Objects a la Mode: Working with Corel PHOTO-PAINT's Object Color Modality

© 2000 by Clifford Anderson. All Rights Reserved.

To describe object color modality is to discuss the issue of an object's color and lightness values, and how these interact when they are the same as or different from the pixel value in the underlying object, or, base image/background.

In this article, we will look briefly at some of the implications of manipulating an object's color mode to better understand an object's relationship to the base image. Moving forward, we will use it for improving a photograph as well as effectual purposes.

What we'll need is as follows:

• The Objects, Channels, and Info Dockers.
• In the Info docker, click the top arrow to open the menu options. For the primary color choose 24-bit RGB; for the secondary color choose HSB.
• A new canvas, 5 x 7 in., at 72 dpi, color = red (R255).

RGB, Grayscale, and You

To better understand what will be going on when using object color modality (or, merge mode, as we will encounter a little later), let us first determine what is implied by a pixel's amount of color and/or brightness by concurrently looking at our canvas's channel.

1. From the Toolbox, select the Object Picker Tool and click on the Image Info docker.
2. Move your cursor over the red canvas and read the RGB level from the Info docker: R255 G0 B0 and H0 S100 B100. Pure red.
3. To see the grayscale equivalent, switch to the Channels docker and click on the red channel, then the green, and finally the blue.

According to the grayscale thumbnails in the Channels docker, Red is red, Green and Blue are black. But if you have the Red channel selected, note that the canvas itself is white.

4. With the Red channel still selected, click the Info docker and move your cursor over your canvas.

The RGB values still profess Red as the color, whereas the HSB value tells us that Brightness is at 100% yet with no level of saturation. What the Info Docker is telling us is, according to the grayscale equivalent, the Red channel's color content is full (R255), and the amount of light penetrating it is also full (B100). On the other hand, selecting either the Green or Blue channel and looking at their info will inform us that both the RGB and HSB values are null. No light is penetrating these two channels and, therefore, their grayscale equivalent is black.

Now let's see what modifying the grayscale level of a pixel's brightness will do to its color (if anything).

1. Select the Red channel then select the Info docker.
2. Go to Image | Adjust | Brightness-Contrast-Intensity (do note the lack of Adjust… options available when a channel is being modified).


3. Click Reset to ensure that each level is set to zero and click the Preview button to see the changes live. Now set the Brightness level to -50 and click OK.
4. Move over the canvas with the Eyedropper tool and witness the RGB values in the Info docker. Red is now 128; half of 255. According to the HSB, the Brightness has also been cut in half (50). It is logical to conclude that removing an amount of a pixel's brightness subsequently removes the equivalent percentage of color.

Let's move on by creating an object and comparing its color info when incorporating a few object color modes.

1. Select the Rectangle Mask Tool (R) and create a 1 or 2 inch selection on our canvas (note our Info docker provides a service in this context as well).
2. From the Mask/Object property bar, click Create Object/Copy Selection (Ctrl UpArrow).

3. The Merge Mode (what I have been calling Object Color Modality) drop down menu is directly above the newly created object in the Object docker (along with Opacity level); the default is Normal. 'Normal' means there is no merging of color/brightness between the top object and the base object underneath. This may seem obvious but is essential for understanding all other modes.
4. From the drop down menu, choose Add and then click on the Info docker. Move the cursor over both the background and the object, checking the Info docker stats. By merging the color and brightness values of the object and base image, we have seemingly recaptured R255 and B100. How?

Add does what the math implies: it adds the amount of brightness with itself. Both the object and the base image have R128 G0 B0 and H0 S100 B50. Therefore, RGB = 255, 0, 0 and HSB = 0, 100, 100 for the merged object (or, the object's color mode).

Object modality takes the values (in this case, RGB and HSB values; the Info Docker provides us with other options) of both the object and the underlying base image/background, combining both their values to change the effectual value of the top object.

To understand further an object's merge mode, let's change the mode of our object and check out the Info docker.

