AKVIS Chameleon 5

Reviewed: Geetesh Bajaj

Date Created: October 12th 2007
Last Updated: February 27th 2009

Product Showcase

How To Use

To use the plugin you need two images -- the first image should be of the object that you want use for the photo collage and the other images can serve as background for the collage.

Here’s how you can use AKVIS Chameleon:

Open an image with the object that you want use for the photo collage in an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop.
Make a selection of the object by using the selection tools in Photoshop (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Selection
Choose Filter | AKVIS | Chameleon - Grab Fragments, as shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: AKVIS Chameleon - Grab Fragments

If everything is done correctly you'll see a message " Frangment saved successfully!"
Open the other image which will serve as a background for creating the collage. The image I have selected is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Background image
Choose Filter | AKVIS | Chameleon - Make Collage, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: AKVIS Chameleon - Make Collage

Note: Before pasting the image on the background it's better to to duplicate the layer, as on the resulting image the images will be merged into one.
This will open AKVIS Chameleon interface as shown in Figure 5, with the background image and the pasted object.

Figure 5: AKVIS Chameleon Interface
Select the appropriate Collage Mode from the drop-down menu in the Settings panel on the right side of the interface as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Collage Modes

Collage Modes:

Montage: combines images to create a seamless photo montage. It transfers selected objects to a new background and makes the irrelevant parts of the pasted fragment fade away. It doesn't change the color range or the opacity. This mode is good to use for creating photo collages with people (pasting a person into a new background).

Chameleon: works similar to the way a chameleon adapts to the environment. Here the pasted image adjusts to the background image color range and smoothes the object's borders.

Blend Mode: This not only smoothes the borders of the pasted image and adjusts its color range, but it also makes the object semi-transparent, so that the texture and the relief of the background image can be seen through. Use this mode if you want to dissolve the inserted image in the background.

Use the Opacity parameters to set transparency on the pasted image.
Select the appropriate collage mode and, click the Run icon (see icon below).
This applies and creates a preview of the image. If you want to make more changes, you can select another collage mode as required. You can preview the changed image in the After tab, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: The Before and After tabs
Once you’re done with the applying the collage made, apply the result to the image by pressing the Apply icon (see icon below) to return to the image editor.