“Operator”

Months ago, I decided to change my virtual Zoom background every week to keep my colleagues entertained. I have failed to post them so far, so trying to start now. Here is this week’s:

This is a scene from Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful “Spirited Away”.

But there is more to this picture than meets the eye.

This is not the real scene. Here is the real scene from the movie:

The problem with that scene is that on Zoom, my face would cover the two protagonists, which defeats the purpose. So I took advantage of this problem to accomplish my goal #3 for the Shelter In Place period: learn how to use Photoshop.

I am happy to report that after a few hours, I was able to master enough basics of Photoshop to cleanly separate Chihiro from her ghost friend, moving them apart, and even preserving backgrounds and transparency (see how Chihiro’s legs appear behind the ghost in the foreground in that first picture? Pretty proud of that one).

Stay tuned for more Zoom backgrounds (I’ll try to post every new one each week and maybe post some of the other ones I’ve used these past months).