{"id":1095,"date":"2008-05-22T00:55:16","date_gmt":"2008-05-22T08:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2008-06-16T18:09:45","modified_gmt":"2008-06-17T02:09:45","slug":"mac-software-review-mask-pro-41","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/?p=1095","title":{"rendered":"Mac Software Review: Mask Pro 4.1 (Mac & Win)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mask<\/a>
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\nMasking is never an easy task. It’s a technique to remove unnecessary pixels, keeping a group of objects intact. There are several ways to isolate objects from unnecessary background pixels in using Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop’s Color Range lets you remove unnecessary pixels in terms of colors. If you have large objects to isolate from background, you can then use Photoshop’s Extract.<\/p>\n

If you have Photoshop and feel that it’s not good enough for you in masking objects from background, then consider trying out onOne Software’s Mask Pro 4.1. It’s a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 or Photoshop Elements 4. I can tell you that Mask Pro 4.1’s Magic Brush is quite amazing.<\/p>\n

There are mainly two ways in which you can mask important pixels from background. One is use of Magic Brush. And the other method involves Magic Pen. Looking at Screenshot 01, if I want to remove sky, I can do it better using Magic Brush as opposed to Magic Pen. That’s because trees’ leaves are so implicate, surrounded by different color pixels. Looking at Screenshot 02, if I want to isolate two balloons from the blue background, using Magic Pen will be better because the border between balloons and sky are distinct.
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\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 01<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 02<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nFirst, let’s see how Magic Pro 4’s Magic Brush works. After making a selection covering the entire sky, I choose Mask Pro 4.1 > Mask Pro 4.1 under onOne. (See Screenshot 03.) Now, Mask Pro’s canvas displays only the selected area. (See Screenshot 04.) Unless you have deliberately closed them, you should see at least three open palettes to the right. You want to adjust settings on the Tool Options palette before you actually begin using Magic Brush.
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\nScreenshot 03<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 04<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nLet’s take a close look at Screenshot 05. The Tools Options palette has two pairs of sliders. Under Brush Edge, there are two sliders across a horizontally-long rectangle. Those two sliders aren’t horizontally apart very much. If I click on the canvas while Magic Brush is selected, the pixels where I clicked get almost entirely removed. Now, taking a close look at Screenshot 06, the same sliders are further apart. If I click on the canvas, the pixels where I clicked are removed, and the surrounding area is feathered or not entirely transparent. Furthermore, there is another pair of sliders at the bottom of the same palette. Adjusting this pair of sliders lets you determine the acceptance level of similar pixels.
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\nScreenshot 05<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 06<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nBefore we actually use Magic Brush, we need to select acceptable and not-acceptable colors. Let’s grab the Keep Eyedropper tool. (See Screenshot 07.) Basically, using this color picker, I just need to make several clicks to choose acceptable colors. I want to keep trees. So I should zoom in around either tree and click green pixels. Then those green pixels will be recorded in the Keep palette. (See Screenshot 08.) Likewise, I should grab the Drop Eyedropper tool to define unnecessary colors. (See Screenshot 09) As long as this tool is active, wherever I click around the canvas, unacceptable colors will be recorded under the Drop palette.
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\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 07<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 08<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 09<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nIf you are ready to remove colors, then just grab Magic Brush and sweep the top part where you have defined ‘keep’ and ‘drop’ colors. It is important that you adjust the sliders under the Tool Options palette while removing unnecessary pixels. Screenshot 10 shows the state in which I finished removing unnecessary pixels. If you are finished, then choose Save\/Apply under File to switch back to Photoshop. (See Screenshot 11.) Screenshot 12 shows my final work after creating a new sky layer with Photoshop’s Render > Clouds.
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\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 10<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 11<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nNext, let’s see how the Magic Pen mode works quickly. If you select Magic Pen, you will see three sliders under the Tool Options Palette. You won’t be using other two palettes. So you can close them if you like. Anyway, looking at Screenshot 13 closely, the slider on Magnetic Area is located all the way to the right. The value is set to 100%. Accordingly, if I click anywhere on the canvas, a single point will involve a lot of pixels. Since the division between balloons and sky is quite distinct in our case, I should reduce the value to around 5 to 10%. (See Screenshot 14.)
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\nScreenshot 13<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 14<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nThe Pen tool is similar to Photoshop’s Magnetic Lasso Tool. The Mouse pointer will stick to the border between totally different colors. So all I need to do is just click around the balloons. (See Screenshot 15.)<\/p>\n

