Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover Walkthrough

The process of selecting your picture and getting it into the program is not easy. You can load either a picture or a makeover. A makeover is the equivalent of a Superdudes card in progress. You can also acquire a picture from a camera or scanner, much like one would do in Photoshop.

There are only 4 templates to choose from, and they are all shown at once. The CosmoVM program can do this because it does not try to crop the image at all. You must manipulate your image to fit the mask. Notice how the mask is a wireframe-type image.

The controls are very well done.

Small circle with minus sign shrinks entire image by one step.
Large circle with plus enlarges entire image by one step.
Four-directional arrow moves image in four compass directions if you click on the tip of each arrow. You can also move the image by clicking directly on it and dragging.
The sideways profile-with-arrow button allows you to flip the image left-to-right, creating a mirror image. It does NOT rotate the image 90 degrees.
The profile with arrows going each direction allows you to rotate the image a few degrees left or right with each click.

Once the image is in the program, the user can adjust brightness, sharpness, and contrast. The Undo button reverts the last move the user made. The Reset button brings all sliders back to their normal positions. The Sharpness slider performs a filter effect similar to Photoshop's Unsharp Mask filter. There is a remove redeye feature as well.

The process of adding accessories is very well done. Users select an overall look in the far left column. The image appears in the center, not off to the right as it does in the Supernater.

The controls are easy to use and figure out.
First Row:

Magnifying glasses reduce or enlarge image size.
Hand allows user to move image around.
Left arrow is Undo.
Right arrow is Redo.
The X removes the current accessory, wig or other item.
The drop removes everything except for the picture, allowing the user to start over fresh.
The wig toggles to hair selections.
The glasses toggle to glasses selections.

Second Row:

Circular arrow function unknown.
Side portrait with arrow flips accessory, creating a mirror image.
Plus and minus buttons shrink or enlarge the accessory by one step.
Remaining two icons are for the Makeup Bag.

The Makeup Bag is an interesting concept, one we could apply to the Supernater. It allows the user to "save" his favorite accessories into a separate window, and bring them up whenever he wants without having to go through the main menus.

Although the program does not have the user crop his face, it does require creating complex masks so makeup and eye coloring can be applied. It does this by walking the user through a series of steps, having them click on a spot in the picture that corresponds to a region such as the left edge of the mouth.

Once the user has completed the requested steps, the program draws a mask with control points. The user is then advised to tweak the mask by dragging the control points until the outline is correct.

A more complete view of the makeover process in progress. Ooh la la!