Corel Painter Help | Selecting areas by painting

Quick links to procedures on this page:

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To make a freehand selection by painting

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Selecting areas by painting

You can create a freehand selection by painting with the Selection Brush tool panel options or any brush variant that uses the Selection method. Use Corel Painter’s interactive and dynamic brush shapes to quickly generate new, additive, or subtractive selections.

Examples of selections created with Selection brush variants using different dab types

You can choose a Selection brush from the preset selection brushes available in Corel Painter or create your own custom brush from any brush that uses the following dab types: Circular, Computed Circular, Captured, Single-Pixel, Static Bristle, Dynamic Speckle Bristle, and Dynamic Speckle Particle types (Flow, Gravity, and Spring). Selection brushes support grain and opacity, and work with all other selection tools. You can customize Selection brushes by using brush controls. For more information, see Adjusting brushes with brush controls.

As you brush over an image to make a selection, a color overlay appears, to help you distinguish selected areas from protected areas. By default, the overlay is a red-tinted, transparent sheet. However, if your underlying brushstrokes are red, you can change the overlay color so that the overlay can be seen clearly against the image colors. You can adjust the overlay opacity, and you can also choose to display the overlay over selected or protected areas.

You can display the overlay over selected (left) or protected (right) areas. Artwork by Jeremy Sutton

By default, the overlay is no longer visible after you complete a selection. Instead, a dashed outline — marquee — appears around the selection to indicate the border separating the selected area from the protected area. If you find it useful to have the color overlay visible at all times, you can easily display it.

The overlay that appears as you paint (top) and the marquee that appears when you complete the selection (bottom) help you distinguish protected areas from editable areas.

To make a freehand selection by painting

Perform a task from the following table.

To	Do the following
Select an area with the Selection Brush tool	In the toolbox, click the Selection Brush tool .
Select an area with a Selection brush	Click the Brush Selector on the Brush Selector bar. In the Brush library panel, click a brush category, and a choose a brush variant that uses the Selection method.

Paint in the document to select the area you want.

You can also
Choose a brush tip profile	Click the Dab Options button on the property bar, and choose a dab profile. For more information about dab profiles, see Changing dab profiles.
Set dab opacity	Move the Opacity slider on the property bar. The lower the opacity, the fewer pixels are selected. Note: If you are painting with a brush that uses the Add to Selection (Glazing) method, brushstrokes with opacity lower than 50% produce no marks. For more information about opacity, see Opacity controls.
Set grain	Move the Grain slider on the property bar. For more information about grain, see Grain controls.

To save a selection, click the Save Selection button on the property bar. For more information about saving selections, see Saving selections as alpha channels.

To replace the active selection, click the New Selection button on the property bar.

You can also add to or subtract from a selection. For information, see Adding to or subtracting from selections.

To customize a Selection brush

In the Brush Selector panel (Window

Brush Selector Panel), choose a brush with one of the following dab types: Circular, Computed Circular, Captured, Single-Pixel, Static Bristle, Dynamic Speckle Bristle, and Dynamic Speckle Particle types (Flow, Gravity, and Spring).

In the General panel (Window

Brush Control Panels

General), choose Selection from the Method list box.

From the Subcategory list box, choose one of the following categories:

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New Selection — creates a new selection

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Add to Selection — As the dab opacity builds up quickly, pixels are added quickly to a selection.

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Add to Selection (Glazing) — The dab opacity never exceeds the maximum value that you have specified, regardless of how many times you brush over the same area in a single brushstroke or how many brushstrokes you apply to the same area. If the opacity is below 50%, no pixels are selected.

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Add to Selection (Alpha Blend) — The opacity builds up very slowly when you brush over the same area in a single brushstroke.

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Subtract from Selection — subtracts from an existing selection

Brushstrokes (left) and resulting selections (right) created with a Selection brush using the following methods: Add to Selection (top), Add to Selection (Glazing) (middle), Add to Selection (Alpha Blend) (bottom). Opacity is set to 55%; Spacing is set to 14%; Grain is at 100%.

When the dabs are spaced out, pixels are selected only in the areas where the dabs overlap. Brushstrokes (left) and resulting selections (right) created with a Selection brush using the following methods: Add to Selection (top), Add to Selection (Glazing) (middle), Add to Selection (Alpha Blend) (bottom). Opacity is set to 55%; Spacing is set to 70%; Grain is at 100%.

To set selection display options

Click the Selection Display Options button panel options

on the property bar.

Perform a task from the following table.

To	Do the following
Set the overlay color	Click the color picker, and choose a color.
Set the overlay opacity	Move the Opacity slider.
Overlay a selected area	Choose Selected area from the Overlay list box.
Overlay a protected area	Choose Masked area from the Overlay list box.
View the overlay after you complete a selection	Disable the Hide Overlay check box.

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