masks help...

[Carolyn]

How do I  make a mask from my own images. Could that be from a jpg photo? What does forcing them to a sellout format mean?
I need it step by step, if possible.
I am trying to make something like your horse head maze using my own pictures in ? format? I have a large Dog's head I was trying to work with at present.
I have the std version. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I figured out how to put a photo in the maze but making a Mask template maze on top, stumps me totally! 
Thank you so much!   Carolyn

[Maze Creator]

The best way to proceed is make sure you have a good graphic editing program.  Paint might not be good enough.

Think of it this way.  You have three colors to play with.  You have Black, White, and something else (doesn't matter what it really is, blue, red,etc)

Anything in Black will  be black in the maze template you create with that image.  Anything white will be erased (white) in the maze template.  Anything in between will become the actually maze template.  You should look at the masks in the Gallery:

http://mazecreator.com/maze_creator_gallery.php

The best example is probably the Elaphant (sorry about the spelling):
http://www.mazecreator.com/gal/Elaphant.bmp

Try applying this mask to a large BOX style maze.  You can then try to apply it to different shape and size mazes.

To generate that with a picture will take some finesse.  Depending upon you picture editor you us, sorry, sellout should be Silhouette in the manual, gutta love auto spell correct with Word.  If you can get the outlines of your picture (if your tool allows layers you can freehand the tracing), then you can fill sections with your desired color.

The best thing to try for a dog would be to erase (paint white) all around the outside of the dog shape.  You might want to add black highlights in some areas of the dog such as the eyes, feet, maybe in patch on the coat if that is what the dog looks like.  Save it as a BMP and try loading it as a MASK.  Start with a very large maze (to get as much detail as possible) to see what Maze Creator did with your image.

Depending on how close it was, you can touch up with the build in maze tools or you can go back to the painting program and edit your mask.

Hope that gets you closer, feel free to followup with more questions.  Let me know what photo-editing tools you have, I can help a bit with Photoshop and a few others.

Regards,
Greg Peatfield
Maze Creator Author

[Carolyn]

Hi, Greg   
I just returned and found your reply to making a mask.
Thank you so much for the help. I just printed it out to read and try.
while waiting for ayour reply I started working with the mazes and adding lightened pictures to the background and the maze on top.
Also trying many other things... adding pictures and just messing around with sizes and things. I am getting pretty good at it.
I was thinking of making a background of the ocean probably top view and run the maze over it. 
The kids are thrilled with the designs you have and the ones I make... with them and their parents and pets. It's so nice to have many things to choose from. I love to rerender them with the family faces at each end etc.
I know that you are very busy.
Thank you again so very much, Greg!
Carolyn