The slider on Edge Attrack should be set to high because, again, the border between balloon and sky colors is distinct. I don’t have to adjust the slider on Mask Edge for now. You can adjust it, seeing the masking result.
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\nScreenshot 16<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 17<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 18<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nSo how do I mask these balloons out of background? As shown in Screenshot 16, I’m almost finished selecting a large area including the balloons. I need to click on the beginning point to define a selection. Then go to Save\/Apply again? Not that fast… If points are connected in one loop, you should see a symbol (, which kind of looks like a pump) at the tip of the Mouse pointer. (See Screenshot 17.) If you see this symbol, don’t go to Save\/Apply but simply press the left Mouse button. Then the object in the selection will be masked out. Looking at Screenshot 18, that’s not what I want. I want the balloon section to stay. So I need to choose Invert Mask under Edit. (See Screenshot 19.) And I get my balloons back. (See Screenshot 20.) Furthermore, if the edge of the masked area is not soft enough, I can go to Tool Options and move the slider to the right a little.
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\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 19<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 20<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nFinally, as you might expect, I need to choose Save\/Apply under File to send the result to Photoshop. (See Screenshot 21.) Screenshot 22 shows the final result of our using Magic Pen. <\/p>\n

‘Mask Pro 4 for Mac Quick Overview (2)’ compares the results of using Photoshop’s Extract and Mask Pro 4’s Magic Pen. They are also shown below. (See Screenshot 23-4.) It looks to me that Screenshot 23 (Photoshop Extract) is better than Screenshot 24 (Magic Pro Magic Pen). Of course, results depend on how you adjust settings. And I’m sure I can do better with Magic Pen.
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\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 22<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
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\nPhotoshop Extract<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
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\nMask Pro Magic Pen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 25<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 26
\nPhotoshop Extract<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
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\nMask Pro Magic Pen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nBy the way, can we save work progress? Let’s see… Screenshot 25 shows that I finished connecting points. Then I go to Save Workspace under File. (See Screenshot 26.) As shown in Screenshot 27, I saved a workspace. Then if I load it… I don’t get my points back. (See Screenshot 28.) Actually, if I read Mask Pro 4 User Guide carefully, that’s not what ‘Save Workspace’ is for. (See Screenshot 29.) It saves locations of palettes. But it doesn’t appear to save color pixels in the Keep and Drop palettes or Magic Pen’s points.
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\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 28<\/td>\n		\"Mask<\/a>
\nScreenshot 29
\nPhotoshop Extract<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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\nonOne Software’s Photoshop plug-in Magic Pro 4 does quite a good job in masking objects, even minute hair and tree branches as long as they are projected against distinct background pixels. It’s no question that this is a great plug-in that all Photoshop users want to have. But we feel that Magic Pro 4 is a nice-to-have plug-in, not a must-to-have plug-in. It’s not like Magic Pro 4 can create something that Photoshop cannot generate. Photoshop comes with great masking functions including Extract and Color Range. We wouldn’t dismiss the possibility that Magic Pro 4 can do a better job in masking objects. But can all Photoshop users afford to buy Mask Pro 4? The full version price is set to US$159.59. We won’t say the price is outrageous. But I’m not sure if every Photoshop user who wants Mask Pro 4 can afford to pay that much especially when in fact Photoshop comes with its own masking functions.
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  • Developer: onOne Software (www.ononesoftware.com)<\/li>\n
  • Developer’s location: 15350 SW Sequoia Parkway, Suite 190, Portland, OR 97224, USA<\/li>\n
  • Latest version: Magic Pro 4.1.2 (Mac Universal & Windows XP SP2 or Vista) for Adobe Photoshop CS2 or CS3 or Photoshop Elements 4 or higher<\/li>\n
  • Prices: full version – US$159.95, upgrade – US$69.95<\/li>\n
  • MacHouse recommendation<\/strong>: Mask Pro 4 is a great plug-in. If you can afford to buy it, sure, go get it. But this plug-in won’t get our Buy-It! recommendation. We won’t necessarily recommend Mac and Windows users to pay another 160 bucks for something that Photoshop can do. Photoshop’s Color Range and Extract work fine, depending on how you use them.
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    \nAdobe Photoshop is a product of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
    \nMask Pro 4 is a product of onOne Software.<\/p>\n

    The original photo images shown here come from Photo PD<\/a>.
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    Click for<\/td>\n\"Mac<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Masking is never an easy task. It’s a technique to remove unnecessary pixels, keeping a group of objects intact. There are several ways to isolate objects from unnecessary background pixels in using Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop’s Color Range lets you remove … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[107,110,108,109],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple-mac","tag-adobe-photoshop","tag-mask-pro-4-mac","tag-onone-software","tag-photoshop-plug-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mhvt.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}