5. Change the object mode to Subtract. The result = RGB 1, 0, 0; HSB 0, 100, 0.

Subtract will not remove entirely the color value of a pixel in order to preserve the color value. If it changed Red to 0, the result would be black, subsequently removing the ability to retrieve the pixel's original color (or, redness). When dealing with the grayscale levels of channels, this is known as 'clipping'.

6. Change the object mode to Mulitply and check the Info docker values.

Multiply does not operate necessarily as its name implies. Multiply takes the top object's color value and multiplies by the color value behind it. But it then divides it by 255 (in our example, (R128 x R128)/R255 = R64.25)).

There are many other modes but these will give us a reasonable understanding for continuing along in our projects below. Let's wrap up our discussing these modes and continue to understand them via application.

Cchanging the object modality of an object with the same color as the base image is going to do little more than change the level of lightness and darkness of a single color. But even this can be advantageous when considering the following exercise.

Improving Image Quality Through Modality

There are plenty of tricks to improve the quality of an image via the Image | Adjust menu list, to be sure. Here, though, we can incorporate object color modes to add similar types of enhancements. Let's start by evaluating a photo of a wonderful Canadian landscape.

(The following photo is provided by Bob Decker and may be downloaded. Mr. Decker has granted permission to use this photo for this tutorial.)

At first glance, the photo overall could stand a little brightening up, bringing out the detail of the trees and lake. But if we tried to brighten these elements, the sky and clouds may become a casualty, resulting in the clouds losing too much detail. We can resolve this by strategically dividing our photo into two objects and incorporating object modality to them.

1. From the Toolbox, select the Lasso Mask Tool (A). Our job is to select the entire sky, so begin by drawing a staggered line just above the treetops, then come full circle to cover the entire sky. From the Property bar, click Grow to capture the remaining sky along the treetops. (If we were doing this for anything other than practice, we might fine-tune the mask around the trees; for our current purposes, Grow works well enough.)

2. From the foot of the Channels Docker, click Mask to Channel. Invert the mask (Ctrl Shift I) and Mask to Channel again.
3. Select the Object Docker and click Create Object From Mask, below. Select the background and load the other channel, also creating an object from the mask.


Rename each object 'Land' and 'Sky'.

4. With the 'Land' object selected, choose Add for the modality. We've doubled the brightness of our land area, to be sure! Let's tone it down a bit by adjusting the opacity level to 70%. By adjusting the level of opacity, we are subsequently removing 30% of each pixel's brightness. Note the remarkable level of detail throughout the land object. If 70% is too much, we can continue easily to adjust the opacity level at will.
5. Now select the 'Sky' object. Here we are going to use two aspects of modality: one on the object itself and the other via a fountain fill.


Choose Lock Transparency, then go to Edit | Fill... Select the Fountain Fill and click Edit... Make the fill according to the image at left (From = Blue; To = Sky Blue).




Before clicking OK to the Edit Fill dialog box, change the Paint Mode to Multiply then click the Transparency tab. Multiplying has added a deep, rich blue gradient to our sky, but has darkened it considerably. So, as we had done with the 'Land' object when we reduced the level of opacity, so here we can add a level of transparency to reduce the amount of paint applied to our object. (I know it still looks dark, but we are about to remedy this.)



6. We want to keep the blueness of our fill yet at the same time, brighten the sky overall to bring up the detail. Therefore, we use the Add mode again, reducing the opacity to 30%, this time.
7. Finally, let's take a look at the original alongside our new image.

Now, I can hear someone in the back row saying, "Hey, writer, I got two words for you: Tone Curve!" True. But consider: Our process keeps the original image completely intact; and, our merged objects allow us complete freedom to fine tune the levels of brightness according to the level of opacity in both the object and base color (the background image). Using object color modality, we've acquired a tremendous amount of flexibility with this process.

Effectual Use of Object Modality

OK, now the fun stuff. We'll be combining some effects with our use of the merge modes to turn an ordinary image into something bordering the unreal. Additionally, we'll introduce a few other merge modes as we move forward.

Let's start fresh and open an image from the CorelDRAW CD. On disk 3, go to Photos | Architct | 852027.wi and choose Resample before opening. At the Resample dialog box, scale it down to 50% and commit. Save the image and call it 'portal.cpt'.

