Something very simple that I don't know jack shit about

[DeadKennedys]

Let's say I find a picture, but it's in a square background.

http://www.zeldauniverse.net/gallery/albums/officialart/alttp/bosses/ballnchain.gif

How would I be able to change the background color without messing up the picture? I'm sure the guy who puts images like this on zeldauniverse found a good way to do it, because the picture has a white background in the manual where he scanned it from (he todl me he scanned it, but wouldn't tell me how he changed the background.)

I'm sure this would be easy in something like photoshop, but I don't have the money for a program like that. All I've about got is paint, and that's useless.

Help?

[pjalne]

"Borrow" Photoshop from the internet or get a trial version of Paint Shop Pro. Use the magic wand tool to select one particular color.

[Rez]

you have paint, right?

the bucket! use the bucket!

if that somehow goes into the actual image, then unless you find a way to fudge contrast you're screwed as far as 'paint' goes.

seriously, get p-shop.

[pjalne]

Paint won't work, because there's gif dither in the background and there is no way to set any sort of tolerance on the bucket.

[DeadKennedys]

Could you suggest me a site where I can "borrow" this for free?

[executioneer]

www.google.com

[MLE]

lol

[BlueOatmeal]

www.torrentsearch.us

[EisigerBiskuit]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/Eisiger/effurt.gif
Now act like this is what you're imagining in your head, and try it.

[MetalMilitia]

If the background is a solid colour you can sometimes get away with using the magic wand but for best results you need to use the polygon lasso tool.

If the image is very complicated (hair, fire, ect) it is often easyier to use blend modes as lassoing would look too jagged.

For example to add a firey explosion over an image you would probably have to screen it, which basically makes black (or white i think) bits clear...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/176659.9/overlay1.jpg

Screened:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/176659.9/overlay2.jpg

If you used a magic want or lasso it would look crappy.

Images which have been lassoed can be better blended by using artifical multisampleing (copy the image, move behind original and apply a blur) or things such as zoom blurs can create an artifical depth of field type effect bleding the image into the background...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/176659.9/overlay3.jpg

As you can see in the circled bits it appears asthough it is part of the image as apposed to a flat picture stuck ontop.

Photoshop or Fireworks both work great.

[Marine]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/Eisiger/effurt.gif
Now act like this is what you're imagining in your head, and try it.
that picture is from the manual for a link to the past i think.

[executioneer]

ah, relevance

[Marine]

if i had a scanner i could scan it in.

[executioneer]

but you see it is not RELEVANT TO THE DISCUSSION AT HAND, the topic being removing backgrounds and not the source of the image

[DeadKennedys]

you guys :lol

Anyway, I found photoshop and I'm picking it up pretty well (I'm not an artist), so thanks

[Helm]

metalmilitia, never help anyone photoshop anything ever again.

[Anonymous]

he gave me an idea with that whole under-blur business but usually i just set shit like that to feather 1px and erase the edges

[MetalMilitia]

metalmilitia, never help anyone photoshop anything ever again.

why not? :(

[ziggytrix]

The BEST way to do it would be to cut a path around your object using the pen tool, then use the path to mask out the background. Layers and paths are the most important tools in Photoshop in my professional opinion. :posh

Of course, if you're just working with some low-res web graphic that might be the equivalent of using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut, but I still maintain that my sledge hammer is better than your puny nutcraker.

Oh no, I bumped a week old thread. :(