Tutorial about generating transparent PNG's for use as tokens in a VTT or similar.

[Midgardsormr]

(I apologize for the title... for some reason people there call "removing the background of an image" "rendering" as opposed to the conventional CGI use of the term rendering, which confused the heck out of me.... I think it comes from the PS selection tool having the word render in the dialog...)

I don't recall having seen the word "render" in Photoshop anywhere except as it pertains to the Render filters. From the Glossary elsewhere on GimpTalk:

In 3D-graphics, a "render" is the result of rendering a 3D scene. In signature-making, a "render" is a foreground cut-out of a stock image (see "Stock"). By removing background that would otherwise disturb the image, the render can be applied on a new background with any choice of effects. The art of cutting out the render ("rendering") is a skill to master all of its own.

It annoys me a bit that the word's been diluted in that fashion. Render has a very specific meaning in both CGI specifically and art generally. There's really no room for another meaning, especially as that meaning is somewhat opposite to the actual definition. "Rendering" in this sense isn't really an act of creation. At least, no more so than cutting newspaper images for a collage is. "Clipping" or "cutting" would be a far more appropriate term.

Ahem… end rant. Whether or not the terminology is good, the process certainly is, and it resembles what I was going to say. The pen is a very valuable and versatile tool, though it does take a bit of practice to get the hang of using it.

edit: Maybe they're using the term as a descendant of rendering meat--separating out what is undesirable. hmm.

[Redrobes]

Yeah that is a bit odd. Rendering in art is filling in an area isn't it ? In the old days of ray tracing thats how it looked on screen too. You get rendering in concrete buildings too which is the same kind of thing so this new term is a bit out of place. I guess you can rend something up out of the ground which is a kind of far flung attempt to guess what they were thinking at the time.

[Midgardsormr]

I like that. Call it rending instead--makes it sound like an act of violence.

[joão paulo]

nice Tuty* Redrobes