This assignment came to me in a day dream.

With the recent spring-like weather I’ve found myself fantasizing about warmer weather. Spring break is coming up, and my fantasies about a tropical vacation are becoming distractingly frequent!! I find myself gazing out the window just thinking about how nice it would be to be in my baithing suit on a white sand beach somewhere (…sipping Pina Coladas).

So, tangent aside, that is where this assignment came from. I thought it would be kinda cool to alter a picture of my prime day dreaming window so that it looked like my dream was actually just outside the window.

This is what my day dream looks like:

That nice warm beach is close, yet oh so far!

I figured since I’m the one creating the assignment, I should probably show ya how I did it.

This is a great exercise in layers using Aviary. It’s very simple, but is a good way for beginners to start playing around with the tools of the program and learning more about how layers work.

First off, I took a picture of my day dreaming window of choice. For this I would suggest taking the picture looking straight at the window (not at an angle). This is not required, but will make your job easier later on. Save the JPG file to your computer.

Next, find the image that you want to use as the “day dream” aspect of the window. This might be a picture that you already have, an image that you create, or something you find online. No matter what you choose, save that to your computer as well (also as a JPG). For me it was a georgous view from a grass hut on the beach in Tahiti.

At this point you should open Aviary and select the “Image Editor” button.

Then select the “Load Image” button.

Next select the “Browse” button and find the file of your “dream” image. Then select “Upload”. This image will appear as a layer.

To add the next layer, go to the “File” tab at the top of the page and select “Import File.”

This time, select the “Choose File” button and find your “window” image and click on the “Upload” button. Once the image is added, you will have two layers in your document. One or both images may need to be resized. If this is the case you can either click and hold the corner of the image dragging your cursor until its the size that you want, or you can go to the “Image” tab and select “Image resize” where you can manually type in the size you wish the image to be.

If you follow these directions, your layers should be in the right order, but to double check, look at the layer organizer on the right-hand side of your screen. You will want your “window” layer to be above your “day dream” layer. If yours are not in this order, simply click and drag the layer that is in the wrong place to where you want it to be.

Now you get to start manipulating your images! For me, this meant cutting out the panes of my window so that Tahiti showed through. To do this I used the “Rectangular Selection” tool to select each window pane and then I simple “Cut” them out.

This is the part where taking the picture straight on will save you some time. I was standing at a slight angle, so the “Rectangular Selection” doesn’t quite match up this my skewed panes. That’s okay, just crop out as much as you can from each panes and after you can go in and use the “Erase” tool to tidy things up.

You can change the size and shape of the eraser so that it can fit into the tight corners of the panes, allowing you to get rid of any parts of the image that you don’t want to see in your new creation.

Once you have “cleaned” all your window panes, you’re all done! You should be able to see straight through your window into your day dream! The final step is to simply save your work. To do this go to the upper right-hand corner of your screen and click the “Save As” button. Give your image a name and select “Save.”

This will save the image to the Aviary site. To save the image to your computer go to your main page on the Aviary website (which you should already be logger into, in order to use the program). Find and click on your image. Now, just right click on the image and select “Save Image As.” Once again, give the file an name and select “Save.”

Now it’s official, you’re done!! Nice work!

Hopefully you enjoyed creating this assignment and, if you are new to Aviary (like I was- and still am) you learned a little more about the tools and got to explore the program further. If you have any questions about the steps I laid out here, or if you find an error in my ways, feel free to let me know so I can correct them.

Thanks for choosing this assignment! You’re the best!