PaintBuster

PaintBuster Tutorial 1: Accurate Clipping

The ability to clip image objects accurately is crucial in image manipulations.

Clipping an object using the freehand clip can sometimes be sufficient but often a more accurate clip than what you can do with freehand clipping is required.

Clipping an object using Point to Point clipping gives better accuracy but but even this method is often not enough.

Some image editors have what they call a magic wand used for object clipping, but those seldom work as they require high contrast changes in the object edges.

In other words, there is no easy way to make an accurate clip. Some work is required.
The following illustrates the often preferred way to do accurate clipping in PaintBuster.

	Originally we have an image of an Iris flower and we want to clip the flower from the background.
	We intend to use the PaintBuster feature "Clip what's under the mask" to make the clip. Therefor, we first cover the flower with a mask. We use the Mask Pen to make a mask outline around the flower. Remember that left mouse button apply mask and right mouse button removes mask. This makes it easy to make a mask outline fitting perfectly the flower outline.
	We use Mask Fill to fill the rest of the flower with a mask.
	We clip the Iris flower by using Clip what's under the Mask feature which you find under the clip menu.
	Finally we copy the clip to a layer and paste the Iris onto a new background. We use ant-aliased paste to make the iris blend in naturally with the background.