Covering a selection with netting

[littleberry]

Covering with a netting.

There must be an easier was, but, here is how I do it - I need to learn a better way.

1) I have photo of a large yellow pillow on top of a blue sofa. I want to apply netting over the pillow.

2) I create a "netting image" (using mspaint, really quick) large enough to cover the pillow, with 2-pixel-wide diagonal lines and white spaces in between of about 8 pixels. This file is opened under mspaint, and copied all to the clipboard.

3) In CS2, with my sofa jpg opened, I duplicate the background layer, giving me a "background.copy" layer, and I hide the original background layer.

4) I use the magic wand and quick mask brush to select the pillow, then I delete it (from background.copy)

5) I paste from the clipboard, giving me a 3rd layer (layer1) consisting of the black on white net large enough to cover the pillow - this new layer gets automatically selected.

6) I use the magic wand, with "contiguous" unticked, and select all the white spaces between the lines - then I delete these white spaces.

7) I move the background.copy layer on top of layer1 (the net layer), and I see my sofa with the pillow deleted but with the mesh showing in the deleted space where the pillow should be, but nowhere else.

8) I show the original layer "background", and the yellow pillow now appears, but the netting lines are showing over it, and nowhere else.

9) I flatten the image and its done.


Two things - this is really involved for something so simple as covering an object with a netting. And, I don't know how to bellow and squish (distort) the netting to reflect a truer picture of how it would look around the edges (the netting should be more compressed close to the edges to reflect a true 3d picture of how it would look - something like the "Sphere" option from the Dstort filter - but, for non-spherical random shapes.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - photoshop is very hard to learn.

 

[ibclare]

For the netting to fit closer to the shape of the pillows, you would make a displacement map of the pillows which will displace or move the lines of the netting to follow the light and shadow of the pillows. This filter does not always work well, especially if you don't understand which direction it shifts pixels. I don't do the best with that so it's generally some trial and error. It helps too to make the displacement in increments rather than all at once.

Here's a tutorial if you want to see more about displacement maps: http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum...reate-3d-displacement-effects.html#post118418
Of course, you can always google a tutorial if you need help with the effect.

It can also be helpful to use the transform tool, especially the warp and distort functions.

Use a clipping layer over the pillow -- the pillow must be a selection -- and this will confine the netting image to it.

What you're doing is deleting the pillow, doing a netting layer, then revealing the original with the pillow still in place. This is awkward. Rather than deleting the pillow, select it, use ctl/cmd + J to put it on a layer by itself (often a good idea to mask it and check how the selection looks). However you do it, once you have the pillow on a layer by itself, all you need do with the netting layer is place it above the pillow, hold down the alt/opt key and click between the layers to clip the pixels of the net to the pillow.

Why are you making the netting in MS Paint. If you make it in Photoshop in the same document or another if you prefer, you'll have a transparent BG and you won't be deleting all that white space.

Have you tried making a pattern in Photoshop and making a pattern overlay?

The more I try to explain this to you, the more I realize that you need to learn the basics of Photoshop so that you can do these projects. We're happy to help as we can, but each of the steps I have given you so far are a lesson in themselves.

Selection tools, masks, clipping layers, transform tool, patterns, displacement maps: Yes, there are much easier, more efficient, and more professional ways to do what you are asking, and you can be given step by step instructions, but these subjects alone are hours of study to understand and practice. As listed, about 16 hours in college class or online video tutorial time.

I recommend you start with some basics of Photoshop or you will always be missing the advantages of this powerful application. Believe me, it's worth the time and practice.