Photoshop

About selections in Vanishing Point

Selections can be helpful when you’re painting or retouching to correct flaws, add elements, or enhance an image. In Vanishing Point, making selections let you paint or fill specific areas in an image while honoring the perspective defined by the planes in the image. Selections can also be used to clone and move specific image content in perspective.

Using the Marquee tool in Vanishing Point, you draw a selection within a perspective plane. If you draw a selection that spans more than one plane, it wraps to conform to the perspective of each plane.

Once a selection is drawn, you can move it anywhere in the image and maintain the perspective established by the plane. If your image has multiple planes, the selection conforms to the perspective of the plane it’s moved through.

Vanishing Point also lets you clone the image pixels in a selection as it is moved in an image. In Vanishing Point, a selection containing image pixels that you can move anywhere in the image is called a floating selection. Although not on a separate layer, the pixels in a floating selection seem to be a separate layer hovering above the main image. While active, a floating selection can be moved, rotated, or scaled.
Note: When you paste an item into Vanishing Point, the pasted pixels are in a floating selection.

Clicking outside a floating selection deselects it. Once deselected, a floating selection’s content is pasted into the image, replacing the pixels that were below it. Cloning a copy of a floating selection also deselects the original.

Vanishing Point has another move option for selections. You can fill the selection with pixels from the area where the pointer is moved.

Copying a selection and moving a selection from one perspective plane to another

Make selections in Vanishing Point

  1. Select the Marquee tool.
  2. (Optional) In the tool options area, enter values for any of the following settings before making the selection:
    Feather
    Specifies how much to blur the edges of the selection.

    Opacity
    Specify this value if you plan to use the selection to move image content. This option determines how much the moved pixels obscure or reveal the image underneath.

    Heal menu
    Choose a blending mode if you plan to use a selection to move image content. This option determines how the moved pixels blend with the surrounding image:

    • Choose Off so the selection doesn’t blend with the colors, shadows, and textures of the surrounding pixels.

    • Choose Luminance to blend the selection with the lighting of the surrounding pixels.

    • Choose On to blend the selection with the color, lighting, and shading of surrounding pixels.

  3. Drag the tool in a plane. You can make a selection that spans more than one plane. Hold the Shift key to constrain the selection to a square that’s in perspective.
    Selection spanning more than one plane

    Note: To select an entire plane, double-click the Marquee tool in the plane.

Move selections in Vanishing Point

  1. Make a selection in a perspective plane.
  2. Choose one of the following from the Move Mode menu to determine the behavior when you move a selection:

    • To select the area you move the selection marquee to, choose Destination.

    • To fill the selection with the image pixels in the area where you drag the Selection tool pointer to (same as Ctrl-dragging or Command-dragging a selection), choose Source.

  3. Drag the selection. Hold down the Shift key to constrain the move so it is aligned with the grid of the perspective plane.

Move, rotate and scale floating selections

 Do any of the following:

  • To move a floating selection, select the Marquee or Transform tool, click inside the selection and drag.

  • To rotate a floating selection, select the Transform tool and move the pointer near a node. When the pointer changes to a curved double arrow, drag to rotate the selection. You can also select the Flip option to flip the selection horizontally along the vertical axis of the plane or select the Flop option to flip the selection vertically along the horizontal axis of the plane.

    Transform tool options

    A.
    Original selection

    B.
    Flop

    C.
    Flip

  • To scale a floating selection, make sure that it is in a perspective plane. Select the Transform tool and move the pointer on top of a node. When the pointer changes to a straight double arrow drag to scale the selection. Press the Shift key to constrain the aspect ratio as you scale. Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to scale from the center.