Read Me First!

Before you get started, there are some things you should understand about working with photos in Caricature Studio 4.0  in order to acheive the best results.

Photo Size

In this era of super megapixel digital cameras, very large images are produced. Even a 3.1 megapixel camera, low-resolution by today's standards, produces photos that are 2048 pixels wide X 1536 pixels high. To put it in perspective,  the most common computer screen resolution is 1024 pixels wide X 768 pixels high, or about half the size of the photo! So as you can see....photos from a digital camera can be very large.

The Putty, Warp and Twirl caricature tools use a selection circle that is expandable to a maximum radius of 500 pixels. The selection area is used to manipulate a particular area of the face or image, so in most cases the tools are sufficient in size. The algorithms used to produce the caricature effects are very resource-intense, so the tools have been designed to offer the largest area possible without severly affecting system performance. The tools will work on larger photos, but the effects will not be as prominent because they are limited to manipulate an area under 500 pixels at a time. For best results, the head area should not exceed about 800 pixels in width. The overall size of the photo should be considered, but more importantly, consider how the subject is framed within the photo. Let's look at an example.

First, let's look at a bad example of a photo to choose for a caricature. Remember that we're only talking about photos in relation to the caricature tools here. If you're creating a comic panel or a full-body caricature, the size of the photo is not as important. For this purpose, we're talking about facial caricatures.

Bad Example

This is not a good photo to choose for a facial caricature. Why? The face comprises only about 5% of the photo, and is not large enough to acheive optimal results.

Good Example

This photo a good choice for a facial caricature. Why? The subject is properly framed and the facial area is large and clear.

When you open a photo in Caricature Studio, it is automatically shrunk to fit within the viewable area of the program window. However this is only for viewing purposes, the photo is not resized. To see the actual size of the image in pixels, go to      Edit > Image Size on the menu bar. If your photo is very large, you can resize it here as well. If you're creating a caricature of a single subject, you can also use the Crop function to isolate the subject from the background.

  Tip: Use the Crop function to select the head and upper torso area.

If the tools do not seem to give you the results you're looking for, check the size of your photo. Is it too large? Can it be cropped or resized? Learning how to properly size your photos is key to making great caricatures! See the sections Cropping Images and Resizing Images for more details.

  When images are distorted, they tend to blur. Use the Sharpen filter to bring back some of the detail to your image if you notice blurring. The Sharpen filter is available on the Filters menu under Adjust.