The Photoshop Q&A Centre.

[LXM-Designs]

Well, I figured this might be handy for all upcoming PS-ers among us, so I made this little thread where you can ask all your photoshop questions. Me, myself and other more advanced digital artists will glady answer all your questions.

GL HF! :D

[d00d]

What is PS? PlayStation?

[LXM-Designs]

Photoshop. *gasp*

[TheBB]

Jesus ... read the post ...

Well, I figured this might be handy for all upcoming PS-ers among us, so I made this little thread where you can ask all your photoshop questions. Me, myself and other more advanced digital artists will glady answer all your questions.

[LXM-Designs]

He knew, he was just acting stupid.

[GrassDragon]

I'm having trouble extracting characters from images (a night elf from a War3 background for example). For some reason when I outline the whole thing fill it (in the extract window) and then see what it looks like, there are holes in the character. Can someone help me or point me to a tutorial?

[LXM-Designs]

Holes? O_o Yould always take the eraser tool, zoom in quite a bit and delete the background surrounding the character.

[Markpyro]

How do u guy afford PS? i have always wanted it but i have no idea how i can make that much money, and i dont have any jobs and probobly wont get any for a year or 2. Any suggestions?

[ZeroDarkStar]

Some don't buy it, if you get what I mean. ^_~

I got mine through my father.

[LXM-Designs]

I got mine free from some guy. What's his name again?
Ah, I remember. Lite was his name! K. Lite.. or something... ;P

[Vhaeraun]

How do u guy afford PS? i have always wanted it but i have no idea how i can make that much money, and i dont have any jobs and probobly wont get any for a year or 2. Any suggestions?

One word: KAZAA

[ZeroDarkStar]

One word: KAZAA

I guess the word "subtle" isn't in your vocabulary. ^_^

[Vhaeraun]

what does that mean? hmmmmmmmm


/me ponders what subtle means.

[Battlecruiser]

Nice thread, I was thinking of starting one myself. Anyway, I have a question. Can the measurement unit in the ruler in photoshop be changed from inches to pixels?

[ZeroDarkStar]

Edit->Preferences->Units & Rulers-> Ruler.

[Vhaeraun]

I am still trying to get Photoshop. One Problem tho: Dial-Up.

I need PS...


/me lights up.

I KNOW! Someone send me PS via Gmail! Perfect!

[Battlecruiser]

Edit->Preferences->Units & Rulers-> Ruler.
Thanks ZDS, I actually didn't think you could change that, but good thing you can. Now I will be able to use the ruler more efficiently.

[Nahotnoj]

I am still trying to get Photoshop. One Problem tho: Dial-Up.

I need PS...


* Vhaeraun lights up.

I KNOW! Someone send me PS via Gmail! Perfect!
*cough*

WB doesnt support illegal DLs/war3z etc.

being subtle and learnign word tricks are good if you know what i mean...

ahem.

[TheBB]

Edit->Preferences->Units & Rulers-> Ruler.

The correct answer to his question, however, would be "yes, it's possible". ;)

[ZeroDarkStar]

The correct answer to his question, however, would be "yes, it's possible". ;)

You know not to correct me! :P

[Vhaeraun]

*cough*

WB doesnt support illegal DLs/war3z etc.

being subtle and learnign word tricks are good if you know what i mean...

ahem.
Technically, Kazaa is not illegal; it is a P2P program.

[Nahotnoj]

Technically, Kazaa is not illegal; it is a P2P program.
well i was talking about that "send me PS over gmail"

i dont understand kazaa anyway. or b|tt0rr3nt either for that matter.

[Markpyro]

*ahem* ummm.... limewire is.... umm a name *ahem* I wonder if people *ahem* like *ahem* to download *ahem* PS over in that place i never use.... *ahem*


there is nothing below this line right here.





can i DL PS on Limewire and be able to use it?

[TheBB]

Why are you guys getting so worked up about this legal stuff?

Yes, you can presumably download PS off Limewire and use it afterwards. It may not be altogether easy, however.

[Whiteknight]

I'm having trouble extracting characters from images (a night elf from a War3 background for example). For some reason when I outline the whole thing fill it (in the extract window) and then see what it looks like, there are holes in the character. Can someone help me or point me to a tutorial?
I usually just use quick mask to seperate something from the rest of the picture using the soft edge brush. It's pretty much my preference, though, probably because I learned it first.

Are you sure you are doing the extract process right? List the steps you do.

