Shell's Tutorials

Lasso

To see the printer friendly version of this tutorial, click HERE

The Lasso is a great tool and once you learn some of the things you can do with it, you'll find yourself using it more and more!

This tutorial is going to show you how to use it to select part of an image and add noise

OK, let's get started.

Open the image in Animation Shop, by going to FILE - BROWSE and find your image where you saved it, double click on it to open it. click on the copy icon

Open PSP by going to FILE - RUN PAINT SHOP PRO and click on the Paste As New Image icon, this will keep the image transparent

Go to WINDOWS on your toolbar and select DUPLICATE to make a copy and close the original.

If you want to add your name to the image now is the time to do it.

I used the following settings in my text entry box

Click OK and put your text into position. I added an inner bevel using the bevel boss in Eyecandy but you can use the inner bevel in PSP if you don't have Eyecandy, just play around with the settings until you find the effect you like

Click on the Lasso Tool and then TOOL OPTIONS and use the following settings

Now we're going to lasso just the wings on the angel. If you're using the birds we're going to select the tail feathers (see screenshot below)

Click on the wings/tail feathers once. Now when you move your mouse you will see that a rectangular box will be attached to image from where you just clicked.

Keeping the edge of the wings in the box, click every so often to select the edge of the wing

Do this until you have made your way back to where you started.

Once you've gone all the way around the wings/tail feathers double click to set the ants marching!

Notice how the selection isn't perfect around the bottom of the feathers....because we are adding noise it doesn't have to be perfect, as long as you get the basic shape of the wings on the angel or the feathers on the birds the noise will still look ok :o)

Now go to WINDOWS - DUPLICATE to make a copy of the angel/birds

You will notice both copies will have the selection on them

It's very important that you don't move either of the two images as this will result in your image jumping when you make the animation.

Highlight the first copy by clicking on the blue bar at the top of the canvas

Go to Effects > Noise > Add

Use the following settings

Click OK

Go to Selections > Select None

Now save this first image by clicking on the save icon, give the file a name, I named mine angel 1. Save as a PSP file.

Remember where you saved your file so you will be able to find it again ;O)

Close the image you just saved

On the second image we're going to add noise again, this time changing the noise to 60

Selections > Select None

Save this image, I named it angel 2 (very original lol)

We've finished in PSP, we're now going to go to Animation Shop

Click on the Animation Wizard icon

A new window will open, use the following settings

Click Next

Click on the Add Image button, go to the folder where your images are saved and double click on image 1

Click on the Add Image button again and double click on Image 2

Click next

Click Finish

Now you will have 2 frames in your animation and all that's left to do is save :o)

If you enjoyed using the lasso tool in this way you can experiment with different images and effects, for example, instead of adding noise you could change colours of part of an image

On the following sig I went to Effects > Texture Effects > Sculpture and used the default settings for the gold

The lasso tool can also be used to remove backgrounds from images with the aid of masks. It's time consuming and you can remove most backgrounds in Animation shop or by using the magic wand in PSP.

Both ways are a lot quicker but sometimes if it's a tricky background the only way to remove it is by using the lasso tool.

The best way to learn how to use the tools in PSP is to experiment and have fun!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial :o)