Hello, I’m Axel from FXhome, and today we will be looking at ways to mask one layer
to appear behind another, in Imerge Pro. You can download the project file in the description,
open it in Imerge Pro, and let’s begin. So here is the end result we are trying to
achieve, where a single element from our background appears to be in front of the magazine’s
name. The provided project file doesn’t look like this yet, it looks more like this,
with all the elements in place, but with the logo in front of the tree. We will now look
at several ways you could approach this situation. One method is to reduce the logo’s opacity
so we can see the tree, add a Vector mask to the logo, and carefully draw right along
the edge of the tree where it overlaps the text, to remove that area. This method is
effective, and also slow, frustrating, irritating, vexing, irksome, exasperating and in general
should be avoided. Delete that mask, I hate it. To clarify, vector masks are a perfectly
acceptable solution. For simpler shapes they are very effective, and in certain situations
they are even the best option for more complex shapes like this. For example, if you wanted
to isolate this tree from a background full of similar trees, manually masking it might
be necessary, but we have much better options in this case.
So, our second option is to use a more automated mask. Because the tree is so much darker than
the background, a Luminance mask is a good option. However, since the luminance we need
is contained in the image, not the logo, we need to apply this mask to the image layer.
Therefore, this technique requires that we duplicate the image, and place our new copy
above the logo. Then when we mask out the light areas of the top image, we see the logo
behind them, and behind that, our original image. We can accomplish this in less time
than it took to explain. Add an Image Luminance Mask to the top copy, and see where some of
the text is visible though the tree? Its already working. Invert the mask, and we are almost
there. Adjust the top shadow slider to make sure the entire tree is visible, and we are
good to go. If we hide our bottom copy of the image, you
can see what the mask is doing more effectively. In this particular case the selection is easy,
but if you need to be more precise, you can adjust accordingly. Everything outside the
bottom two handles is completely removed, everything between the top handles is retained,
and the selection is feathered through the angled lines.
So, this is much faster than manually masking, but it does required duplicating our layer.
If we have a case where our middle component, the logo in this case, involves multiple layers,
then sandwiching all of those layers like this is an excellent approach, and you retain
full control over repositioning the middle layers. If we had used a vector mask, the
mask moves with the layer, and as soon as we reposition the logo, we have to fix the
mask. So there is a definite advantage there, to using the luminance mask.
Our third option is using the Blend-If blend mode. This does not require a duplicate layer,
so let’s hide the duplicate, and select the logo layer. In the Layer Properties, set
Blending to Blend-If. You will see two control bars that look remarkably similar to the luminance
mask controls we just used. Blend if works by controlling the visibility of the selected
layer, our logo in this case, based on the luminance values within this layer, or the
luminance values of the underlying layer, which actually means the entire image beneath
the selected layer. It doesn’t use only one layer in the calculation, it uses all
layers underneath. This layer, the logo, contains pure white, and transparency, so there isn’t
a lot of adjustment we can make. If we reduce the white point, the logo disappears. So instead,
we want to use Underlying layer, and make the logo transparent where the underlying
layer is dark, which is just the tree area. The bottom black point handle has to be positioned
to the left of the top handle, so bring in the top black point handle, then bring the
bottom handle inward as well. Adjust those until the entire tree is visible. If we go
too far on the top black point, the logo itself becomes partly transparent. This could be
a cool effect for this particular image, where the air is full of smoke from wildfires, but
I prefer to keep it white. So this method is really simple, we don’t need to duplicate
any layers, but, if our logo involved multiple layers, then you would need to blend each
one, which gets more complicated, or create a new layer group and blend the group.
Just for the sake of covering everything, let’s show the image copy again, disable
the mask we created, and set its blend mode to Blend-If. Now we can adjust the This Layer
controls, to hide the duplicate layer where it overlaps the logo. We want to remove the
lighter areas, and keep the tree, or dark areas, so what do we adjust? Yes! We bring
down the White point, until the sky area is hidden, and only the tree remains. The result
is essentially the same, but we made the adjustment based on the contents of the selected layer,
instead of the contents of the layers underneath. So, there are three ways to handle this situation
in Imerge Pro, each of which has advantages and disadvantages for certain situations.
You can learn more about using Masks in Imerge Pro in this video. Let us know in the comments
if you have any questions or suggestions for future Imerge tutorials, and thanks for watching.