Masking and You

[h1]Masking and You[/h1]
Here are a couple examples of what you can do with a masking layer.

Preperation:
Click here for the 800x600 Halo 2 wallpaper I used.

How it works:
Alright, masking layers are very simple. Think of it as invisible paint. You paint over everything you want to disappear, but if you make a mistake you can always restore it by switching your foreground/background colors.

1. Removing backgrounds.
a. You will need atleast 2 layers. If you are using the Halo 2 wallpaper I provided above, or something similar, you will need to duplicate the background layer. I titled the new layer Master Chief.
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b. Select the Master Chief layer. Click the Add layer mask

button at the bottom of the layer pallet.
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c. Hide the background layer by clicking the eye next to the layer thumbnail.
d. Click the white box next to the layer thumbnail.
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e. