Need help with clipping masks (I think...)

[hardvig]

Hi everyone!

I am completely new to these forums but I really need your help...

I've been tasked with creating a couple of pictures like the one you see above (other people and other words).

I thought I could more or less read a couple of tutorials online and voila! I would be able to do it to perfection - turns out I was wrong...

I've read up on clipping masks and I think I'm somewhat on the right track, the problem is (as I see it), that I need to "stick" a white "background" between the picture (the real background) and the text, but the clipping mask doesn't seem to allow that to happen..

Also, when I create a solid fill layer, it takes up the entire picture (duh! it's a layer), but how do I reduce it's size to only take up half the picture like above?

The last "problem" I haven't even gotten around to (yet), but that already forsee, is the switch from the matté white (the "PERFO"-part of "PERFORMANCE"), to the transparent part... how would I go about that part of the project..?

I'm sorry that I've bitten off more than I can chew, and I'm now comming crying for help, but believe it or not, I'm actually the person who knows the most about this in my dept. therefore I was tasked with this...

I hope you can help me!

Br.
Jonas

So far I've gotten this:

 

[IamSam]

Hi Jonas and welcome to PSG.

Good news is that your on the right track! The sample image you provided is an example of advanced masking. There are two types of masks used in this sample, one is a clipping mask and then there are two layer masks.

I do believe that your understanding of masking is fairly good so I will not do an in depth all out tutorial. But, if you don't understand something please ask and I (or other members) will add to this short tut.

First you have to have your text. I created my white text on three different layers. When I had my text positioned where I wanted, I highlighted the three layers and merged them. (cmd/cntrl + E) This also rastorized the text. You could however group the text and use the groups as layers......if that makes sense.

The only tool I used other than the Type Tool was the Rectangular Marquee Tool.

I will show the layers panel and you can see what I did. It's fairly self explanatory....I hope. If not just ask!
I used two text layers, two image layers. I used the RMT to create the mask you see on the second image layer and the hit alt/option + click and dragged it to the second text layer. You can reverse masks by clicking on them and hitting cmd/cntrl + I.
Also notice that I decreased the second text layers opacity to 84%.





Hopefully this helps.

 

[zoe20]

its really useful IamSam.Thanks a lot

 

[hardvig]

I DID IT! (more or less, but I guess it's just a matter of moving the different layers around to make it all fit inside the original picture)

Thank you SO MUCH IamSam for the guide - i would have NEVER figured that our myself!

2 questions:
1. you say you used the RMT to create the layer mask - I ended up selecting the layer mask itself and dragging the little square on the left side of the mask, to make the layer mask only take up half the screen - what is the difference between the 2 methods? and could you (if it makes a difference how to do it), perhaps simplify how you did it with the RMT (I can make a rectangle just fine, but i creates it's own layer and I could not get that layer to jump in to the layer mask...)
2. I made the canvas way too big for the picture to be able to move the different objects around as I saw fit. is there a way to "trim" the picture down to exactly the size I want, while not moving any of the layers in relation to each other (thereby messing up the picture I imagine?).

once again - thank you SO much!

Br.
Jonas

 

[IamSam]

Hey hardvig,

The RMT is of course the Rectangular Marquee Tool which only makes selections.



The Rectangle Tool is a shape tool and will create a new layer when used.



Here's how to use the RMT to make a mask,

Us the RMT to make a selection. No need to worry which side to select as we can always reverse the mask after it's made.



Highlight the layer you would like the mask to be on.....



Hit the "add layer mask" icon located at the bottom of the layers panel.



This will add the selection to the layer mask on the layer.
If the mask covers the wrong side of your image, click on the mask to make sure it's selected (it will have white brackets around it) then hit Command/Control + I




As for your second question....use the Crop Tool!

 

[hardvig]

I don't know how I could have missed that - of course it's the marquee tool...

and again... of course the crop tool!

thank you so much!

 

[Ben Ja Min]

Whoohoo! Thanks a lot, i had a similar problem and thanks to your explanation i've managed to get the result i needed