Clipping Magic
Creative
image background removal
SHOW HN2013
How HN took it
40 positive, 24 neutral or asking, 15 mixed, 16 critical, out of 95 comments about the project. Thread score +0.29.
Execution: 8 for, 11 againstIdea: 9 for, 2 againstDesign: 9 for, 1 againstPerformance: 7 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fast, real-time feedback and easy to use
From 4 comments
This works way better than I had expected. Very well executed!
todd3834 on HNWow. This is so fast and so slick, and works very well. Well done!
mpclark on HNReally nice work! I tried a fairly complicated image and it worked quite well. Couple bugs: 1) Chrome on Win8 consistently gives me the Network Error dialog when trying to upload…
wingspan on HNWorks great!
tunnuz on HN
Better than expected results on tricky images
From 3 comments
Wow. So I went looking for an image I thought it would have a hard time with: http://fileza.com/d/5h2wco/clippingmagic_test.png A pretty busy background, soft/furry edges between…
gibybo on HNMiraculous. Took me 15 seconds to remove this picture of my lovebird from a pretty busy background:…
alainbryden on HNWorks much better than I expected it to, so props. Brush size could be smaller though.
thekiwi99 on HN
Simple, intuitive UI
From 3 comments
This is really slick. I work at a newspaper where we do a lot of cutouts and I've looked at several automatic tools to save people time, and I think this is the best I have seen…
chc on HNThis is beautifully done -- great UX, truly impressive tech. My wife loves it and is using it to repurpose some shots from our wedding for e.g. Christmas cards.
patio11 on HNThis is seriously great and very intuitive to use. Two small improvements : it would be great to be able to change brushes (at least size). The workaround is zoom/draw/unzoom…
emillon on HN
Objections
Browser compatibility and freezing during initialization
From 5 comments
I get "Your Browser Is Out Of Date... Terribly sorry, but your browser appears to be missing key feature(s) required to use this website: Data URL Support Please try the latest…
saurik on HNI've been trying to use the demo for the last... 30 minutes or so, but after I upload the image the "Initializing" progress bar in the "Booting" window always freezes around 90%.
atgm on HNI was using Chrome Version 26.0.1410.65 on Mac OS X 10.7.5. Opera 12.15 is apparently not compatible since it lacks data URLs. Safari Version 6.0 (7536.25) freezes at the same…
atgm on HNIt claims my browser (Firefox 20.0.1) is out of date :(
charonn0 on HNVery cool. Stalled each time for me at the "initializing" phase when using Safari 6.0.1 (OS X 10.8.2), but worked like a charm in Chrome.
edgely on HN
Fixed brush size too large and no undo
From 3 comments
Thats cool, but still it needs a lot of work/features. I tried removing the background using the purse picture in the pictorial, and it wasn't as easy as it was made out to be…
hahla on HNReally neat. I was really itching to use CTRL+Z though. I screwed up the first image I tried to clip. Maybe have a walkthrough of the features when the user first uses it? I…
stmchn on HNAdding a "step-back" button (even if it was only a few states), and the ability to increase or decrease brush size would greatly enhance this. Great start though, and something…
mcescalante on HN
Struggles with hair, shadows and dark areas
From 2 comments
Didn't work very well for hairs http://i.imgur.com/g16qR4J.png
est on HNInteresting, but shadows, brown and blacks, tend to trip it up. Was playing with a photo of my car that is really difficult to break out because the rear bumper is pretty dark in…
Shivetya on HN
Red and green markings hard for colour-blind users
From 1 comment
Very cool. The red and green suck for us color blind folks, though.
RobotCaleb on HN
Requests
Undo and reset functionality
From 2 comments
Yeah, we need to add both undo and reset/clear. The help should have shown during the upload / init!?
jacobn on HNUndo is sorely needed. Just deployed a smaller brush size (30px instead of 40px when zoomed out). It should get picked up when you reload the page (though default asset caching…
jacobn on HN
Keyboard shortcuts like Photoshop
From 3 comments
I love it! A couple of quick Photoshop shortcuts would really seal the deal, like holding down Spacebar to activate the grabber tool.
lifeformed on HNVery cool! I've seen this technique before in research papers and their videos, but not as actual software. The one suggestion I would make is to follow Photoshop's shortcuts.…
tghw on HNAnother vote for space-to-drag. Though, I guess us photoshoppers probably will continue to use photoshop for this sort of thing so our muscle-memory shortcuts might not be so…
lessnonymous on HN
Smaller brush size
From 2 comments
Pretty Awesome. Would be good if you could choose a smaller brush.
itry on HNYeah, it should probably be a little smaller (and note what happens when you zoom in)
jacobn on HN
Feathering edges and image link input
From 2 comments
This is really slick. I work at a newspaper where we do a lot of cutouts and I've looked at several automatic tools to save people time, and I think this is the best I have seen…
chc on HNWould be good to be able to give an image link, and not just upload from the computer. Really sweet tool though
Ntrails on HN
Questions
How it compares to GIMP foreground select
From 2 comments
How does this compare to the gimp "Foreground Select tool"? http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-foreground-select.html
ars on HNDoesn't matter. Gimp is insanely hard to use. This isn't.
UnoriginalGuy on HN
What algorithms are used
From 3 comments
This is kickass... is the whole thing happening in JS or server side? Any idea what algorithms are being used?
sudhirj on HNAny chance of source code, or at least a detailed post explaining the algorithms behind this?
peter-fogg on HNdoes it use GraphCuts?
ank286 on HN
Alternatives named
GIMP Foreground Select tool
From 2 comments
How does this compare to the gimp "Foreground Select tool"? http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-tool-foreground-select.html
ars on HNVery cool! I've seen this technique before in research papers and their videos, but not as actual software. The one suggestion I would make is to follow Photoshop's shortcuts.…
tghw on HN
Photoshop Magic Wand Tool
From 1 comment
This seems very similar to the "Magic Wand Tool" in Photoshop. It's nice that it's free online, but it doesn't seem to produce better results.
brianberns on HN
SIOX algorithm
From 1 comment
Did you use the SIOX algorithm to implement it? That's what the Gimp feature is based on: http://www.siox.org/
cbhl on HN
KNN Matting and Shared Matting
From 2 comments
Have a look at KNN Matting http://ihome.ust.hk/~dli/projects/knn/. Their MATLAB implementation uses a similar style to yours but is not as real time. They take single mouse…
sjtrny on HNActually Shared Matting is far more applicable than KNN Matting. It's designed for real time use and has a post processing step which will help you deal with fine detail like…
sjtrny on HN
Bonanza Background Burns
From 1 comment
Also available, and newly made free: http://www.bonanza.com/background_burns Pros: Doesn't require the fg/bg coloring step needed here, just figures out your FG without…
wbharding on HN