Editing the Face Background Mask

The background mask hides all unnecessary areas of the loaded photo. This helps you keeping only the areas you are interested in, such as the character's head.

Original actor image

Masked actor image

There are two methods to generate a background mask for your image.

ClosedUsing Mask Editor Panel
  1. Make sure you are in the composer mode.
  2. Click the Mask Editor button at the tool bar to access the Mask Editor panel.
  3. Using the tools in the panel to paint on the unnecessary parts in the image to add mask on the image.

    There are two modes in the Mask Editor which facilitates you to quickly add mask to the image:
  4. Click the OK button and the colored area of the image will be filtered out.
ClosedZoom Tools in Mask Editor
  • Pan Tool: After you zoom in the image, you may press down this button and drag the image in order to pan to the desired area for modifying.
  • Zoom Out: Click this button to zoom out the image for observing more of the image.
  • Zoom In: Click this button to zoom in the image for better observing and modifying the details.

    Before zoom in

    Zoom in for more easily modifying the details

  • Actual Size: Click this button so the image will be shown in its original resolution.
  • Fit to Window: Click this button so that the image will be zoom in or zoom out in order to just fit into the preview window.
  • Magnify Tool: Press down this button and drag a rectangle around the desired area of the image in order to zoom in to the area for better observing and modifying the details.

    Drag a rectangle to surround the desired area

    Zoom in for more easily modifying the details

ClosedLoading an Image with a Predefined Alpha Channel

If you wish to perfect your image mask, then you may pre-save your image with a pre-defined alpha channel. This can be done by means of an external image editor. Once you create your mask outside, simply load the image into Cartoon Animator. The alpha channel information will automatically be applied as the background mask in the Background Mask Editing panel.

Adding and editing alpha channels in an external image editor (e.g. Photoshop)

ClosedNote:
  • The alpha channel information can be in 32-bit BMP, TGA or PNG format.
  • If you wish to save the source image as PNG file, then remove the background layer, erase any unnecessary area of the image and save. You do not need to create an alpha channel layer in the Channels panel.
  • Please also refer to the sections below for more information: