Astro images, background free!

[Strange Wings]

Try to bear with me, I need to distract my mind a little...

This is an original image of Astro (courtesy of F-Man), ready to be removed from its background:


First I open it with XnView and set the gamma correction on 3.20 and save it. Astro's outlines
are clearly visible now:


Now I open the image with WindowsPaint and zoom it up to 400%. Rather than cutting, I'm sort of "framing"
the outlines by using the bendable line tool. Choose the line color white, or any kind of color which
you would like to become transparent in the final process. I usually use line size 2:


Filling out the hollow parts with white color and expanding the white part around Astro's
outlines so it makes it easier for cutting:


Copy/paste the cut image on white background, resize and save it:


Open the image with XnView again, and set the gamma correction back to 32, which matches the
image's original gamma intensity. Save it, and open the image with WP again, zoom it up to
600% for doing some final work around the outlines, i.e. for improving equality and sharpness
along the edges:


Choose your preferred software for making the background transparent - either in png or gif format - and
you're done:


This's merely my way of doing it.

[jeffbert]

4113507_orig.png (62.98 KiB) Viewed 2557 times

Atom's head is rather large in this one, is it from a series? I do not recognize it.

BTW, this reminds me of a P. Pig/Sylvester the cat cartoon, in which the mice in a haunted house were having an execution procession with Porky bound & gagged in a two-wheeled cart & [cannot think of composer's name]'s funeral march playing in an especially somber note.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

[attachment=]3464[/attachment]

Atom's head is rather large in this one, is it from a series? I do not recognize it.

BTW, this reminds me of a P. Pig/Sylvester the cat cartoon, in which the mice in a haunted house were having an execution procession with Porky bound & gagged in a two-wheeled cart & [cannot think of composer's name]'s funeral march playing in an especially somber note.

That image is from a wallpaper I got from Anime Sols as part of my 'reward' for supporting the Black Jack DVD project. It had most of Tezuka's star system following Astro in a "V" formation.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Thanks Strange Wings!

I think the GIMP has a gamma adjustment, not sure about the bendable line tool.
I use the background separation tool which can do a good job when the foreground and background are separated by enough contrast, maybe the gamma adjustment might help there. It also has an "Intelligent" scissor tool for cutting out a foreground object. Once I've got the image removed I open a new blank image of the right size and delete the blank layer. I then create a new "transparent" layer and paste the image on to it. I then flatten the layer and export it as a PNG, GIF, or whatever. Gimp will export to almost any format.

Sometimes I have to go to 400X mag and then use the eraser to cut pixel by pixel anything left behind by the cutter. I can also re-insert missing pixels, though matching the color can be a pain.

[fafner]

BTW, this reminds me of a P. Pig/Sylvester the cat cartoon, in which the mice in a haunted house were having an execution procession with Porky bound & gagged in a two-wheeled cart & [cannot think of composer's name]'s funeral march playing in an especially somber note.

It must be the funeral march by Chopin. It is very used in cartoons.

[jeffbert]

Yes, that is indeed it, I simply could not recall the composer's name.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

I found this wonderful image online, already background free!

[F-Man]

Here's another one that could work:

[Dragonrider1227]

thanks for the instructions Strange Wings