Eternally's Graphic Tutorials

2| Rendering / Removing the Background of an Image

Like so. Now here's where you have to have patience. You could click on the magic wand button which removes colours similar to what you colour selected, which is must faster but leaves it looking like you didn't spend any effort to make your edit the best that you can. As you can see there's a lot of jagged edges and it just doesn't look smooth.

So instead click the eraser button and slowly follow the lines, erasing the background and leaving a smooth line behind. Take your time; the more you rush the worse the picture looks. There's no point in rushing and ending up with a photo you need to re-render. Try and get as close as possible so no colour of the background is visible; a little bit is still alright though. Use the size bar to adjust the size of your brush to fit smaller areas. To expand the image use two fingers and drag away from each other. To make it smaller drag your fingers towards each other.

After you render your picture they're might still be some small patches of background you can't see because of the checkered pattern of the erased background. Press the eye button at the very right hand side of the bottom tool bar. The areas that you've removed the background from should appear red, showing where you missed some blotches. Just go over them and the colour should dull slightly, telling you that it's been erased.

Now that you've finished, save the image as a PNG with high resolution. Add the image to the edit that you're making and you're done! Here's a comparison between the magic wand and the hand rendered one.

So, remember that rendering can take a long period of time but if you take your time and concentrate you can make beautiful edits with your own rendered images. Try starting of with simple images and practices rendering small place, like a gap between clothes or the gap between hair. Being able to get that point sharp there is difficult but it feels amazing when you accomplish it. Remember that you should always feel proud of what you've achieved and never give up! Once you give up then there's going to be no one to make those edits you've thought of come to life. So happy editing until the next tutorial!