Creating Visual Effects - Add a Decorative Edge

(Page 6 of 11 )

Before You Begin

• Create a New Mask
• Save and Reuse Masks

See Also

• Frame a Photograph

If you don't like the formality of a frame, you can finish off an image with a decorative edge. Paint Shop Pro provides many edge styles to choose from—or you can create your own. To add a decorative edge from Paint Shop Pro's collection, you use the Picture Frame command as described in Frame a Photograph. Just select one of the edge styles from the Picture frame list.

To apply your own edge to an image, you create a mask with the center painted white so that the image shows through. That's the technique you'll learn in this task. As you might recall, a mask works by partially blocking the data on the layers beneath it. Where a mask is white, the lower layers show through; where it is black, the lower layers are blocked from view. Gray allows the lower layers to show through at less than 100% opacity (semi-transparently).

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Tip - You can add a decorative edge to your images in Photo Album. Simply open the image in Image View and select Effects, Add Photo Edge.

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You can create your decorative edge mask in one of two ways: You can start with a Show All mask and then paint the edges black to obscure those parts of the image, or start with a Hide All mask and paint the parts of the center white where you want the image to show through. To make changes to the mask, you can use any of the painting or drawing tools such as the Paint Brush, Airbrush, Warp Brush, Picture Tube Tool, Pen, or Preset Shapes. You can create a selection and fill it with white, black, or gray using the Flood Fill tool. You can also use the Text tool to form a unique edge by creating white, black, or gray text. Any command that works on grayscale images can be applied to a mask as well, such as Contours, Balls and Bubbles, or Cutout.

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Key Terms

Show All mask—An all-white mask through which the entire image appears.

Hide All mask—An all-black mask through which the entire image is prevented from appearing.

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1. Add Mask Layer

   Select Layers, New Mask Layer, Hide All (if you want to paint to reveal the part of the image you want to show) or Layers, New Mask Layer, Show All (if you want to paint to hide the edge of the image). If you see a dialog box asking you to promote the layer, click OK.

2. Create Mask

   On the Layer palette, change to the Mask layer if necessary. Then paint or fill an area with white to reveal the image; paint or fill an area with black to hide a portion of the image. Use gray to feather or partially obscure the edge.

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   Note - If you want to see the mask, turn on the ruby lithe by clicking the Mask Overlay Toggle on the Layer palette, or selecting Layers, View Overlay.

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3. View the Result

   Here are three possible edge effects you might try. To edge the image of the girl in the pumpkin patch, I started with a Hide All mask, and then turned down its Opacity to reveal the image underneath. I then brushed white pumpkins and maple leaves in various sizes and Rotation angles along the edge of the part I wanted to show and filled the center of this area with white. If you look at the step-2 figure, you can see the special pumpkin brush I created just for this image; in the figure, I'm stamping instead of brushing with white paint on the Mask layer, which of course, reveals the image below the orange layer. After changing the orange layer to white (because I didn't like the color), I merged the layers and used the Cutout filter twice to enhance the edge of the masked shape by brushing the top-left edge with cream and the lower-right edge with dark green. By applying the highlight (cream) and shadow (dark green) colors that you select to opposite sides of the masked area, this filter gives the irregular shape a rounded, three-dimensional appearance.

   To edge the image of Katerina and her cousin Erin racing pedal cars, I pasted sections of a checkered flag onto a new layer, overlapping them slightly until they filled the layer. (I could have used the flag itself as a mask, but I wanted small squares and more of them.) After pasting the sections onto the flag layer, I created a mask from it. The white checks revealed the image below, and the black checks blocked it. I cut out a section in the center and filled it with white so that I would have a portion where the flag didn't appear. Then I changed the color of the black-and-white checks in various places, playing with the opacity of the mask. Finally, I merged the layers and erased around the edges, creating the flag shape.

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   Tip - Create your own brush tips such as a maple leaf by selecting the leaf shape from an image of fall foliage. Save the selection as a new brush tip by clicking the Create brush tip from selection button in the Brush Tip list of the Paint Brush tool.

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   The last image of my mother and father's graduation pictures was a little less ambitious. I first positioned the two images on different layers and then merged them, using the Smudge tool to blend the two photos at the edges. Next, I added a Hide All mask, drawing the edge I wanted using the Freehand Selection tool, feathering and filling the selection with white. After merging the result, I used the Airbrush tool to brush small wisps of black along the edges of the resulting image. Look for this trio of images in the Color Gallery in this book.

Figure 15.6

This chapter is from Paint Shop Pro 8, by Jennifer Fulton, (Sams, 2004, ISBN: 0672323893). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.

Next: Change Perspective >>
 

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