Project5.Lose 20 Pounds in 20 Minutes


Project 5. Lose 20 Pounds in 20 Minutes

Everyone thinks they could stand to lose a few pounds, and many of us really could. But while weight loss achieved through diet and exercise is mentally satisfying and contributes to better health, it takes awhile. When you need a quick fix, it's time to put Paint Shop Pro X to work.

I've chosen a subject who's losing weight the nonvirtual way, walking at the track (see Figure 2.29). We're going to give her weight loss a digital boost. If you don't have an image of your own to try this technique on, you can grab a copy of mine from www.shutterstock.com, image 596348.

Figure 2.29. Our subject, losing weight the old-fashioned way.


Tip

One other thing worth mentioning about this image. Getting friends to agree to let you use their photos in a project relating to weight loss can be as impossible as winning the lottery. This is where stock photography comes into play. In most cases, you won't want to work your digital magic on complete strangers, but stock photography can be useful when looking for particular objects or settings for your images.


Here is one of the rare exceptions to the always-duplicate-your-background-first rule. For this project, the first thing you should do is scale down the width of the entire image.

1.

Click Selections, Select All.

2.

Click the Pick tool and change the X Scale setting to 95%. The image will get 5% narrower.

3.

Change the visibility of the Background layer by clicking the eye icon in the Layers palette.

4.

Notice that there's a transparent band on the right side of your image. Click the Crop tool, and change the Snap Crop Rectangle to setting to Layer Opaque, eliminating the transparent area (see Figure 2.30).

Figure 2.30. Cropping away the pounds.


5.

Click Apply in the Crop tool settings. The band disappears, leaving only your narrower image.

6.

The process of changing the width of the image has automatically created a second layer labeled Promoted Selection. To keep your layers organized, you should change this label to something more meaningful, such as Cropped.

Note

Notice how our subject already looks thinner (see Figure 2.31)? By retaining the height of the image but narrowing the width, everything looks a bit longer and leaner. This technique can take you only so far, though. If you narrow the image any more than about 95%, your subject and the background become too distorted to be believable.

Figure 2.31. Already looking thinner.



Putting the Subject in Isolation

We want to change the person in this imagenot her locale. To make the changes we want, we need to pull a copy of her out of the picture.

7.

Use your favorite selection method to select the woman in the picture. If you need a review of selection techniques, see Appendix B.

8.

Choose Selections, Promote Selection to Layer. I'm labeling this new layer Body.

9.

Be sure the new Body layer is active; then choose Selections, None.

If you turn off the visibility of the Cropped layer, you can see that the woman is now on her own layer against a transparent background (see Figure 2.32).

Figure 2.32. Now that we're alone...


Taking Off a Few Inches from the Sides

Without the track and other background elements as a distraction, we can see which areas need some work. Let's start with the love handles. We can't completely change the subject's body type, but we can shave off a few inches here and there.

10.

Click the Warp brush, and set it for Push mode. Set the brush to a medium size (see Figure 2.33).

Figure 2.33. ...let's slim down to a more comfortable size.


11.

Apply the brush to the transparent area along the woman's left side, stroking downward, just barely overlapping the shirt. If you brush too far into the body, it becomes distorted, leaving you with a mess to clean up.

12.

Continue shaving off the sides, a little at a time until you're satisfied with the result.

13.

Zoom into the area between the left arm and the body, and adjust the size of the Warp brush accordingly, to smooth out that area in proportion to the love handles you eliminate lower down.

As we trim some areas of the body, it's important that we keep an eye on the proportions of the body as a whole. To do this, click the Palettes button on the Standard toolbar and then select Overview. This gives you a full view of the image even as you zoom in on particular areas.

The Overview palette lets you see the whole body.


14.

Use the Warp brush on both sides and down the legs. You can even use it sparingly on the arms.

15.

When you're satisfied with your adjustments, click Apply on the Warp brush toolbar to preserve your changes.

As you can see in Figure 2.34, by using the Warp brush only at the very edges of the subject, we've been able to subtly change her body without distorting her shirt or pants.

Figure 2.34. The Warp brush has shed quite a few pounds.


Those Last 5 Pounds

If you've ever dieted, you know the last 5 pounds are always the hardest to lose. We've made significant losses along the sides and legs, but there are still a few telling characteristics that give away our touch-up job.

If you zoom in on the woman's face, you see a slight double chin. Using the Warp brush in this area is pretty chancy, but there's another solution.

16.

Click the Eraser tool. Carefully erase the double chin, leaving the neck and jawline intact (see Figure 2.35).

Figure 2.35. The Eraser takes care of the double chin.


17.

Another problem area is the woman's shirt. The wrinkles are no problemshe's working out, after allbut the bulges on the middle of the left side and the lower right side don't match our new slim body. The Clone brush can smooth those away.

Click the Clone brush. Then, right-click a fairly smooth area of the shirt near the area you want to correct.

18.

Left-click and brush away the bulges. You might need to resample frequently to avoid repeating wrinkle patterns and get the right lighting and shading for each section.

After we've completed our digital diet camp, it's time to put our subject back into her natural surroundings.

Back to the Real World

While our subject has gone into isolation and slimmed down, her world has stayed the same. Thus, when you turn on visibility on the Cropped layer beneath the woman, you'll see pieces of her former self sticking out around her. There's nothing worse than going through all that trouble to lose weight and having everyone still perceive you as fat. Let's help the poor woman out.

19.

With the Cropped layer active, but keeping the Body layer visible, use the Clone brush to clone bits of the track and other background elements around the woman's body. Your changes won't affect the Body layer, so you can use that as a guide of how much you need to erase.

In less than 20 minutes, we've taken more than 20 pounds off our subject (see Figure 2.36). If we'd chosen to, we could've copied and pasted our completed Body layer into a completely different background.

Figure 2.36. Back on the track, thinner than ever.





Corel Paint Shop Pro X Digital Darkroom
Corel Paint Shop Pro X Digital Darkroom
ISBN: 0672328607
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 109

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net