Character extract (Adobe Photoshop) tutorial
- Added: Apr 8th, 2005
- Level: Medium
- Author: Melfina
- Program version: 7.0
- Reads: 25877
- Description: How to remove the backgrounds from images.
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View printable versionCharacter extraction has become one of the main things to know when making a layout or wallpaper. With this we can remove the whole background to an image leaving the character alone to put another background. This also allows us to add more effects to an image that we couldn't do without extracting.
There are many ways to extract a character and you can use different tools for it (Eraser tool, Lasso tool...), I'm just showing how I do it. This doesn't mean it's the best, of course.
First, open the image you want to extract and paste it on a new PSD document (Select > All, Edit > Copy, File > New -at this point we set the background as transparent-, Edit > Paste). Take the pen tool 
Notice the properties on the top, they should be like this:
We'll now keep adding anchor points to the image, right on the border of it, on the parts we want to take off. It may be useful if you Zoom the image a lot, just like I did. The pen tool is quite similar as the polygonal lasso tool (though this can be changed using some pen options but we won't be using them at the moment) so make sure you put the anchors next to each other or the extracted image will look too polygonal.
Once you're done with an area (it doesn't have to be the whole image), right click and click on "Make selection...". A box will pop. There, set the feather as 0 and Anti-aliased selected
Now just cut the selection! (Edit > Cut or Ctrl+X)
Make this with all the parts you want to take off the image until you're done with all of them, just like below. Happy extracting!
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Tutorial © Melfina. Do not reproduce in any way without previous permission from the author.
