Magic Mask


	Magic Mask is the answer to a lot of prayers. Now, look at the dragon below (it is from the review of Heroes of Might and Magic II). This is a very

intricate graphic, in that the dragon is standing on a plain and the fire is being breathed across a landscape which is very similar in color to the colors in the fire.
Just pretend we want to cut out this dragon (which, also, is a fairly low resolution image). From experience, I can tell you that using the color mask

in PhotoShop would take the good part of an hour to achieve this cutout.
But this dragon, with the help of Magic Mask from Chroma software, was cut out in about 5 minutes. How? Using some very unique tools.
Magic Mask solves many of the problems of creating masks. This outstanding program does this in several ways – which means that there is more than one solution to the problem.

For starters, with our dragon (and the skeleton at the right, which was even more difficult, owing to the thin lines of color) we used a color brush, which is similar in some ways to the color mask in PhotoShop and other similar programs. The difference is that you can paint with the color brush, and all pixels which are similar to the colors over which you paint become part of the mask.

   However, unlike other tools of this type, you can then adjust the range if you got too little or too much. There is also a subtractive brush, which lets you take colors away. And a control to change the size of the brush.
   In about 45 seconds, we were able to get 95 percent of the dragon. Then, using a simple add brush, we filled in the rest. This was possible because Magic Mask also allows you to change the kind of display for the mask at a click of the mouse. While this may not sound like all that big a deal, it is. It helps you fill in pixels, see single pixels the color brush may have missed and the like. Really first class.
   The skeleton was done, essentially, the same way. But Magic Mask has other items in its arsenal which work very, very well for other types of mask work.
   The chief one is the magic lasso. Anyone who has ever worked with any sort of graphics program is familiar with the lasso tool, but Magic Mask's magic lasso is very, very different: it finds edges for you!
   All you need to do is position the magic lasso near an edge of color and it "magically" snaps to that edge. I have outlined whisps of hair this way. Quickly and accurately.
   There is both a "plus" and "minus" magic lasso. So you are able to add to, or take from, the mask using this excellent technology. Obviously, I am a big fan of the magic lasso and you will be, too.
   For fine tuning, there is a nudge tool. With three different settings, this tool will manipulate any selection, nudging the mask into place. It, too, uses color differences to determine what to do to some extent, so that cleanup is fast and easy.
   Lastly, and perhaps most interesting, is the density mask. It will create gradual and smooth gradients for such complicated areas as skin tones. Put this little guy to work on a high resolution image of someone's face and see that it can save tons of time as well as produce professional results.
   My personal belief is that masking is one of the most time-consuming and delicate tasks of image editing. Magic Mask makes it infinitely easier to do and creates professional results with wich you will always be pleased.

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