For the sake of the lesson, let's say the director of a movie, "Aliens: The Prequel" has approached us with this image and the following need: "I want to give the viewer the impression of looking through the center of the ceiling (or wall, if you like), peering out into the outer abyss. What is more, the rotunda isn't grimy enough. I want it to look destitute of housecleaning.

So, we have our instructions; let's get to it.

1. Select the Circle Mask Tool (J) with a feather of 20. Starting in the center of the light, click and drag outward the mouse while at the same time holding down the Shift and Control keys; stop at the edge of the outer circle.

   It's always good to save a mask as a channel for later use (better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it), so please do so from the Channels docker. Then Create Object | Copy Selection (Ctrl UpArrow).

2. If the Circle Mask Tool is still selected, change the mask mode to Subtractive, then click Create Mask From Object in the Mask/Object Property Bar (Ctrl M). With the original mask now inverted, select the background from the Objects Docker and Ctrl UpArrow again to create another object.


The Object Docker should look like this.

Of our two new objects, select the one entitled 'inside'.

3. If we take a look at the RGB reading via the Info palette, we see that the majority of each color is well below 80. Now, change the object modality to Subtract.

What Subtract does is adds the RGB values of the current object and its underlying image, then subtracts that number by 255. If we surmise that areas equaling R82 G82 B82 or less are involved, the result is going to be black; but any area that exceeds the 82+ mark, a variation of the pixel's brightness will reveal a color. From what we can see so far, not much has made its way through.

Therefore, to relieve some of the darkness imposed by the merge mode, reduce the level of subtractiveness by reducing the level of opacity to 35%. The change brings forward many more pixels, while keeping a substantial amount in the black.

4. The visible areas are quite sharp, so we may want to dull them a bit by adding some blur to the inside object. Given the shape of the rotunda, let's use Effects | Blur | Zoom...



With an Amount of 20, reset the Set Center button and place it right in the middle of the light as shown above. The Zoom effect shifts the pixels outward nicely and smooths out some of the sharper, contrastive areas.

5. Now select the object 'outside' in the Objects docker. The little dot of light is simply too plain, too basic; we want to create a light that emanates power. Therefore, to capitalize on the brightness, Add mode is a likely candidate.



And what a difference a merge mode makes. The feathered edge of our object allows some of the emanating light to pass from the 'outside' to the 'inside'.

6. To make the light transitions of our 'outside' object more smooth, apply a Gaussian Blur at 15 pixels to it.

After applying the blur, I thought it useful to reduce the opacity of the 'outside' object just a bit; I chose 90% opacity.

To pique the surrealism of our wonderful little non-masterpiece, let's add a friend to the scenario.

7. Click on the Import button on the Standard toolbar, and from CD 3 of CorelDRAW, go to Objects | Science | F283023.cpt.

(You may want to simply click the menu to temporarily place the globe onto the canvas.)




Remove the background and shadow of the imported earth and resize the earth so it is inside the 'outside' object. Once the object is in place, be sure to change the stacking order of objects via the Object docker so that the 'earth' object is underneath the 'outside' object.



8. The image at left shows that I changed the object color modality of the earth to Difference at 30% opacity. You may want to experiment with different modes at a similar opacity to achieve better results.

Now then, let's juxtapose our results to the initial image. We give the results to the director; he loves us and we do lunch.

Conclusion

We have considered several example of object merge mode (or, using color modes) and how the use of modality affects an object's color and brightness when interacting with the base image/background.

We entertained only a few of the color modes and used them in two ways: One, to change the mode of an object, and two, to change the mode of a Fill before applying it to an object.

Finally, we saw that modality can be used both pragmatically and artistically in order to allow the end-user to go far beyond that which an image may first offer.

Good luck in using object color modality in your up-and-coming projects.

Creating Realistic Orbits in Flash · Objects a la Mode: Working with Corel PHOTO-PAINT's Object Color Modality · When Lightning Strikes--Creating Lightning in CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT

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