Paint.NET Collaging Tutorial Paint.NET Version: 2.7.2 Paint.NET is a free alternative to Photoshop and GIMP. It's easier to use than GIMP and has fewer features than Photoshop but can still be a useful tool for collaging beginners. Note: Paint.NET won't let you open and control multiple images in a single instance of itself, meaning you have to open a new Paint.NET window when you want to open another image. To get around this open every new image in a new window (File > Open in New Window). Section 1 - Creating the Giantess Template Note: These steps are for creating a reusable template. If you only want to use an image once you can ignore steps 8-12 and paste the woman straight into a background image. 1. Start Paint.NET 2. Open the jpg image of the woman you want to put into your collage (File > Open in New Window .. navigate to the jpg file). For this tutorial we'll call it 'Woman.jpg'. Note: You'll need to extract the Woman from the background so you can put her into a new image e.g. a cityscape. For this tutorial we'll call it 'Cityscape.jpg' 3. In the 'Layers Palette' click the 'Duplicate Layer' button (3rd from right on the bottom of the 'Layers Palette'). This will give you a new layer. It's good practise to duplicate the background layer in case you make a mistake. 4. Click on the new layer to make it active. Note: Make sure this new layer is active when you do any work (it should be highlighted in blue). 5. Click on the 'Lasso Select' tool (2nd down on the left of the 'Tools Palette'). 6. Hold down the left mouse button and trace around the area you want to keep (the woman). To make this easier and more accurate, zoom in to around 200-400% depending on the resolution of the image (click the + magnifying class icon in the toolbar at the top to zoom in and the - icon to zoom out). 7. Drag the mouse around the woman to get a complete trace and release the mouse next to the point where you started the trace. You'll see a black and white line around the woman. This is a selection which will allow you to copy it into another image (Cityscape.jpg). Note: Because this is a freehand lasso, tracing can be very difficult and time consuming. You have to trace the entire Woman in one go. Just do it very slowly and add 1-2 pixels outside the edge which can be cleaned up later. Practise a few times on a couple of images so you can get the hang of it. You can add and subtract from a selection but that is more advanced so I won't go into detail on that in this tutorial. Alternative Method of Extracting a Woman from an Image If using the 'Lasso' tool is too difficult (which is very likely), there is an alternative method buy using the 'Eraser' tool. A1. Open the image and duplicate the background layer. A2. Hide the original background layer by selecting it and then click on the box to the right of the name of the layer to remove the tick which will turn off the layer's visibility. A3. Click on the 'Eraser Tool' (5th down on the right of the 'Tools Palette'). A4. Change the size of the brush to 20-50 pixels by clicking on the brush size drop-down toolbar at the top. A5. Click and hold the left mouse button and remove the background around the woman. A6. Use the same technique but this time zoom in and use a smaller eraser brush (1-5 pixels) to remove the background around the edges of the Woman. Note: If you make a mistake with the 'Eraser Tool' you can undo your actions by going to Edit > Undo. A7. Now you should have removed all the background so all you can see is the woman on a white and grey checked background (this means it's transparent). Select all (Edit > Select All). A8. Move onto Step 8 to copy the selection. 8. Now you have your selection. Copy it (Edit > Copy). We are going to use this to make a template so you can use the woman over and over again without having to trace it every time. 9. Open a new image (File > New). You will get a prompt to ask if you want to save changes to ‘Woman.jpg’, say NO (this is to keep the original 'Woman.jpg' intact). 10. Now you will get a prompt asking for canvas dimensions. Paint will automatically create a canvas the same size as the selection you copied but I find it good practise to add 50-100 pixels height and width so add 50-100 pixels in the width and height fields and click OK. 11. So now you have a new window larger than your selection. ALWAYS create a new layer to paste the selection into. The easiest way to do this is to paste into a new layer (Edit > Paste into New Layer). This is so the image of the woman you pasted in doesn't merge with the white background of the template. 12. Save the file (File > Save As). Make sure you save it as a .pdn file e.g. 'Template.pdn'. Note: You can clean up the edges of the template from when you made your selection to make it look better but I won't cover this now as this tutorial is just to get you started. Section 2 - Adding the Giantess to a Background 1. Open both your template file template.pdn and your background image ‘Cityscape.jpg’ (File > Open in New Window for each file). You should have two Paint.NET windows open. 2. Click on the window with the template file open, click on the layer with the image of the Woman on it and select all (Edit > Select All). 3. Copy this selection (Edit > Copy). 4. Click on the window with the 'Cityscape.jpg' image open and paste the selection into a new layer (Edit > Paste into New Layer). Now you have the woman on top of the cityscape. 5. You'll probably find the Woman is too big or too small for the background. Click the 'Move Selected Pixels' tool (Top right of the 'Tools Palette'). 6. Click and hold the mouse on the top right node and drag left to make her smaller or drag right to make her bigger. Hold down the shift key while doing this to maintain the aspect ratio. 7. Now you got the woman to the right size you can move her around by using the 'Move Selected Pixels' tool. Click and hold on the woman and drag her around until you got her in the right position. Note: If you want to resize or move the woman after pasting her into the cityscape, you have to select the layer she is on, select all and then use the 'Move Selected Pixels' tool to move or resize her. And there you have your first Giantess Collage in Paint.NET! This is just a basic tutorial but hopefully it will get you on your way.