crazies: a guide to the mdc

Cutting Images

There are many methods of cutting images, but there are some more successful than others. It is evident that there are easier methods that create great cuts and also extremely tedious methods that produce a mess of a cut. 

In this chapter, we'll be discussing several ways of cutting images and our own hard, ground-breaking stories on these excruciatingly painful processes. Data has been collected through 3 long years where we tediously tested different ways as well as danced billions of sacred rituals in order to find an answer. And after all of this, we present to you an almost good chapter.

We may also talk about what is decent/good cutting versus amateur mistakes or just things that can be tweaked a bit to get a more precise line. 

Regular/polygonal lasso tool: This is a common and very well-known method used to cut images. It is a tool that is in just about every known "advanced" program including photoshop, GIMP, and pixlr. Some people use this tool by selecting the background or parts of the image that they want to take away. After selecting that part, people use methods to delete it using ctrl+x or layer mask. Another way people use this tool is by selecting the part of the image they want to keep and using ctrl+x or layer mask to keep the image. 

pros: simple, easy to use, well-known (so it's easy to find peeps who are willing to teach this)

cons: can miss some sections due to user error,  tedious, can give jagged cuts depending on skills/knowledge

Masking: This is a way of cutting that is less known, but you may find more experienced designers use/understand how to do this. It is a tool that is found in many advanced programs including photoshop, GIMP, and pixlr. One can use the brush tool on black or #000000 to cover up parts of the layer mask which also covers parts of the image, but it ultimately depends on the program.  What is great about layer mask is that if you make a mistake, you can use the brush tool on white or #FFFFFF on the layer mask to uncover parts of the layer mask that apply to the layer. This is similar to face paint where you use color (#000000) to cover parts of your face and a wipe (#FFFFFF) to clean off the paint. Your face stays intact, just as the image does, so if you completely mess up your face, you can just wipe all the paint off (coloring the whole mask white) and start again. 

pros: gives cleaner cuts, makes you look kewler, can be easier to fix a mistake

cons: can give weirder, jagged cuts, sharper learning curve, can miss parts...just depends on your skill and methods. 

Eraser: This is where you use your eraser to cut on an image that's a png/has a transparent alpha value. This is typically used by beginners who aren't aware of the other methods or people who finds their best success in this method. This tool can be found in basically any program. Simply have a transparent background, select the eraser tool, and erase the parts you'd like to get rid of. You can ctrl+z to undo eraser strokes if you make a mistake. 

pros: basic, simple, not complicated

cons: give off the worse cuts, can be imprecise, can look bad, doesn't look kewl

Topaz remask: This is a program people use to cut out images. People use different tools in the program to sort of "trace" the image and...well, it's hard to explain, so I linked a tutorial on how to use it in this chapter. You're very welcome.

pros: a professional tool, fast cutting, precise if used correctly

cons: costs money, it's a downloadable program vs a default tool, sometimes it's glitchy (but that's how it is with most downloadable programs ngl)

There are probably a myriad of other ways of cutting images, but these are the ones we found most common or easiest to use (based on our experiences). Feel free to share any other cutting methods or leave suggestions for new chapters.