Cardia on 29/1/2016 at 20:48
Yes Russ, i want to be able to do these myself, i don´t like to be dependent on other to do things that i can do in a short time since i have alot of free time compared with most of you guys that have jobs and families to take care, but i can´t seem to find the right tuturial for this tranparency setting, and i feel ashamed to bring out this ignorance since i took a degree in Photography.
as for the first door, i just want a transparent background for the white metal trim.
Yandros on 29/1/2016 at 21:16
Quote Posted by Cardia
Yes Russ, i want to be able to do these myself, i don´t like to be dependent on other to do things that i can do in a short time since i have alot of free time compared with most of you guys that have jobs and families to take care, but i can´t seem to find the right tuturial for this tranparency setting, and i feel ashamed to bring out this ignorance since i took a degree in Photography.
No need to feel ashamed here, we're a family and are here to teach and learn. I'll put together a tutorial of how I make the white metal trim from the first door to see if it will help you start learning it. I've always found that experience is the best teacher, though - just diving in and trying to figure things out is the best way to learn. :)
Quote Posted by Cardia
as for the first door, i just want a transparent background for the white metal trim.
I know that, but do you mean the metal at the top only (with background behind it), or also the two diamond-shaped white metal trims on the wood itself?
Cardia on 29/1/2016 at 21:34
Thank you for making a tuturial for me, i have photoshop cs3 , the part i want transparency in the background is inside the yellow circle:
Inline Image:
http://s17.postimg.org/bp5wt4vlr/MG_5515_001.jpgYes after so many years here at ttlg i guess i could say this is my second family, i have met alot of people throught the last years and i lost contact with them, but with you guys i am still in contact and i hope to remain for many years here :D
R Soul on 29/1/2016 at 22:41
Automatic selection tools are sometimes useful but usually the results leave a lot to be desired. When I have transparency work to do, I often do it manually. It takes a long time but it's much more satisfying.
There are several ways, all of which require the layer to have an alpha channel. I don't have Photoshop so I can't tell you how to do these things, but you should be able to look them up.
The simplest way is to use the eraser, but it's hard to to sharp corners; try erasing the inside of a narrow triangle.
(I use GIMP, which has an anti-erase tool, making that quite easy)
You can use the selection tools to draw around an area, then just press Delete. They tend to be suitable for images with regular shapes or straight lines.
You can give your layer a 'mask'. A mask is a greyscale image that sets the transparency, but you can draw on it with the regular brushes. Draw with black to make an area fully transparent, white to make it opaque (the mask is usually fully white be default), or any shade of grey to have partial transparency.
A harder but more flexible method is to use the Paths tool, which is very good for drawing smooth curves using a few points you create with clicking and dragging. Each point has a set of handles that affect the curve's shape, and the sharpness of each corner. You can create a path, convert it to a selection and then press Delete. So paths are more complicated, but you can tweak them to correct mistakes before you make the selection.
Or you can combine paths with masks. Add a mask, draw a path on it, convert it to a selection and use the flood fill tool to paint it black.
You also need a good source image. It helps if it's sharp and not too heavliy distorted by perspective. The example you posted has a couple of problems; it's blurred and the metal pattern extends beyond the edge of the picture. You'll have to select it, shrink it horizontally, then fill the gap by cloning from one of the other metal pieces.
Yandros on 29/1/2016 at 22:44
Good points there, R Soul. I was planning to grab just the one iteration with all white background, repeat it 4x and then work with the copies to make them not obviously copies.
john9818a on 30/1/2016 at 17:33
In psp there is a tool that can be used to select an area inside those iron bars, then cut, then fill with the transparency color, select again, copy, then paste the result into similar areas all without messing with the iron bars themselves.
It's hard to see on my phone but are those images' dimensions usable in Thief? To me they look like they have a 1 to 2.5 ratio instead of 1 to 2 like 128x256 but I could be wrong.
Dev_Anj on 31/1/2016 at 03:05
Good job Necrobob. Can I steal it?
ZylonBane on 31/1/2016 at 13:39
I'm really hoping you're aware those bricks are rotated wrong.
