3.1.1.2 The Lasso (the Free-Hand Selection Tool)
The Lasso is used to draw free-hand selections. Although its
official name is the Free-Hand Selection tool, the Lasso
will be preferred in this book because the tool's icon in the Toolbox
resembles a lasso (and it's also a lot shorter to type).
The Lasso is used by clicking and dragging in the image window,
tracing out the shape to be selected. Releasing the mouse button
completes the selection. While tracing with the Lasso, the
outline of the selection can be seen, and, when completed, the
selection is shown by the Marching Ants.
Figure
3.4
Figure 3.4:
A Lasso Selection
 |
shows an example of a
Lasso selection.
The advantage of the Lasso is that it can be used to select
arbitrarily complex objects. The disadvantage is that the work can be
painstakingly slow, requiring extremely fine control of the mouse.
Even the small selection shown in Figure
3.4 was
difficult, because the tree's outline is so jagged and rough. Another
aspect of the Lasso that makes it difficult for precision work
is that the mouse button cannot be released while the selection is
being made. This precludes using this tool for making large,
complicated selections. For these reasons, the Lasso will not
be our selection tool of choice for fine-grain work. Rather, it will
mainly be used to rough-out selections around complicated shapes or
for completing work on masks. A good example of the latter use of the
Lasso is demonstrated in Sections
4.5.3 and
7.4.
