| The vast majority of bases available online are saved as .gif files. The problem with gifs is that they are limited to a 256 colour palette on a single layer, so before you are able to use all the neat features in PhotoShop Elements, your have to get the base to a point where it's millions of colours & on a layer all of it's own! | ||
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1. Save the base from the base creator's site by right-clicking on the image & choosing Save Picture As.
If you use a lot of bases from different sites, it's probably worth saving them into different folders with the base creator's name so that you don't forget who made which. |
2. Open PhotoShop Elements.
Open your saved base. If the base was saved as a transparent gif, the image will have a chequered background, indicating transparency. |
3. If the base creator cropped their image, it's probably a little small to work comfortably on.
To correct this, go to Image/Resize/Canvas Size. You may need to play around with the sizes depending on the size of the base. As a general rule, I like to leave myself with about 50 pixels around each size. Click on OK to action the changes. |
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| 4. Your base should look something like this. |
5. Now we need to increase the colour depth as it is currently set to 256 colours.
Go to Image/Mode & select RGB Color. |
6. I always prefer to work on a doll with a white background, I find the little grey & white squares a little distracting.
Create a new layer underneath the base layer called Background. |
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| 7. Click on the Flood Fill Tool. | 8. Locate where on the screen it shows your foreground colour. | 9. Set your foreground colour to white by clicking on it & using the settings shown above. |
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| 10. Click on the image to flood fill the background layer white. |
11. Now, we want to save this base in a format that will keep the layers so that we don't have to do this again.
Go to File/Save As. The file type PhotoShop (*.PSD;*.PDD) is selected default. This is fine as it is the native image format & will preserve layer information. Give your image a name & press Save |
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| Your base is now ready for use! | ||
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