ill 26-12 8. Learn to leverage the power of the Background drop-down list. First, change the Background to Gray so you can clearly see contrast around the ropes. If areas outside the ropes need removing, click the Remove Detail tool, and use it as you would an eraser or a brush tool. Stroke around the areas that shouldn’t show, and the tool gently and smoothly hides these areas. If you’re missing an area of the rope, click the Add Detail tool, and stroke over the missing areas. You might need to unhide areas and then hide them again, working with the Add and Remove Detail tools. 9. When you arrive at the hat area, switch to Black as the Background color: always use a Background that provides color contrast with the edge of your subject, as shown next. 818 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide Ill 26-13 10. Pan around the entire silhouette of Santa, and only when you’ve corrected all the edge work, click OK, and Cutout Lab makes a permanent change to the object, and only Edit | Undo can restore the object. 11. Press CTRL+S; keep the file open. Final Edits Although you have a pretty good view in Cutout Lab of how the edge work looks compared in the Gray, Black, and other Background views, the proof is in the pudding. You need to check and perhaps correct a few areas now that you can see Santa against the turtle pond picture. Santa also needs to be scaled down almost by half his current dimensions, but there’s an important reason to do this last. When you erase part of an object—by using the Cutout Lab, the Eraser tool, or other device—you aren’t changing the resolution of the object. However, when you scale an object, you’re removing pixels from or adding them to the entire object, pixel colors will shift as part of any bitmap scaling, and frequently the editing becomes obvious if you later try to edit a scaled object. So first in the following tutorial, you’ll erase any stray areas that weren’t removed in Cutout Lab, and then scale Santa to fit in his new skating rink as a final edit. CHAPTER 26: PHOTO-PAINT Effects and Advanced Editing 819 26 Erasing and Scaling the Object 1. Choose the Eraser tool from the toolbox. In this example, the default soft 10-pixel- diameter tip works well. When you erase in an image that is a background only image (such as a JPEG), you erase to the current background color. However, when you erase object areas, they erase to transparent. 2. Zoom into the skate area, where the color of the skate is nearly the same as the ice in the original photo—probably the Cutout Lab didn’t catch an area or two. 3. Take your time; erasures are destructive—permanent! Slowly stroke around the outside edge of the skate, as shown here, if this proves to be an unwanted area. Ill 26-14 4. Work this way: zoom in or out of the object using the mouse wheel. As you erase and finish an area, press H to toggle to the Hand tool and move your view. If an area needs attention, press the SPACEBAR to return to the last-used tool (the Eraser), do your work, and then press the SPACEBAR again to access the Hand tool. Work your view around the perimeter of Santa, and then press CTRL+S when you’re done. 820 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide 5. Scaling an object proportionately can be done one of two ways: by using the percentage spin boxes when Scale Transform (and Maintain Ratio) are active on the property bar, or by directly click-dragging the object control handles. When you click the down button for Scale percentage, you get live feedback, but the exact amount of scaling needs to be determined by watching what’s happening in the document. Santa is currently a little more than 20" tall, and he needs to be about 12", which is about 60% of the original height. You could type 60 in the percentage box, but this value can’t really be discovered, so let’s use the interactive control handles surrounding Santa instead for immediate visual feedback. With the Object Pick tool chosen, zoom out so you can see all of Santa, and then drag the document window edges away from the document center to reveal all the control handles around the object. 6. Click either Move or the Scale transform buttons on the property bar, and then, holding SHIFT to scale from the center inward, drag a corner control handle until you judge that Santa is comfortably scaled to fit into the composition. If necessary, begin by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+R to display rulers, and then stop shrinking Santa when you see that he’s about 12" tall. Ill 26-15 CHAPTER 26: PHOTO-PAINT Effects and Advanced Editing 821 26 Handles Turtle Scale Maintain Ratio 7. You might feel Santa needs a little rotating counterclockwise to look more appropriate— balanced, literally and compositionally—within the document. Click the object with the Object Pick tool while Santa is selected to put the object into Rotate/Skew mode, and then drag a corner rotation handle just a little in a counterclockwise direction. Figure 26-7 shows the composition nearing completion. 8. Press CTRL+S, and leave the document open. Adding a Reflection Santa Claus hasn’t quite come to town in the composition—notice that the turtle is casting a reflection, and Mr. Claus should, too. Fortunately, Santa was photographed at about the same camera height as that used with the rest of the scene, so a copy of the object can be successfully mirrored and superimposed below him. The next tutorial shows how to disproportionately scale a copy of the object and to mirror it horizontally using only the object control handles. Then you’ll add transparency so the copy fades out at the bottom of the composition, and finally you’ll learn how to blur the copy a little so it looks appropriate but is a little hard for the audience to closely examine for trickery. 822 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 26-7 Use the Transform controls on the property bar for moving, scaling, and rotating an object. Putting someone in a scene and not simply on top of one is the distinction between photo retouching and just another humorous picture. Here’s how to add a reflection that serves as a binding element to tie all the components of the composition seamlessly together: Santa Needs to Do Some Personal Reflecting 1. The fastest way to duplicate an object so it occupies the same position in a document is to drag its title on the Objects docker to on top of the New Object button. Click the Santa object entry on the docker so it’s the currently selected object, and then drag so that the new object is the top entry on the Objects docker now. Then click the bottom object entry—labeled “Background”—to make it the current active object. Ill 26-16 CHAPTER 26: PHOTO-PAINT Effects and Advanced Editing 823 26 New Object button . window into the Rink.png image window. 814 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 2 6-5 Every area you stroke over can be selected. Brush Mask tool ( B) Ill 2 6-1 0 7. Close the Skating Claus.cpt document. stroke, and then continue with the Highlighter tool. Figure 2 6-6 shows the work in progress. 816 CorelDRAW X5 The Official Guide FIGURE 2 6-6 Use the Highlighter tool to trace an outline of the intended. 3. Click the Nib Shape drop-down list, and then click the 100-pixel-diameter hard nib. Then increase the size of the nib by typing 133 in the Nib