[GrassDragon]

I figured out what was wrong. I was using the "smart marker" or whatever it's called, but the edges weren't "defined" enough so it was outlining a little off.

What's a quick mask and how do you use it to separate character from background?

[King_Templar]

What is a mask? Ok, so i'm not a PS-Expert. Anyway, i have ps 6.0. Also, how would i go about making realistic cloth?

[BSTRhino]

A mask is another word for a selection.

In the ancient non-digital days, if people wanted to paint on an area that's a certain shape, what they'd do was get out their masking tape and use it to cover the edges of the area so the paint didn't run amok and ruin the shape. That's where the word mask comes from in graphic design, it simply a means of deciding where you want the paint to run and not to run. In other words, it's a selection.

It also has a huge number of other cool features that masking tape couldn't do as well, check them out. Masking is one of the most useful things in photoshop.

I think that quick mask is a bit of a unobvious name. I'd like to call it a transparency brush. What it does is it applies transparency to areas of your image, and you can change the transparency later. It's used a lot of the time instead of the eraser, because all you're doing is making an area invisible, instead of getting rid of it. In other words, the area you make transparent is still there for you to 'untransparent' later if need be.

I'm not sure if you can use Quick Mask to extract things out of backgrounds. I mean, if it works like a Transparency Brush as I thought, it wouldn't make selections.

What I would do to extract something out of a background would be to outline it, with the lasso, then feather the mask slightly, then copy the selection to a new layer. The feathering step I think is important so that the edges don't look rough or pixelated, and if done right you won't notice it. However, that's a personal thing, you guys can make your own conclusions about feathering.

[Whiteknight]

A mask is another word for a selection.

In the ancient non-digital days, if people wanted to paint on an area that's a certain shape, what they'd do was get out their masking tape and use it to cover the edges of the area so the paint didn't run amok and ruin the shape. That's where the word mask comes from in graphic design, it simply a means of deciding where you want the paint to run and not to run. In other words, it's a selection.

It also has a huge number of other cool features that masking tape couldn't do as well, check them out. Masking is one of the most useful things in photoshop.

I think that quick mask is a bit of a unobvious name. I'd like to call it a transparency brush. What it does is it applies transparency to areas of your image, and you can change the transparency later. It's used a lot of the time instead of the eraser, because all you're doing is making an area invisible, instead of getting rid of it. In other words, the area you make transparent is still there for you to 'untransparent' later if need be.
Umm... no? That's what we call layers and that little eye button :P

Quick mask is just a selection tool, that you can use instead of the lasso tool and has quite useful applications. It doesn't transparent the pixels, it only selects them and you can do with them as you please. You can't get them back using the quick mask unless there is some hidden feature I've been missing out on.

http://www.arraich.com/ps_tips_g1.htm - Explains the quick mask tool and some of its uses.

[BSTRhino]

heh... I learnt that of ZeroDarkStar. *looks at ZDS* ZDS, I thought the quick mask made things transparent and untransparent?

[TheBB]

For the sake of the english language, it's "opaque" and not "untransparent". :P

[GrassDragon]

http://www.arraich.com/ps_tips_g1.htm - Explains the quick mask tool and some of its uses.
Thank you so much for this page. Exactly what I was looking for; now I just have to try it :D

[ZeroDarkStar]

heh... I learnt that of ZeroDarkStar. *looks at ZDS* ZDS, I thought the quick mask made things transparent and untransparent?

The Quick Mask is a sort of "sub-layer" that attaches itself to a layer. It does exactly that: masks the layer, keeping the original data, but making it transparent when you paint over it in black, or refilling it in white. It's a sort of double tool, allowing you to extract, blend, and erase things, if you never convert back to Standard Mask, or, if you do convert back, works much like a lasso tool.

Both of you are right in this instance, just Whiteknight doesn't do things half-assed like I do. ^_~

If you want to see how I use the Quick Mask (as a powerful blending tool) see my work: Macrocosmos (http://www.yoxio.com/img/65654.jpg). The large planet with the rings was blended into the mountains and clouds using only the Quick Mask feature.

EDIT: Bah, I'm thinking of the Layer Mask. =\

[LXM-Designs]

Edit->Preferences->Units & Rulers-> Ruler.
Hotkey = ALT+R

[IceFlare]

View > Show > Extras the tools here come in handy if you know how to use it.... look @lxms sig and a good use for the ruler