How do I make digital collages?

What are the best ways to make digital collages when given a set of source images?

• The original photo The digital collage made this collage of . How long does it take? What tools are used etc? Does anyone have tips for making images like this when supplied with a number of source images?

• Answer:

  A2A I used a program called Corel Painter-12 that I am just learning to use to do this type of work. I guess it took me about 8 hours all up which included finding the images, but someone familiar with the program could do it much faster. I am not a professional graphics artist, I just do this for fun, a real artist would pick this image to pieces for a variety of reasons. So what I have to say here comes from a complete amateur. You could use a heap of different programs like Painter 12 and Photoshop but I'm sure there would be cheaper programs than either of them. The main element of a program that is required is the ability to use layers. With layers you can have numerous screens or layers that you download images to. Once you have an image in/on a layer you can then erase what you don't want from that layer, you use a digital eraser to draw over what you don't want and it disappears.  Then you can move the remaining image wherever you want on the screen as well as resizing it, stretching it, rotating it etc. You move the layers so that you have each image in order. So in this picture I have the chicken image in front of the image of Brian, the skull image on the left in front of the sitting man etc. So apart from the main image of Brian which is the base image every other image has been imported and everything but the element I wanted was erased, then the remaining image is sized correctly and moved into position. Every layer remains separate and able to be changed throughout the process until you are happy with it and save every layer to one final layer. Images behind Brian have had parts of them erased so they appear to be layers under Brian's layer when they are actually above Brian's layer. Think of it as several plastic sheets on top of each other in order, each with a particular element on it, like the skull, chicken or trees. You move these sheets around as you please and that's it. PS- It's good to have a tool called a magic wand that allows you to click on a colour and it will select everything with that colour depending on the tolerance setting you give the magic wand. This tool makes things a lot faster. Also if you buy the more expensive programs there are heaps more interesting tools that make your work more fun and faster as well as having a lot more plug-ins to use. -------------------------------------------- These are 3 screenshots of Painter-12 with progressive stages of the work. In the bottom right corner of the screen you can see two layers, one is of the base image with Brian and the green layer which is highlighted in green has the totem pole in it. I erased the bottom of the totem pole to appear to be behind Brian while that layer is actually above Brian's layer. Here you can see there are 8 layers for the various elements that have been added. And in this final saved file there are too many layers to fit on the screen. Each of these layers can be grabbed with the mouse or digital pen that I use and dragged up or down to be in the desired position. So the man sitting on the left is under one of the skulls layers but above the other skulls layer, the chicken is above the totem poles layer etc. Tablets make this kind of work heaps easier than using a mouse because you use a digital pen which is very easy to control over a digital tablet as shown below. I use a Wacom Intuos-4. ------------------------------------- I hope that all made sense, but to make things clearer there are some links below for you to have a look at. Cheers and good luck if you decide to try this kind of work! FREE 30 DAY TRIAL DOWNLOAD OF PAINTER-12 >> http://download.cnet.com/Corel-Painter/3000-2192_4-10322227.html Here is a Photoshop tutorial on layers. http://www.tutorial9.net/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/working-with-layers-in-photoshop/  There are some good Painter 12 tutorial video's here that will give you some ideas about how these types of programs are used. Have a look in youtube for Photoshop video's too. http://www.youtube.com/feed/UCOk56ZU2iNZEauw0f_u1YQg Here are some cheap and free programs I found, just make sure they have layers to use, also you can type - cheap graphics programs with layers - into google. Good luck! http://photo-graphics-software.findthebest.com/d/a/Layers http://mashable.com/2007/10/27/graphics-toolbox/ http://www.lifeclever.com/10-free-web-based-alternatives-to-photoshop/