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Ife 2 PDF
Ife 2 PDF
Masking
Michael Cervantes
Michael Cervantes is a Corel C-Tech volunteer, CorelDRAW Certified Expert, and
Certified Instructor. He graduated from the Southern Institute of Business and Technology
in Dallas, Texas. In addition to being a desktop publisher, Michael has been a freelance
graphic artist since 1989. He has published several articles about CorelDRAW and
Corel PHOTO-PAINT, and he routinely helps Corel users in the Corel newsgroups.
Michael was a contributing author to CorelDRAW 10: The Official Guide and other
publications.
The most important and efficient Corel PHOTO-PAINT masking technique is the clip mask. What
is a clip mask, and how does it work? Imagine a transparent piece of paper placed over a
photograph. You can paint over this paper with a magic ink that adds transparency to the
underlying photograph or subtracts transparency from it. The advantage of this method is that
the ink does not dry until you are satisfied with your work, and only then do the changes
become permanent. The original image is kept intact, because you are not painting directly over
the photograph.
Why is this so fantastic? First, the technique is nondestructive; second, you can use almost all
Corel PHOTO-PAINT tools and effects while working on the mask; third, changes are displayed
immediately; and fourth, you can apply or discard the clip mask whenever you want.
The clip mask is associated with an object, which is why you should convert the background to
an object if you want to use a clip mask on it. Converting the background to an object is not a
problem, because you can combine any object or layer with the background whenever
necessary, even if the background is clip-masked.
In addition to providing useful tips about working with clip masks, this tutorial also gives you
some general tips about masking. You will learn some techniques that will help you increase
your productivity and improve the quality of your masks. Learning these methods is the first step
in improving your masking technique.
1 Open the sample image in Corel PHOTO-PAINT (locate the file strawberries.tif in the
folder Program Files\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4\Tutorial files). If necessary,
choose To fit from the zoom level list box on the property bar.
Figure 1: The red outline shows that the clip mask is active.
7 Now a magic moment: Open the Gaussian blur dialog box (from the menu bar, click
Effects ` Blur ` Gaussian blur), and play with the Radius slider until the image borders
appear with a soft transition from solid to transparent.
8 We want to return the right side of the image to normal (hard edge) while keeping a soft
border for the other three sides. To do this, activate the Paint tool (press the P key, or click
the Paint tool in the toolbox), and select Airbrush from the Paint tool picker on the
property bar. Click the Open advanced options button on the property bar to expand
the advanced options, and set brush Transparency to 95. Set Foreground color to white
(click the White swatch on the color palette), and paint on the right side of the image. The
edges are now complete (Figure 2).
The process is simple: you invert the image luminosity, so that what is white changes to black,
and what is black changes to white. The black area of the mask protects the highlights, and the
white area exposes the shadows to changes and gradually exposes the rest of the image. Study
the following example to see how this works.
1 Open the sample image with Corel PHOTO-PAINT (locate the file
seaside_village_shadows.tif in the folder Program Files\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics
Suite X4\Tutorial files). If necessary, choose To fit from the zoom level list box on the
property bar.
2 Duplicate the image (click Image ` Duplicate).
3 Convert the duplicate to Lab Color mode by clicking Image ` Convert to ` Lab color (24
bit).
4 Press Alt + 1 to open the Channels docker and activate the Lightness channel (or from the
menu bar, click Window ` Dockers ` Channels, and then click Lightness channel).
5 Copy the Lightness channel to the Clipboard (press Ctrl + C, or from the menu bar, click
Edit ` Copy).
12 Deactivate Paint on mask mode (press Ctrl + K, or from the menu bar, click Mask `
Paint on mask).
13 Create a clip mask on the Enhanced object by right-clicking the Enhanced thumbnail
in the Objects docker and choosing Create clip mask ` From mask.
Note: You can also invert a mask by right-clicking the thumbnail and choosing Create clip
mask ` From inverted mask.
1 Open the sample image with Corel PHOTO-PAINT (locate the file
seaside_village_detail.tif in the folder Program Files\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
X4\Tutorial files). If necessary, choose To fit from the zoom level list box on the property
bar.
2 The main color you want in the sky is cyan, and the unwanted color is yellow. If you want
to mask the sky, the channel to look at is the yellow channel. Press Alt + 3 to activate the
yellow channel, or click Yellow channel in the Channels docker. This channel shows an
almost perfect mask for the sky (Figure 7).
3 Copy the yellow channel to the Clipboard (press Ctrl + C, or from the menu bar, click
Edit ` Copy).
4 Select the composite channel (press Alt + 0, or click the CMYK channel in the Channels
docker).
5 Activate Paint on mask mode by pressing Ctrl + K or clicking Mask ` Paint on mask
from the menu bar.
6 Click Edit ` Paste ` Paste as new selection to paste the mask from the Clipboard.
7 Deactivate Paint on mask mode (press Ctrl + K, or from the menu bar, click Mask `
Paint on mask).
8 Import a photo of a sky that you want to use for the background. To do this, press Ctrl + I,
or from the menu bar, click File ` Import. Locate the file sky.tif in the folder Program
Files\Corel\CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4\Tutorial files. Drag the sky object, as necessary,
so that it covers the original sky area.
9 Create a clip mask in the new sky object by using the current mask (right-click the sky
object thumbnail in the Objects docker, and choose Create clip mask ` From mask).
You can also create the clip mask by clicking Object ` Clip mask ` Create ` From mask
from the menu bar.
10 The main problem with the original sky was the lack of cyan. Change the merge mode of
the sky object to cyan (right-click the thumbnail of the sky object in the Objects docker,
click Properties, select Cyan from the Merge list box, and click OK).
13 Open the Info docker by clicking Window ` Dockers ` Info. Move the cursor over the
sky area while reading the color values in the Info docker. The values show that the sky
has almost no magenta. To add magenta, duplicate the sky object (right-click the objects
name in the Objects docker, and choose Duplicate selected), and then change the
merge mode of the duplicate object to magenta (right-click the thumbnail of the object in
the Objects docker, click Properties, and select Magenta from the Merge list box).
Decrease the objects opacity, and click OK.
14 The sea area also needs enhancement. Activate the object that has cyan as the merge
mode, and duplicate it (right-click the objects name in the Objects docker, and choose
Duplicate selected).
15 Discard the clip mask from the new object by right-clicking the clip mask icon and selecting
Remove clip mask. Move the object down to cover the sea, and change the object's
opacity to approximately 10%.
16 Create a clip mask to hide the object. To do this, right-click the original sky object
thumbnail in the Objects docker, and choose Create clip mask ` To hide all.
17 Activate the Paint tool (press P), click the white color swatch on the color palette, and
brush over the sea to let the cyan come up through the clip mask.
When used properly, Corel PHOTO-PAINT is a friendly and capable tool. Remember: when a
mask is needed, the first step is not necessarily to activate a masking tool, but to take a good
look at the channels.
Copyright 2007 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks or registered trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.