Teach Yourself
CorelDRAW 8 in 24 Hours
So far I have covered only a small fraction of all the features in PHOTO-PAINT. Even the features that I have covered have not been covered in their entirety, but I leave the exploring and experimenting to you. The same can be said for the new features I introduce to you in this chapter. After reading a section, be sure to experiment with the new things that you learn. In this way, you can remember the things learned and discover new techniques, effects, and shortcuts.
This chapter covers much more about masks as well as some clipping features. So let's have some fun.
Just A Minute: After reading this last hour on PHOTO-PAINT, you may want more information about image manipulation and working with filters and other special effects. If so, visit the companion web site at http://www.ppinet.com/TYCD824.htm.
If you recall from Hour 21, the mask tools define the area of an image that is editable and apply a mask to the rest of the image, thus effectively protecting the rest of the image. To create an object from an editable area, choose Object | Create and then choose the type of object creation.
To view a mask, select the Show Mask Marquee button on the Property bar. The mask marquee appears and looks like marching ants. Object marquees can also be made visible. To see the object marquee, select Show Object Marquee (blue marching ants); it displays as a line of blue marching ants. The object marquee displays the edges of objects. You can turn the display of these marquees on or off by selecting the corresponding marquee display button on the Standard toolbar.
An area selected with a Mask tool is the currently editable area. To invert the mask so that the editable area becomes masked or protected and the masked area editable, choose Mask | Invert.
Masks over the top of selected objects only mask the currently selected object--not the entire image. In Figure 22.1, a rectangular mask is applied to the image, then Object 3 is selected in the Object Docker (the colored spiral balls). Select Edit | Cut to remove the editable area from the object. The result is the removal of a rectangular section of the spiral balls and the background and other objects are unaffected.
In order to cut a rectangular area through the entire image, combine all the objects with the background and then cut the rectangular area.
The exception to this rule is the Lasso, Scissors, and Magic Wand Mask tools. You can select editable areas of an image using these tools as if the image's objects were all combined. This is true only if the Mask Visible button on the Property bar (or in the Tool Settings rollup) is pressed prior to using the Mask tool.
Just A Minute: If you try to select a transparent area of an object using a Mask tool, you cannot create a new object from that area. However, you can select the object above or below that contains the colored area you had originally intended to use for your new object.
The left image is the original image we created in Hour 21 using the Image Spray tool. The image on the right has had a portion of Object 3 masked and then cut out.
You can move an area selected by the Mask tool by creating the mask and then right-clicking and dragging the selection. When you release the right mouse button, a small pop-up menu appears asking what you want to do with the selection; either copy, move, or cancel the action.
The moved selection does not become an object unless you convert it into an object by choosing Object | Create | Object: Copy from selection (or Cut from selection).
The mask marquee can be manipulated like any object by using the Mask Transform tool. To begin, create a selected area using a Mask tool. Then display the Pick Tool flyout and select the Mask Transform tool. The marquee of the selected area turns into an object that you can transform like any other object (see Figure 22.2). You might drag or scale the marquee; click on the marquee object again and PHOTO-PAINT displays rotation handles that you might use to rotate the marquee. All object-like transformations can be applied to the marquee object. When your marquee is positioned and transformed to your liking, select the Pick tool (or any other tool) to apply the changes to the mask marquee.
When creating masks, you can work in one of four different modes: Normal, Additive, Subtractive, or XOR. By selecting Mask | Mode, the active mode that is currently active is checked.
Modifying the mask marquee using the Mask Transform tool.
In Normal mode, the mask tool creates an editable area on the image. If a mask already exists, it goes away and the new mask is applied to the image.
The Additive mode adds an area to the editable area of the image by removing sections from the currently created mask. For example, in Figure 22.3, the rectangle Mask tool, in the Additive mode, adds an editable rectangular area to the already existing editable area.
Rectangle Mask tool used to add a rectangular area to an image that already has a mask.
The Subtractive mode expands the masked areas effectively removing editable sections of the image. (If there is no mask, Subtractive mode masks the entire image and makes the selected area editable.)
The XOR mode creates a mask where overlapping regions are protected, which means that if you create two overlapping rectangles using the rectangle mask, the overlapped section will be masked and the other areas of the rectangle will be editable.
