A Small selections and layers tutorial
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A Small selections and layers tutorial


The starting image

The starting image


The image above is the image we will work with. Start chalk with this image (in the documentation folder $TDEDIR/share/doc/tde/HTML/en/chalk/tutorial-select-layer-sample.png) and save it to your Home folder (by choosing Save Image As...). Then open it in chalk — your screen will look a bit like this (we have zoomed in):


The starting image

The starting image


Now try to select the outline of the head with the Select Outline tool:


The Select Outline tool

The Select Outline tool


After you select it, it should look a bit like this picture:


The picture after selecting the head

The picture after selecting the head


If you accidently select too much, you can cut that part easily off by switching the tool to Subtract mode:


The Subtract mode

The Subtract mode


Now it's time to make the edges of the selection a bit fuzzy. This can be done by applying Feather to the selection.


Feather selection

Feather selection


Now cut the selection, using Edit->Cut. Delete the current layer with Layer->Remove Layer. Paste your selection, with Edit->Paste. Now we give ourselves a bit more room to work in by resizing the image a bit. Use the Image->Change Image Size... dialog for this.


The Image Size dialog

The Image Size dialog


Add a new layer, and place it below the old layer. You do this by selecting the new layer in the layerbox, and then pressing the little 'down' arrow at the bottom. Now we are going to select the area around the head with a contiguous select (the tool has a selection-with-bucketfill icon at the border).


The Select Contiguous tool

The Select Contiguous tool


Make sure to select Sample merged in the tool options:


The Sample merged option

The Sample merged option


Feather the selection again, and invert it. Select the Contiguous Fill tool (this is a different tool than the Contiguous Select tool) and use it on the layer.


The Contiguous Fill tool

The Contiguous Fill tool


Deselect with Select->Deselect. You'll notice some artefacts of the feathering at the sides. You can select them easily with a rectangular selection and then cut them.


The Select Rectangular tool

The Select Rectangular tool


Move the shadow layer a bit down and to the right to make it look nice.


Moving the shadow layer

Moving the shadow layer


Now you can use the Crop tool to make the image better fit around the head.


The Crop tool

The Crop tool


Save the image, and you're done :-)


The resulting image

The resulting image


Thanks go to Bart Coppens for providing this tutorial. The original is available at http://www.bartcoppens.be/chalk/hackergotchi.html.

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