NWA-PCUG 12/2000 NewsLetter Article 18861 N. Hwy 112, Springdale, AR 72762-9303 KnockOut 1.5 From Corel www.corel.com by Maureen Shannon, NJPCUG From 09/2000 NJPCUG News If you have ever looked at an advertising graphic such as a light bulb set against a background of sky and clouds you might have wondered why, but have you every wondered how (it was done)? How was it masked so that the transparent object could be placed against the background and you could through see it? How was the original background completely removed? Masking is how we take an image from one graphic/picture and place it into another. But perfect results are nearly impossible. Corel now has the solution, professional masking tools for precision results; it's called Corel KnockOut. KnockOut is available for both the PC and the Mac. I first saw an advertisement for this software a few months ago in a graphics magazine. It caught my eye immediately. I mask items all the time when I am working on my graphics. The ad showed a girl with her hair blowing in the wind against a solid background, then masked and placed against a background with a beach and the ocean. The hair was masked perfectly; each strand of hair was preserved. The image of the girl looked exactly the same against the new background as it did in the original picture. I knew that I had to have this and try it for myself. Masking images can be very difficult and it' s not always easy to achieve top quality results. I had recently had a conversation with a neighbor who is a graphic artist and she was telling me about an ad she had worked on and couldn't remove the background from a transparent image. I told her about this product. Detail is very important when working with graphics. If you are presenting your work in the hopes of getting a job, the best looking graphics will get the position. The selections with fine details such as hair are exported as an anti-aliased selection and then you add it to your background. KnockOut does exactly what the name implies.., it knocks out the background area of the image. You can use it on transparent objects and preserve the exact image, remove the background color and then export save it in a .tif, .cpt (Corel Photo-Paint) or .psd (Adobe Photoshop extension). It will open files that have a .jpg extension, as well as as its genetic which is .cko, Corel Photo-Paint .cpt, Adobe Photoshop .psd, Windows bitmap.bmp, tif, and Ultimate KnockOut .uko. Use it on any area you want to mask whether it is transparent or an image that you want to copy without the rest of its background. Depending on the shape and details of images, previously trying to mask areas could vary from simple to complex and the results were not always perfect. They would often require a lot of clean up work to try and get a good quality image. The process was often difficult and time consuming. Now with this set of tools that uses cutting edge technology to create masks, there is a better way to produce high quality results and save time. The program takes you through a series of tutorials that show the various types of masks that can be created. My first attempt with a general type of mask was perfect. It works a little differently than a regular mask in that you trace inside and outside of the area you are masking and then it masks the edge when you process the file. The second type of mask I tried was a little trickier. That was a glass. Part of it was transparent and part opaque. The technique here is to use a pinpoint pointer to place dots on the opaque areas so that they are saved correctly. My first attempts were not as good as I had hoped for even though I thought I was doing it right. I then tried again and increased the number of dots within the opaque areas and it turned out exactly like it should have. It is truly amazing. All the unwanted background area was removed and the glass preserved just as if it were part of the new image to begin with. I then tried to do it with a light bulb. This was even trickier because the top of the light bulb had text on it and the light bulb was thinner glass and had more transparency areas. I did it the same way and it too came out exactly like I wanted it to. I was very impressed! You can also use it to preserve shadows in the mask and the highlights or even smoke. I have not as yet mastered all of the tools but with a little more practice I am confident that I will increase my ability to use Knockout more skillfully. It's just a matter of repeating the process until I fmd what produces the best results. I included a graphic that I hope will be used in the newsletter. It was one of the first things I tried. I masked a light bulb that had a solid gray background and placed it against a sky. If including the image worked, you should be able to see the sky and clouds perfectly behind the image of the light bulb. And as I said above, you can even see the text on the top of the light bulb! I can now take the quality of my graphic work to a new level with these tools. If you are wondering just how often you might be called upon to use masking tools, I am working on a web site for someone and was given three floppies of images to use on the web site. Eve .ry image had to be masked and have a new background color added and then the image had to be resized. I didn't have this product when I did this and it took me an entire afternoon to redo the images so that they were usable. Since I don't get paid by hour with web work, this could have saved me a lot of time. Tutorials play an important role in learning about a product. Often we are so rushed, we skip the help included with products and then waste more time trying to figure out how to use the product on the fly. You will leam much more by taking the time to work through the included tutorials. The tutorials highlight each tool and how to use it properly. Whether you are working with graphics now or considering it for the future, you'll want the best tools available to work with. Corel's Knockout will give you the advantage you need to compete in today's cutting edge graphics market. New users may wonder if masking is important; it is. Masking tools are included in most good graphics software but they aren't all the same quality. Some software has great tools that are easy to work with. Some have a few good tools and others are difficult to work properly. Often it is necessary to settle for the best you can do rather than what you would really like the end result to be. With the addition of professional masking tools, you can obtain the best results and then add the masked image to the graphic you are working on. To learn more about Corel Knockout visit their web site at www. corel, com.