Hi guys! In this video, you will learn five tricks about masks.
Masks are really important when it comes to rendering,
or adding some texture to your illustration.
It will help you create and paint in a non-destructive way.
So today I want to show you five tips about masks.
Five tips that will help you on a daily basis
when you work in Photoshop for your illustrations,
or for anything else that's Photoshop-related.
So the first thing I want to show you is how to add many masks.
Now, if you're not new to Photoshop, you will know where the mask is.
The mask is on the layer panel, at the bottom, and it's that little icon here.
And when you click on it, it's adding that little white square here, and that's the mask.
And basically, the mask works in a way that anything that you paint in black on this will get masked.
So right now I'm painting with black with the mask, and it's masking what I did on my illustration.
But here I want to show you something different.
So when I worked here, I have a sheet where I was doing some sketches as a warm-up.
And let's say I want to add some texture to this portrait here.
So I'm going to create a new layer and then use the brush with the texture that I want.
I'm going to use this brush here. And I'm going to paint like this all over the canvas.
And I want this texture to be only on the skin.
So to do so, instead of deleting what's outside, I'm going to create a mask.
So the first thing I'm going to do is to create a mask. So I'm gonna click on the mask.
And now there's different ways to actually paint. You could use the pen tool as well.
On this example, I'm going to use simply the brush. And I will paint all the extra outside of the face,
just to mask what I want.
So here we go. So now, my mask is masking everything that was outside of the face.
But what will happen if I want a mask with a little bit of that texture?
Because right now it's super black and I don't want all the black like that.
So I'm gonna use a soft round brush right here, and I'm still gonna put a mask, but this time, I'm gonna paint with white.
I'm gonna paint here. But what happens if I paint too much, and I want to go backwards?
Well I could do CTRL+Z. But what happens if I painted a few times on it,
and I cannot go with my CTRL+Z anymore?
I could simply paint with white, and make appear the texture that I want,
but it will make appear as well the texture outside of my face,
making that that work that I did here that I would have to redo again.
So to make sure that I keep this as sharp as possible, I could add another mask.
But I can't add another mask on one layer.
When I add another mask on one layer, it's going to add a second mask, but this time, a vector mask, which I will show you in a minute.
So I can't really use this one.
The way I can use another mask is by putting this layer in a group.
So here I already have a layer that I like, so I'm going to create a group by pressing this icon here.
We're going to put that layer in the group and now I can put another layer on that group.
And therefore, I'll be able to paint on this.
And if I go back to repaint, it's not going to bring back what's outside the face because that's on the other mask.
So now I can simply take out the texture that I don't need,
and be really confident in my motion and strokes,
knowing that it's not going to go outside of it.
And let's say I like this result right here, I could add another layer
another mask--I mean, another group,
to just continue and be like, alright I like what's there, I don't wanna take any chances,
I'm going to keep it. So I'm going to create another group.
I'm going to put this group in that group; create a mask on this one, and then continue painting.
And therefore, I'll be able to add many masks in one layer.
Now the second tip that I want to show you is a shortcut.
You see, now I have 3 masks for that layer, because they're in two groups, but I have 3 separate masks.
And maybe I would like to see what it's looking like without the top one.
But now, because they're all in groups,
if I want to be able to not see this one, if I click on this, it will take out everything, because everything is in this group.
If I want to mask just that mask, I'll have to do it otherwise.
And the shortcut I want to show you is by clicking on SHIFT and clicking on the mask,
it's gonna bring that little cross here in red,
saying that now we don't see that mask.
And I can do that to each of the masks that I have, by simply clicking on SHIFT,
I'll be able to mask the actual mask.
And that way I'll be able to actually have to control what I want to see each time.
So that's the second tip that I want to show you. It's a really nice shortcut that will help you
just when you're creating something, to just see the before and after, and see if you like the result of it or not.
Okay, now in Photoshop, there's always more that one way to do something.
So I'm going to try to do the same thing here, but this time I'm going to do it just a little bit different.
So I'm just gonna take out what I did right now, I'm going to take out the mask as well,
and go back to my actual texture that I want to add on my face here.
And the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to add a mask,
and then I'm going to add a second mask, that second mask that I was talking about here.
This one is a vector mask.
So the difference is, when I paint with my brush I'm adding pixels.
So right now, I'm masking with pixels, and that goes on this mask.
But if I want to use this mask, I need to use the vector-based tool.
And that's the pen tool. If you click on the pen tool,
and you make sure that here, it says path-- not shape, or pixels, but path
I will be able now to make a selection of my face, really precisely.
And you see now, it's going to show,
really precisely, with the pen tool first. So I'll do that the whole face.
And once I have the selection like here,
I can go back on the first mask and click on it,
and now, with a brush, I'll be able to do the same thing.
But this time if I go back, to bring back the pixels,
It's not gonna go outside, because this section has been taken care of by the vector mask.
Which gives me now the possibility to just erase what I don't need on my mask,
without caring about going back and having the the mask being erased.
Also what's great about the vector mask is you can go back on it.
So if I go back on it, I could use the arrow tools and just click on my mask,
and then click on each of the anchor points,
and I'll be able to just replace them, making sure that my selection is really, really precise
That seems good.
The next tip that I want to show you is about adding texture on a mask.
So let's say I have my illustration here, it's on one layer, and I'm going to add a mask to it,
and I want to add some texture on it.
Well I could paint on it, but I could also add a texture a real texture.
So here I have a photography of the texture.
And I'm simply gonna do COMMAND+A, and then COMMAND+C, to copy-paste it.
And here, I'm going to paste it on the mask.
To paste it on the mask, you simply have to click on the mask with ALT.
And now it's gonna bring you to the mask. This in front of us is the mask.
And I'm going to paste it there,
and I'm going to do CTRL+T, just to make it as big as the canvas, and then press ENTER.
And now you can see that this is on my mask now.
So if I go back on my actual layer,
you'll see that the texture has been added everywhere.
And I can go back to my mask by clicking on ALT,
And now I'm on my mask which has a texture.
And that's really powerful, because now I can actually modify that with the tools that Photoshop gives me.
So I can go over Image, and go Adjustment, and set the Brightness, for example,
and just add some more contrast to this.
Some more brightness, click OK, go back to my illustration,
and that is going to be the result. Because it went from there, to there,
but I did some correction not on my illustration, but on my mask.
So that can be really, really useful when you
want to add some texture of paper, or
like in this case a concrete texture on your illustration.
And you have the control to go back on your mask by clicking on ALT
And you can even come here and then delete some parts or paint some parts,
or use any kind of modification that you would like to have here,
and then go back on your actual layer.
And that way, you're not destroying your illustration, you're just painting on a mask.
Now the fifth tip that comes for this tutorial comes in direct relation with this.
Now that you have a texture on your mask, if you want to make it less apparent by playing with the opacity,
well you can't here, because the whole layer is gonna go more transparent.
So the only way that you can do it is by double-clicking on the mask, and have the Properties open.
And now you can play with the density of it.
And by playing with the density, you will be able to just put the mask a little bit more transparent,
and therefore just giving a little bit of texture to the illustration.
And that's it for this tutorial, guys!
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