This is a tutorial for what I like to call: "The Colour Scope." The concept behind it is really very simple -- in the background there is a picture (or a petz photo in this case). In the forground there is another picture, an outline of a transparent shape that overlaps the background. Everything inside the shape has color, and everything outside it doesn't.

As basic as that may sound, the images usually end up looking rather sharp and can be decorated for usage in a variety of ways -- demonstrated by the teasers I've made in Page II of this tutorial.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Part I: The Basics ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Create a brand new image size 772 X 537 pixels. It should have a white background. We are going to be adding transparency and cropping it down later, so no need to worry. Besides, it is better to have a large space to work with rather than one that is too small! 2. First thing's first: We need to set up the scene. Open up the picture of the petz(s) that you are going to use. For the purpose of this tutorial, I'm just going to use this one photo. 3. Remove the white background from the petz and transfer it over to the 772 X 537 image as a new raster layer. 4. This is where the term "set the scene" really comes into play. Build on to the picture -- add those lil' touches. If you opened multiple pictures, move them around and merge them together. If you want, play around with the smudge brush to make soft fur, etc. For Cherrywood, I think adding eye sparkles will be enough. 5. Okay, now for the hard part. Up until this point, you should have had two raster layers (look at the right-hand menu): the petz (in front) and the white background. Now it is time to add a different kind of layer -- vector. 6. Now it's time to choose the shape. I'm going to use a circle. Click on the Ellipse Tool . Presets Draw Circle: selected Create on Vector: checked [Line] Width: 1.00 Miter Limit: 15 Don't forget to adjust the colour pallet ------> 7. Draw the circle at the desired size. Then use the Move Tool to position it so that it overlaps the petz. Here's what I've got so far (with the background removed): 8. Next we need to do a quick colour alteration. Take the magic wand & click anywhere outside the circle. 9. From the menu on the right, select / highlight the layer that has the petz on it by clicking on it once. 10. At this point, all that you need to do is adjust the gray scale. The easiest way to do this is by using the "Colorize" feature (Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Colorize). 11. Now all that's left is to deselect, decorate, crop, & save... then look at some of the teasers on Page II ;)

Where to? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Part II: Teasers / Applications ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back to Graphics Tutorials (Petz)