Selection using history pallet to extract object

[cadudesun]

Hello,

I would appreciate some help to understand what is made in an exact moment (2:50) of the tutorial bellow, in which "history" pallet is used together selection to extract object. It seems to bring a better result than using "object extractor" tool.

So, my question is related to handling the "history" pallet as showed in 2:50 tutorial. It seems the "undo" is applied to the first "selection" action, but I couldn't make as in the tutorial. My PSP version is X4 and the tutorial version is X2. I don't know if something has changed and I am unable to make it in PSPX4.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxdQK_lk ... re=related

Thanks in advance,
Cadu

[LeviFiction]

He didn't really do anything. Technically.

He was working on that image before he started recording.

So what he did was he made a selection. Then he used the "Select None" command to deselect everything. Then he started recording the video (There were other steps but this is a simple break-down of what happened). In the video he showed you how to paint your own selection and he did it very poorly. Then to show you something else he used the history palette to go back to the beginning. In this case the beginning happened before the video ever started. And in the beginning was his original much more accurate selection.

So he didn't do any trick. He didn't make an amazing selection using the history palette. He simply did a huge number of "Undo"s quickly. Because that is what the history palette lets you do. You can undo any number of actions and if you Ctrl + Click on an eye-ball you can actually remove a single action from the entire history without ruining other things you've done.

So don't worry, you didn't miss any important step.

[cadudesun]

Hi LeviFiction,

Thanks once more!

I was wondering how to transform the rough selection he made in a perfect one (like a trick). But as you said, it seems he had a plenty of work before to show the perfect select.

Then, it seems the best (and fast) way to extract is using the "object extractor", isn't it?

Best,
Cadu

[LeviFiction]

Depends on the objects. As for best, no such thing. You'll develop a favorite tool, but there is no guarantee that you'll get a better result than with another option.

In fact one of my gripes with the object extractor is that it doesn't do a good job of unmixing or defringing areas where colors have begun to mix. In Corel's own video showing off the tool they point out that the tool managed to keep all of the tiny hairs on the chin of the giraffe which would be more impressive if it hadn't kept the sky around the hairs at the same time.

I have personally been known to use multiple methods to slowly extract an object from the background. I don't worry about speed. So in areas where the background eraser will do an excellent job I use that, in areas where it's just easier to do a vector selection to get the right smooth area I'll do that. I also use the image itself to create masks. That usually requires I destroy the image first but I get a good mask with a good half-an-hour to an hour's worth of work.