teh one with that robot (samus aran from metorid), that's JVhell's image
ask him in his thread
btw, it's just simple compositing, play around with layers and all done, you could try it with any image editor (i recomend some that have layer feature)
cutting edges, nothing as good as your own had and eyes
any application will do, everything depend on your will to do it
personaly i use Photoshop, been a PS user since PS 5, up until now i'm using PS CS 3 extended. nothing has change about image extraction or selection. pen tool has always been my best companion
polygonal tool also nice once in a while. to make a quick selction.
ans something a 1 pixel eraser in pencil moed or block on (using 3200% zoom) also a needed for finishing touch.
since most of teh time PS always use anti aliasing, so you'll always get a bit of transparancy (alpha channel) mixed in your selection edge or when you use brush or eraser even though on 100% hardness.
so, again, it's all come back to you, wanna do it into small detail to get the best result or a quick result that give enough satisfaction.