Removing White Backgrounds Using Adobe Fireworks
WHAT TO DO?
• Suppose we have this great picture of an Ant that we found in Google images, and saved into our own folder as a .jpg file. We now want to use this fabulous looking ant in an animation project.
WE HAVE A PROBLEM
• Our Ant has a white background surrounding him. We want to remove this white background so that we only have our ant present.
• We can do this using Adobe CS3 Fireworks.
HOW TO REMOVE THE WHITE BACKGROUND
• Open the actual ant original start .jpg file
• We now need to set up Fireworks, so that it is running with a Transparent background.
• To change Fireworks to have a transparent (or see through clear) Canvas, we have to go to the top of the screen and do Modify > Canvas > Canvas Color
• Once you have done this you MUST make sure that you have the TRANSPARENT selected
HOW TO REMOVE THE WHITE BACKGROUND
• We now need to use the “magic wand” tool, to select all of the white background and clear it away.
• Now move the mouse over onto the white area, and the magic wand symbol should appear. Click the left mouse button and flashing dashed lines should appear.
• Now at the top of the screen, click on Edit > Clear
• We now remove the dashed lines selection by either pressing the Esc key on our keyboard, or by going Select > Deselect
HOW TO SAVE THE FILE• File > Save As and save the Ant
as a .PNG Fireworks file, (or we can also use a .GIF file).
• We must use either of these two file types, for our Ant to keep his transparent background.
• If we resave him as a .jpg file, we will have the white background come back again. This is because .jpg images are not able to ever have clear backgrounds.