isolating an object from its background to use independently

[judy jj]

Hi.  

 

I am having problems achieving the task of isolating an organic shaped roundish object from its background so I can use just the isolated object on its own.  working in AfDesign.  I have tried lots of tutorials, with the pen tool, with the pixel persona, drawing a shape around the object and dragging over the thumbnail, but nothing seems to work.  I seem to get lost at the point of clicking the command key plus X when nothing happens. 

 

Is there a tutorial for absolute beginners that will take me through this?   I am attracted to the method using the pen tool as this allows me to draw exactly around the object.

 

Would it be easier to do this in Affinity Photo?  I have both. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

[MEB]

Hi judy jj,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

If you want to use the Pen Tool for this do the following:

• draw you curve with the Pen Tool, to create the roundish shape - make sure you add a fill to the shape  - any colour will do - but it must be filled otherwise it will not work
• drag the shape layer you just created over the thumbnail of the image layer in the Layers panel (you should see a small vertical blue line appearing on the right of the thumbnail - release the mouse button at that point).
• the shape becomes nested to the image layer as a mask. You should now be seeing just the object you masked, the rest of the image should be hidden.

If you need to adjust/tweak the shape, expand the layer clicking on the arrow inside a circle on the left of the thumbnail, then click on the mask's thumbnail to select just the mask (shape) and use the Node Tool to tweak the curve.

Let me know if you still have trouble.

[judy jj]

it has worked, so pleased.  It was the fill tool and also confusion that it was the thumbnail in the layers panel that I needed to drag onto  the image layer.  another leap forward for me.  many thanks.

[MEB]

You're welcome ^_^