In this tutorial I'll show how to start with a photo and use layers and erasers
to give the appearance of a 3D photo. This is also called an "out of bounds" effect.
Before we get started, if you're watching this video on YouTube you'll
find a link in the description below that will take you to our tutorial page
on Corel's Discovery Center. Here you can download a written copy of this tutorial.
Here's a photo I'm starting with and I
want to make it look as if the whale is jumping out of a frame.
I'll duplicate the background layer so that the original photo will remain
intact. I also want a new raster layer for the new background, which I'll flood
fill with bright yellow. I'll move this layer below the copied photo and go back
to the layer above, so that new objects will be placed above this layer. For the
frame I'll use the Rectangle tool, which I'll give a red color and transparent
fill. I want to use a line width thick enough to stand out and I'll draw the
rectangle so that the whale's head is just outside. Because a rectangle is a
vector object it's created on its own vector layer, but for the modifications I
need to make to this frame I need to change the rectangle to a raster object.
This is easy to do: I'll right-click the layer and convert it to raster. I want to
give the frame a 3D look so I'll activate the Pick tool set the mode to
"Free" and move these two nodes up and down. Now I want to remove the parts of
the photo that aren't needed. With the copied photo layer active I can get rid of
large groups of pixels by using the Selection tool and pressing delete.
Then I'll press Ctrl + D to deselect. Where there are non-horizontal straight lines
I can switch to Freehand Selection using "Point-to-point" mode and define the
shapes to delete. For the bits that are left, I can use the eraser with maximum
hardness for pixels that aren't near those pixels I want to keep. Then I'll switch
to background eraser, which erases pixels of the same color as where I click. This
enables me to remove pixels in more crowded spots. The bright contrasting
color for the background makes it easy to see the pixels that need to be
removed. I'll need to reduce the tolerance where the colors are closer.
Now I have to do some erasing on the frame so I'll make that layer active.
I'll reduce the opacity of this layer so that I can see where I need to erase.
I'll go back to the eraser, hold the Alt key and drag to make my brush much
smaller and remove the parts of the frame that should be behind the whale.
I'll bring back this layer to full opacity and I can get a more interesting
background by returning to the yellow layer and filling it with a pattern instead.
This technique can be used with a set of two images as well. The image on
the left has the background and frame I want to use and the lizard is what I
want to show coming out of the frame. In order to remove the pixels inside the
picture frame, I first need to promote the background layer so that it becomes
a raster layer. Now I can select the contents of the frame and press Delete.
I'll drag this layer into the lizard image and reduce the opacity of this
layer. Now I can activate the lizard layer and use the Pick tool in "scale"
mode to resize and move it into place. Going back to the frame layer
I'll use the eraser with a small brush size to carefully remove the hidden
parts of the frame, as well as all pixels that block the lizard's head. After
bringing this layer back into full view I have my new museum masterpiece.
This brings us to the end of this tutorial on 3D photos in PaintShop Pro.
If you've been watching this video on YouTube, you'll find a link in the description below
that will take you to our tutorial page on Corel's Discovery Center.
Here you can download a written copy of this tutorial. Thank you for watching.