I downloaded the 30 trial of Mask Pro 4 about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Finally got the nerve to try it (trial starts when you first open it, so at least I didn't waste that much of the trial). I have a posed photo of my AMHR national champion miniature horse that has a hideous blue tarp background (not much else to use around here!) I found a lovely brick wall on CGTextures.com and thought how nice she would look in front of that.
So, I got my nerve up and gave Mask Pro 4 a try. Discarded 2 attempts before deciding the third was good enough to keep, with a few improvements.
It doesn't do quite what they say it does. It's supposed to remove all of an unwanted background, and even alter the color of hair or fine details, so they don't look odd on a different color background. I still had to erase bits of blue from around her tail and mane, where the individual hairs looked blue. The background stood out so much that I added a duplicate layer with a mask on top, used a low Gaussian blur, and painted the blur away from the horse. I'm fairly satisfied (enough so I may try to spring for the $160 the program costs), but I hope there are updates to it to improve the masking ability around fine bits of hair.
I would like to hear if anyone else has had experience with Mask Pro 4 (free trial or otherwise). Or, perhaps, a better idea than spending $160 on a not-exactly-vital program (I do love those whistles and bells!). I'm going to list both the before & after pics of my mare.
Let me know what you think!
So, I got my nerve up and gave Mask Pro 4 a try. Discarded 2 attempts before deciding the third was good enough to keep, with a few improvements.
It doesn't do quite what they say it does. It's supposed to remove all of an unwanted background, and even alter the color of hair or fine details, so they don't look odd on a different color background. I still had to erase bits of blue from around her tail and mane, where the individual hairs looked blue. The background stood out so much that I added a duplicate layer with a mask on top, used a low Gaussian blur, and painted the blur away from the horse. I'm fairly satisfied (enough so I may try to spring for the $160 the program costs), but I hope there are updates to it to improve the masking ability around fine bits of hair.
I would like to hear if anyone else has had experience with Mask Pro 4 (free trial or otherwise). Or, perhaps, a better idea than spending $160 on a not-exactly-vital program (I do love those whistles and bells!). I'm going to list both the before & after pics of my mare.
Let me know what you think!