MartinKoss Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 Hi everyone. Most of my photos are animals and I love to extract them and place them on new backgrounds but, the inevitable, getting fur and whiskers selected is always a challenge. In Affinity Photo I just did a selection and then refined the selection (of a tiger with a horrible background) and then saved to new layer with mask. However, part of the tiger's head didn't get refined very well and I've lost all whiskers too. How can I get back into 'refine mask' or is there anything I could do better to speed up this wort of work? Thanks. Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 There's lots of tutorials out there. This might be a good place to start. Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinKoss Posted November 4, 2019 Author Share Posted November 4, 2019 2 minutes ago, AffinityJules said: There's lots of tutorials out there. This might be a good place to start. Thanks. I have seen that one but sadly I've never managed to photograph an animal with a solid background... :-) I just went into 'refine mask' from right clicking the mask layer but now, every brush stroke is making the mask worse than it was. I think I'm heading back to photoshop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 I hear what you're saying. Most tutorials where subjects are removed always seem to have plain backgrounds, that makes it look easy. It might help if you showed us the picture in question. MartinKoss 1 Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinKoss Posted November 4, 2019 Author Share Posted November 4, 2019 2 hours ago, AffinityJules said: I hear what you're saying. Most tutorials where subjects are removed always seem to have plain backgrounds, that makes it look easy. It might help if you showed us the picture in question. This is an image I tried to mask out all the background but save the whiskers but every attempt I lost the whiskers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cecil Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 May not be the help you after; however, I try to reduce the brush size to just cover the whiskers. Refine the selection, mask to layer and use erase brush to clean up. I hope someone will offer more, it is a struggle. Good luck. MartinKoss 1 Quote Cecil iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 best option here would be to mask out the background and paint the whiskers back in MartinKoss 1 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AffinityJules Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 14 minutes ago, firstdefence said: best option here would be to mask out the background and paint the whiskers back in Yup. I would have to agree on that one. It's a nightmare to try and refine. I've tried it and got nowhere. MartinKoss 1 Quote Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. These are not my own words but I sure like this quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cecil Posted November 4, 2019 Share Posted November 4, 2019 Even with a Huion Tablet, 4-8 px, very hard/impossible to draw, for me, to draw the whiskers. MartinKoss 1 Quote Cecil iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Well your best option for finer details (like hair, fur, whiskers etc.) will probably be to use channels here, for making then some more accurate selections. - Color there anything unwanted black so you have a base for selections and maskings. MartinKoss 1 Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 7 hours ago, Cecil said: Even with a Huion Tablet, 4-8 px, very hard/impossible to draw, for me, to draw the whiskers. I would probably use the smudge tool at about 3-8 px, Flow: 100% and Strength: 95% You could create a pixel layer add coloured dots and smudge out whiskers. This is what I got using the mouse. You could have layers for the dark whiskers and layers for the white, you could also give them a bit of translucency by dropping the opacity of the layer a bit. MartinKoss 1 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cecil Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 firstdefence great job. I didn’t try dots and blur, doubt I could replicate your results. I struggled getting the visual of the whiskers, after applying pixel fill layer to highlight whiskers. This applies to many photos, the tools just make the process extremely difficult and time consuming. I could be wrong in thinking the app should do a better selection. MartinKoss 1 Quote Cecil iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 The problem with the whiskers is the majority of them are so close to the background tone and very fine that making any reasonable selection is going to be very difficult if not impossible. I've tried with a few other masking apps and they all struggle to get something that can be used. MartinKoss 1 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 (...) MartinKoss 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Well had a bit of time to doodle and thanks to @Lagarto I took another look and I didn't know why I didn't think to use the pen tool and change the pressure profile to make a tapered line for the whiskers, then I thought hey what about some brushes for tiggers whiskers, so I tried copying the whiskers on tigger first and that was pretty good so now I'm making some kitty brushes lol! These are the whiskers I drew. This is what they look like This is the pressure profile. MartinKoss, lacerto and Cecil 3 Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacerto Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 (...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinKoss Posted November 6, 2019 Author Share Posted November 6, 2019 On 11/4/2019 at 11:54 PM, Cecil said: Even with a Huion Tablet, 4-8 px, very hard/impossible to draw, for me, to draw the whiskers. Yes the whiskers are proving to be the most challenging part. Masking the body areas isn’t too bad because the smudge tool (and other suggestions) work to introduce a bit of fur on the edges but whiskers are challenging. They are not uniform lengths, thickness, straightness or anything so they can’t (accurately) be added with a purchased or free brush. I appreciate your suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinKoss Posted November 6, 2019 Author Share Posted November 6, 2019 On 11/5/2019 at 7:12 AM, firstdefence said: I would probably use the smudge tool at about 3-8 px, Flow: 100% and Strength: 95% You could create a pixel layer add coloured dots and smudge out whiskers. This is what I got using the mouse. You could have layers for the dark whiskers and layers for the white, you could also give them a bit of translucency by dropping the opacity of the layer a bit. Cracking job. Thank you for explaining how you did that. I will add that to my list of things to attempt. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinKoss Posted November 6, 2019 Author Share Posted November 6, 2019 18 hours ago, firstdefence said: Well had a bit of time to doodle and thanks to @Lagarto I took another look and I didn't know why I didn't think to use the pen tool and change the pressure profile to make a tapered line for the whiskers, then I thought hey what about some brushes for tiggers whiskers, so I tried copying the whiskers on tigger first and that was pretty good so now I'm making some kitty brushes lol! These are the whiskers I drew. This is what they look like This is the pressure profile. WOW! This I shall be trying to replicate! I'd love to be able to recreate that layer of the whiskers. Thank you for showing that method. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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