I've spent hours, litterally, in the past removing the background of a character render (from poser) by carefully erasing everything around it that is background, whether its a solid color or an image. How do you lift the character off the background without having to erase? And is TIF the only format that this can be done in? (photoshop 7, and now photoshop elements 3) ~E.D.

I'm suddenly blanking - can't remember if you can render in Poser with Alpha layers - if you can then there's your solution. Upload the image (no bigger than 800x800 I suppose) and I can give you some advice. Can't figure out from your description if the background is complicated, or a single color - in which case, use the Magic Wand tool (hit "w" on your keyboard) and click anywhere in your background color to make your selection (again, if it's a solid color background), go to the top and click Select>Modify>Expand - and usually for this you only really need to expand by 1 pixel. Then Shit+Ctrl+I to invert your selection, then Ctrl+J to pop it onto its own layer. Viola - separated. Hope that helps- -Lew ;-)

Hey, that worked. Except that I had to go to the channels tab in the layers window and select the background before I used the wand. Otherwise it cut into part of her neck and face. But thanks. I couldn't seem to figure it out. At the time that I posted this I hadn't actually rendered anything, was just asking in general. Did one while I was waiting for somebody to reply tho. :) Now any suggestions for doing the same when its on a textured or scenery background? ~E.D.

First of all, the file format does not matter for doing things to a render, once it is opened in Photoshop, but there are things called 'alpha channels' that require a file format that can hold more information than just R, G and B (in the 'channels' tab).
I don't think Elements 3 shows alpha channels, but maybe there is a command like 'load selection', where you can choose Alpha1, probably the name of the mask.
If you still have acces to PS7, use that.

Poser saves an alpha channel with your render, which is a mask (when you save in .psd or .tif file format) You can command-click (or another combination for Windows) on the alpha channel to make the selection.

If you have a Poser render with a textured background, save your Poser scene with another name (I tend to add MSK to the name, wondering how much time I save with not typing the 'A') and remove everything BUT the figure you want to cut out.
Render (you can use low settings, but anti-aliasing should be on) and that document will contain an alpha channel you can use to cut the figure from the background.

In the full version of Photoshop you can transfer alpha channels and/or layers from one document to another. Don't know how that is in Elements.
In PS you can, in the 'channels' tab, choose the menu item next to the triangle-in-a-circle of the tab 'duplicate channel', and choose your render with background as the destination (that should be openend too). With command clicking the alpha channel (or loading it via Selection -> Load Selection) choose the layer with your render (probably called 'Background') and do Command-J (or similar for Windows);

Mmm. Maybe this starts to look complicated. But it is worth trying. A hidden gem that can save you hours of work! Because Poser already has done it.
There might be 'free' cutting hidden somewhere in your Poser render. Maybe you can find more information regarding 'alpha channels Photoshop Elements' via Google or something.

One smart way to overcome any short commings (is that a word in English?) of Elements, might be to create an easy to color-select or magic-wand-select version of your Poser scene (like the .MKS) version, which you will import above the render that does contain the background. Without messing with alpha channels, you can make your figure shaded absolutely black (and remove anything that you do not want selected), choose white for the background color, remove the lights and hit 'render'.
Open op both the original render and this black and white thing. Shift-drag the 'mask render' to the original one. In Photoshop it wil be placed centered exactly above the other layer.

Then use the magic wand tool to select the white.
Invert the selection
Select the layer with the original render (you can hide the black and white layer)
Hit command-J or Layer -> New -> Layer by copying (or something that reads similar in English version)
There is a new layer with only the figure.

Good luck!
Maybe this is a bit too much information in one answer. Sorry for that :)

Message edited on: 11/02/2005 03:20

Don't be sorry Hoof, good information here! :) retrocity

HI- I never use tiff myself- but in Poser you can save as PNG and it does automaticly make the BG into a transparent BG with just your figures in it- easy to use as a layer :) geo

Are you planning to make artprints of your render? If not,save your render as a PSD-file instead!