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Can anyone explain masks to me?
- Thread starter Raven1645
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Vafann
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Hi Raven, if you go to the tutorial forum you will find all kinds of things there. I would link it here for you but I can´t figure out where the thread ID is lol.
SeniorS
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Anton Moritz
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I used this thread to understand the masks as well. Thank you guys!
No one wrote an actual answer, so I thought there should also be a text-written simple explaination 
I don't know if this is the professional term, but with masks you can set opacity very specificly, and in a great way.
To be exact, when you have a layer with an image, and you apply mask to it (select it, and click at the bottom of the layers panel on it, looks like a gray rectangle, with a white circle inside), after that you can paint on the layer, OR on the mask.
To the mask:
100% Black = 0% Opacity
100% White = 100% Opacity
And every gray color in the middle, the more black it is, the less opacity.
to understand this better, try to take an image, any image. apply a mask, and use the gradient tool.
you'll see that the black color is actually 0% opacity, and white is 100% opacity as mentioned above.
I don't know if this is the professional term, but with masks you can set opacity very specificly, and in a great way.
To be exact, when you have a layer with an image, and you apply mask to it (select it, and click at the bottom of the layers panel on it, looks like a gray rectangle, with a white circle inside), after that you can paint on the layer, OR on the mask.
To the mask:
100% Black = 0% Opacity
100% White = 100% Opacity
And every gray color in the middle, the more black it is, the less opacity.
to understand this better, try to take an image, any image. apply a mask, and use the gradient tool.
you'll see that the black color is actually 0% opacity, and white is 100% opacity as mentioned above.
Steve
Retired Administrator
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In a file with multiple layers you can only see the top layer.
A mask makes invisible part of a layer so the layer below can be seen.
When editing a mask layer you use the brush tool with the default colors set to black and white.
Black adds to the mask, white removes masked areas
Set the default colors to black and white with the "D" key and switch back and forth with the "X" key
A mask makes invisible part of a layer so the layer below can be seen.
When editing a mask layer you use the brush tool with the default colors set to black and white.
Black adds to the mask, white removes masked areas
Set the default colors to black and white with the "D" key and switch back and forth with the "X" key