Question about Masking in Photoshop CS3

N
Posted By
no
Sep 19, 2007
Views
355
Replies
6
Status
Closed
Hi,

Say I’ve got a texture layer of scratches… it’s mostly black and white… and I want this layer to act as a mask on a font layer… so that the scratches on the font make it transparent… how do I do this?

It would be easy if I could "paste" the layer with the scratches onto the font layer’s masking layer… but alas, I can. Closest thing I can do is use the magic want to select some scratches, then cut those out of the font layer’s mask layer with a simple DEL. But that takes all the subtleties of the texture away.

The layer with the scratches is partially transparent. I want those qualities in the mask I want applied on the font.

How?

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N
no
Sep 19, 2007
"Mike J.S." wrote in message
It would be easy if I could "paste" the layer with the scratches onto the font layer’s masking layer… but alas, I can. Closest thing I can do is use the magic want to select some scratches

Holy typoes, Batman : "But alas, I CAN’T" & "magic WAND".
MR
Mike Russell
Sep 19, 2007
"Mike J.S." wrote in message
Hi,

Say I’ve got a texture layer of scratches… it’s mostly black and white… and I want this layer to act as a mask on a font layer… so that the scratches on the font make it transparent… how do I do this?
It would be easy if I could "paste" the layer with the scratches onto the font layer’s masking layer… but alas, I [can’t]. Closest thing I can do is use the magic [wand] to select some scratches, then cut those out of the font layer’s mask layer with a simple DEL. But that takes all the subtleties of the texture away.

The layer with the scratches is partially transparent. I want those qualities in the mask I want applied on the font.

How?

Alt-click on the layer mask before doing the paste operation. —
Mike Russell – www.curvemeister.com
EH
Ed Hanni8gan
Sep 19, 2007
Mike Russell wrote:
"Mike J.S." wrote in message
Hi,

Say I’ve got a texture layer of scratches… it’s mostly black and white… and I want this layer to act as a mask on a font layer… so that the scratches on the font make it transparent… how do I do this?
It would be easy if I could "paste" the layer with the scratches onto the font layer’s masking layer… but alas, I [can’t]. Closest thing I can do is use the magic [wand] to select some scratches, then cut those out of the font layer’s mask layer with a simple DEL. But that takes all the subtleties of the texture away.

The layer with the scratches is partially transparent. I want those qualities in the mask I want applied on the font.

How?

Alt-click on the layer mask before doing the paste operation.

To expand on what Mike said, this reveals the actual mask, which is a channel. Same ting could be done from the Channels palette in the Mask channel.
T
Tacit
Sep 19, 2007
In article <46f0a33b$0$47131$>,
"Mike J.S." wrote:

It would be easy if I could "paste" the layer with the scratches onto the font layer’s masking layer…

You can. Hold down option (Mac) or alt (PC). Click on the text layer’s mask. Paste.


Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
G
garypoyssick
Sep 20, 2007
There are a number of other ways to achieve what I think you’re trying to do, as well. The more ways you learn, the easier it will be to remember one of them next time it comes up. Also, some ways work better for specific images. Being images, they’re really unique to each assignment.

1. Drag the whole layer to the new layer icon, and use one for one mask and the other one for the content underneath

2. Ditto the channel — sometimes the best masks make are from one of three (I like to work in RGB or LAB before doing anything stupid, like throwing away color data in a CMYK transform)

3. As Tacit wrote, Option/Alt drag the Mask. That function works for lots of things — you can copy many objects and components in the program (all the Suite apps) than you think you can.

4. You can also select something — anything or an shape or combination of shapes — and drag them to their own layer or channel (drag, right-click, whatever floats your boat).

These give you four ways to generate quick masks — and we haven’t talked about the quick mask mode 🙂

On 9/19/07 6:28 PM, in article
, "tacit" wrote:

In article <46f0a33b$0$47131$>,
"Mike J.S." wrote:

It would be easy if I could "paste" the layer with the scratches onto the font layer’s masking layer…

You can. Hold down option (Mac) or alt (PC). Click on the text layer’s mask. Paste.
S
scfree
Sep 23, 2007
On Sep 19, 12:18 am, "Mike J.S." wrote:
Hi,

Say I’ve got a texture layer of scratches… it’s mostly black and white… and I want this layer to act as a mask on a font layer… so that the scratches on the font make it transparent… how do I do this?
It would be easy if I could "paste" the layer with the scratches onto the font layer’s masking layer… but alas, I can. Closest thing I can do is use the magic want to select some scratches, then cut those out of the font layer’s mask layer with a simple DEL. But that takes all the subtleties of the texture away.

The layer with the scratches is partially transparent. I want those qualities in the mask I want applied on the font.

How?

i may not understand, but can you set the blending mode of the scratches layer to ‘multiply’? if it is sitting right above the text, you can opt-click the rule in between the layers to use the lower layer as a mask.

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