Have a quick look at these two other tutorials first if you're unfamiliar with the GIMP. The first shows how to simply cut out an object using the bezier tool. The second explains briefly what "masks" are.
Okay. I'm listening to "One Wild Night" so we're going to use a Quickmask to cut out Jon Bon Jovi from his background. (Legal blurb: not my image, probably belongs to Versace.)
Step 1: Use the bezier tool for what you can. I still use the bezier tool to cut out the majority of Bon Jovi from his background because it saves me a bit of time. This is just my personal preference. However, as you can see from the picture, I can't use the bezier tool to cut out his wild, rocker's hair. I just can't get enough detail with paths, and it would end up looking stupid. So I cut around it for now.
Step 2: Apply a Quickmask. This is so easy. Just click the Quickmask button in the bottom left corner (blue arrow). Et voila, the image is covered in a red film. The red film is the Quickmask. (I've put the image on a white background so I can see edges more clearly.)
Step 3: Paint the bits you want to become selections. The idea is to paint over the areas that you are going to eventually delete. If you paint them white, it's like poking a hole through the mask. The edges of this hole will be the edges of the selection that you are going to delete. So paint in white over any areas you don't like. In this case, anything that's not Bon Jovi's hair. My GIMP would look like this at this point (click on the picture to get a zoom-in):
For the really fine bits, zoom in and paint with as fine a brush as possible between individual hairs. This sucks and is boring, but gives a much nicer end result.
Step 4: Convert the Quickmask back into a selection. Again, so easy. Just click again on the Quickmask button (blue arrow). The red film disappears, and the areas you painted white turn into selections with little marching ants around them (pink arrow). Don't be afraid to flick back and forth between the Quickmask and the selections, deleting them as you go. I will repeat this step several times until I'm happy.
Step 5: Delete the selection you have made. Now that you have an active selection (the marching ants) just delete it. (This is done differently in different versions of GIMP. Try delete or Ctrl+K).
Step 6: The purpose of this technique was to produce a high detail cut-out for pasting onto different backgrounds. However, Quickmasks can be used for a wide variety of things, and the concepts in this tutorial can be adapted to suit different kinds of images. I'll leave you with one I made earlier... :-)
Okay. I'm listening to "One Wild Night" so we're going to use a Quickmask to cut out Jon Bon Jovi from his background. (Legal blurb: not my image, probably belongs to Versace.)
Step 1: Use the bezier tool for what you can. I still use the bezier tool to cut out the majority of Bon Jovi from his background because it saves me a bit of time. This is just my personal preference. However, as you can see from the picture, I can't use the bezier tool to cut out his wild, rocker's hair. I just can't get enough detail with paths, and it would end up looking stupid. So I cut around it for now.
Step 2: Apply a Quickmask. This is so easy. Just click the Quickmask button in the bottom left corner (blue arrow). Et voila, the image is covered in a red film. The red film is the Quickmask. (I've put the image on a white background so I can see edges more clearly.)
Step 3: Paint the bits you want to become selections. The idea is to paint over the areas that you are going to eventually delete. If you paint them white, it's like poking a hole through the mask. The edges of this hole will be the edges of the selection that you are going to delete. So paint in white over any areas you don't like. In this case, anything that's not Bon Jovi's hair. My GIMP would look like this at this point (click on the picture to get a zoom-in):
For the really fine bits, zoom in and paint with as fine a brush as possible between individual hairs. This sucks and is boring, but gives a much nicer end result.
Step 4: Convert the Quickmask back into a selection. Again, so easy. Just click again on the Quickmask button (blue arrow). The red film disappears, and the areas you painted white turn into selections with little marching ants around them (pink arrow). Don't be afraid to flick back and forth between the Quickmask and the selections, deleting them as you go. I will repeat this step several times until I'm happy.
Step 5: Delete the selection you have made. Now that you have an active selection (the marching ants) just delete it. (This is done differently in different versions of GIMP. Try delete or Ctrl+K).
Step 6: The purpose of this technique was to produce a high detail cut-out for pasting onto different backgrounds. However, Quickmasks can be used for a wide variety of things, and the concepts in this tutorial can be adapted to suit different kinds of images. I'll leave you with one I made earlier... :-)
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Trolling doesn't even get read. :)