You can switch between modes by choosing Mask | Mode and the desired mode. You can also select the mode interactively by selecting a Mask tool and then pressing Control while drawing the mask.
The Render Text to Mask option when using the Text tool creates a mask that outlines the currently selected font style and size.
Select the Text tool and press the Render Text To Mask button on the Property bar (see Figure 22.4). You can also see this selection if you double-click on the Text tool to display the Tool Settings rollup.
Render Text To Mask button.
This option creates a mask that outlines the typed text with a mask. Figure 22.5 shows text rendered, not to an object, but rather to a mask. The text area is the modifiable area and a mask protects the rest of the image.
Once text has been rendered to a mask, you can create an object from the mask, or apply an effect to the masked area.
Just A Minute: When text is rendered to a mask and the editable area is then copied to the Clipboard and pasted back as an object, the resulting textlike object is not a real text object. Even though you cannot modify the object like a regular text object, you can modify the object like any other regular object; that is, rotate, skew, change opacity, feather the edges, and so on.
Text rendered to a mask.
You have already seen the rectangle Mask tool in action, but more Mask tools can isolate areas of an image. A combination of these Mask tools enable you to isolate complex parts of images including parts of images that are a certain color and that fall within a color's tolerance value. In the following sections, you take a look at the other Mask tools.
The Circle Mask tool creates an elliptical or circular editable area. Simply select the Circle Mask tool from the Mask tool flyout. Press the Control key while drawing the circle mask to constrain the mask to a circle.
Use the Freehand Mask tool to make an irregularly shaped editable area. Select the Freehand Mask tool and click on the image surface. Then move the cursor to another location and click again. (The marquee line connects your first point with the next point.) Continue clicking around your irregular object, and double-click on the last point to close the mask. The result is an irregularly shaped editable area.
You can also use the Freehand Mask tool to freehand trace an editable area. With the cursor positioned on your image, press the left mouse button and while holding the mouse button, trace the object that you want to make editable.
The Lasso Mask tool selects an editable area in a similar way to the Freehand Mask tool. The crucial difference between these tools is that the Lasso Mask tool uses your original selection point on the image as a seed color. (The seed color is the color that used to determine the extent of the mask.) The mask defining the selectable area then shrinks until it finds a pixel that does not fall in the tolerance value of the seed color. Use the Property bar or the Tool Settings rollup to define the tolerance value for the currently selected Mask tool. Does your brain hurt yet? Time for an example.
Figure 22.6 shows a marquee selection using the Lasso Mask tool. The initial point for the Lasso Mask tool is the white area just above the small blue square in the top-left of the image. The resulting editable area can be seen in Figure 22.7. Any white area is masked until the tool meets a pixel (blue in this case) that falls past the tolerance value of the pixel you originally selected (white); at this point, the mask stops shrinking.
The Lasso Mask tool selecting an area of an image.
The Scissors Mask tool selects an area by using the color of a currently selected pixel to move the mask's marquee to its nearest contrasting pixel. It effectively places the mask marquee at the edges of contrasting colors.
The mask marquee displaying the editable area after using the Lasso Mask tool in Figure 22.6.
Select the Scissors Mask tool and click near the area you want to make editable. When you click on the image, two things happen. The first thing that happens is a square appears around a part of the image centered on the point you clicked. This square shows the maximum boundary that the mask marquee searches for contrasting edges. The second thing that happens is a rubber band line becomes attached to the originally selected point that follows your scissors cursor. This rubber band line is where PHOTO-PAINT thinks there is an edge and is where the mask marquee appears if you double-click or go on to select another point (see Figure 22.7). If you double-click, the mask is closed and the editable area is selected.
The Scissors Mask tool in action.
Just A Minute: You can also use the Scissors Mask tool as a freehand Mask tool by holding the left mouse button down and dragging the scissors around the object that you want to select.
The Magic Wand is used to select as an editable area those pixels that fall into the tolerance value of the original pixel you selected. This editable area expands as long as you have connected pixels to your original pixel that fall into the tolerance value. When no more pixels are found that are connected to the original pixel, then the masking is complete and the mask marquee appears showing the editable area.
The Mask Brush tool is another excellent way of creating a freehand editable area. The Mask Brush tool acts like a brush; where you apply the brush is the editable area. You can select different brush widths and nib styles in the Property bar or in the Tool Settings rollup.
Figure 22.8 shows an editable area selected using the Mask Brush tool. To add additional brush strokes to existing ones, choose the Additive mask mode by holding down Control.
Mask created using the Mask Brush tool and the Additive mask mode.
You can do more things with masks once they are created. You can feather the edges around a mask, create a mask border, create lenses using masks, and create clipping masks.
Just like feathering the edges of an object, you can feather the edges around a mask by choosing Mask | Shape | Feather. In the Feather dialog box, enter the width of the feather, its direction (average, middle, inside, outside), and if you do not select average for the direction, select the type of feathering. See Hour 21 for more information on the different types of feathering.
The mask marquee (the marching ant border) can be converted into an editable area by choosing Mask | Shape | Border. Enter the border width of the area and the edge type in the dialog box. A soft edge has a more gradual blend than the hard edge type. The border width is the total width of the selectable area on both sides of the mask marquee. The result is an editable border area that surrounds what used to be the old mask marquee.
A color isolation tool such as the Magic Wand can create an editable area that is imperfect (see Figure 22.9). To create a cleaner-looking mask marquee and consequently a cleaner editable area, choose Mask | Shape | Smooth or Remove Holes.
An editable area selected using the Magic Wand tool that contains holes or islands of masked areas.
To see the effect of smoothing or removing holes most effectively, choose Mask | Mask Overlay. A reddish color blanket, which does not modify the image, is overlayed on the image surface. The darkest red represents the most protected area of the image. Colors that can be seen through this red blanket are the most editable areas of the image. Shades of red determine the strength of the mask at those pixels. The darker the shade, the more protected from modification is the pixel.
To remove the imperfections in the editable area, choose Mask | Shape | Smooth or Remove Holes. This will smooth the edges of the mask and effectively eliminate any imperfections in the masking within your editable area (see Figure 22.10).
An editable area that has been cleaned up using Remove Holes and Smooth effects for masks.
A Clipping mask enables you to modify an object's transparency without affecting the object. If you recall, the Object Transparency tool permanently affects the object to which you apply transparency.
Creating a Clipping mask.
Painting on the surface image modifies the currently selected Clipping mask, and depending on the shade of gray that you select, modifies the transparency of the current object.
In Figure 22.12, I selected a Show All Clipping mask, a black paint color, and then with the Clipping mask selected, I painted a zigzag pattern on the image. Effectively I created an opacity paintbrush.
Just A Minute: To delete a Clipping mask from an object, right-click on the Clipping mask and select Remove Clip Mask. To make the Clipping mask permanent, modify the transparency of the object, and select Combine Clip Mask.
Painting on the Clipping mask to affect the transparency of an object.
PHOTO-PAINT 8 has a new feature that enables you to fit one object into another object. Make sure that the Object Docker is visible and that you have at least two objects created. In the Object Docker, Object A is above Object B.
You will use Object B as a clipping parent for Object A. That is, Object A will fit inside Object B. If you want this the other way around then order Object B above Object A in the Object Docker window.
In the Object Docker, click on the small white square next to Object A's Eye icon. A small paper clip appears in the white square. Object A's thumbnail moves slightly to the right indicating that it is now being clipped by its parent, Object B (see Figure 22.13).
You can still individually select either object and move each around any way you like. In Figure 22.13, I even added a drop shadow to Object B. To make the objects become separate again, simply click on the paper clip to make it go away and the objects will return to normal.
In this chapter, you explored some nuances of one of PHOTO-PAINT's most powerful features, the mask. Other features and effects exist that have not been covered and I leave that up to you, capable reader, to experiment with and to discover. PHOTO-PAINT is a tool that complements CorelDRAW extremely well.
Placing an object inside another object using Clip to Parent. The left image contains the two objects before clipping. The right image shows the clover inside the text object.
The following steps create the image in Figure 22.14. This exercise demonstrates the use of creating a mask, modifying the mask, creating an object from the mask, and adding a drop shadow to the new object.
Remember to save your image by choosing File | Save As.
Workshop image.
© Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
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