Scissors Select Tool (Intelligent Scissors)

Message 290 of 316

The Intelligent Scissors tool is an interesting piece of equipment: it has some features in common with the Lasso, some features in common with the Path tool, and some features all its own. It is useful when you are trying to select a region defined by strong color-changes at the edges. To use the Scissors, you click to create a set of "control nodes", also referred to as anchors or control points, at the edges of the region you are trying to select. The tool produces a continuous curve passing through these control nodes, following any high-contrast edges it can find. If you are lucky, the path that the tool finds will correspond to the contour you are trying to select.

The Tool Options Box shows a new feature that we have not learned yet, "Interactive boundary". Everything else in the box has been covered in earlier tutorials.

posted by GaryJames

Gimp's Official Tutorial Page:
Make sure you read and understand the part about "Interactive Boundary". With it checked you can see the actual path that the scissors will take as it wraps around the figure. If it is not check you will only see a straight line and will not be able to see the final path until you click the next node spot.

posted by GaryJames
over 2 years ago

The following video is by the same author but he does a better job of showing how to use the tool. He is answering a question by a subscriber so the first 90 seconds is blah blah blah but if you want to jump to minute marker 1:33 then you can get right to it.

posted by GaryJames
over 2 years ago

The one thing that I discovered and did not find mentioned is that if I do not like the path the tool is taking I can do a shift-click and it will turn off the automatic intelligence and go where I want it to go.

posted by GaryJames
over 2 years ago

It is time to play!

Here is my base image:

And I decided to let the little guy float out in the pool! I used the same cutout to make the shadow below his body, I just removed the color and played with the contrast, brightness etc.