Maps by Butch Curry

[RPMiller]

AWESOME!! Thanks!

[heruca]

Could I put in a request for Masks? I still don't understand how they work, but have heard that they are very important to getting to the next level with PS. I also heard there were several different kinds of masks, but I only know of one.

Heh, I only recently discovered masks, and already I feel like I've "gone up a level" in Photoshop.

Looking forward to palehorse's tutorial.

[palehorse]

Heh, I only recently discovered masks, and already I feel like I've "gone up a level" in Photoshop.

Looking forward to palehorse's tutorial.

Mastering the secrets of the 4 masks comes right after walking on rice paper without tearing it and just before snatching the pebble from the master's hand in Photoshop Fu.

[palehorse]

I'm having some trouble with the third installment of my podcast... After a couple of attempts at rendering in different formats and uploading to YouTube and Revver, I'm beginning to suspect that I'll have to re-record the whole thing and try again.

I'm going to give it one more try, but if I have to go back to recording it probably won't be up til tomorrow, so my Photoshop tip of the week will be pushed back a day as well.

[palehorse]

After fighting it all day, it seems that FCAP #3 is now up at YouTube. It's still taking awhile on Revver, unfortunately, but you can still check it out here.

[palehorse]

Well, it wasn't quite done by Tuesday (as I mention in the article, my wife broke her foot last week, so it's been pretty crazy around here the last few days!) but I finally have my article on layer masks up at my site.

[RPMiller]

SWEET!! Thank you very much!

[RPMiller]

Follow-up post - Holy cow that was incredibly simple! I have no idea why haven't been using those all along, but I will definitely start now. I've heard there are different types of layer masks. Which one was that that you demonstrated?

[palehorse]

Well, there are 4 different kinds, but layer masks are the only kind I've used so far in the podcast.

Vector masks are like layer masks, but you reveal and hide things by adding vector shapes on to them. Shapes with "Add to path area" selected reveal the layer contents, and those with "Subtract from path area" hide them. They're neat, because you can use all the path tools to modify the shapes indefinitely. (There'll be a segment of the podcast about vector masks later.)

Channels and the Quick Mask are the other two types of masks. I mentioned in the article about how masks and selections are linked; Channels are the link between the two.

Normally, Channels are nothing more than a mask for colors. Where a Channel for a particular color is white, that color comes through at 100%; where it's black, that color doesn't come through at all. Where the Channel is gray, the color comes through in varying amounts.

But Channels are also where selections get saved when you click on Select > Save Selection! White areas are 100% selected, black areas are unselected, and areas of gray are feathered.

Which is how the Quick Mask works. It's just a disposable selection tool, but it follows the same rules as a layer mask other wise: you paint on it with white, black, or shades of gray to change the selection, you can run filters on it, etc. (There are all kinds of things in Photoshop that utilize the 8-bit, 256 level grayscale in one way or another; masks and selections are just the tip of the iceberg, really.)

If you follow through the evolution of Photoshop, you can see how they've takn really cool bits, like using Channels to save selections, and then expanded on those bits in really amazing ways.

[pyrandon]

Butch: I first learned Photoshop from a lot of mistakes, but also (later) from Adobe Photoshop for Dummies. Your layer mask section is better than the description in that book! Well done!