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Making objects from scanned laces
This is a mini tutorial on converting scanned images of lace into a usable object so that the holes in the lace are transparent.
1. Scan the lace with a black piece
of paper on top of it. I did not do the actual scanning. I
had someone else do that for me, so I won't give you any tips on that.
2. Open the scanned image in Photo
Impact.
3. Convert it to grayscale.
(Format/data type/grayscale)
4. Use the adjust contrast controls
to make the contrast as high as possible. If your background is not
entirely black, your object will have areas around the outside that are
mostly transparent, but not entirely.
5. Open your mask library in your
easy palette.
6. Right click on one of the thumbnails
and click on "store image as selection".
7. Right click on your lace image
and click on all.
8. Right click again and convert to
object.
9. Click on your new object and drag
it to the easy palette. Let go of the mouse button.
10. Click ok in the box that allows
you to name the mask.
11. Press Ctrl + N to open a new image.
12. Click the circle in front of "Active
image" to place a dot there.
13. Click the red, green and blue
button beside data type to make your new image a 24 bit image.
14. Click ok.
14. Click the fill bucket and change
the color to a dark color.
15. Click in the new canvas to fill
it with the black color.
16. Set your background color to white.
17. Double click the mask you made
earlier. This will apply the mask to your new canvas.
18. Hit the delete key. You will now see the shape of your lace filled with white.
19. Right click and click on convert to object. You can now choose to delete the mask. Right click on its thumbnail in the easy palette, and click on delete.
20. Save your new lace object to your
easy palette and click on file/save to save as a ufo so you can share it
with your Photo Impact friends. <S> I hope we can generate
quite a few lace samples to use in our projects this way.


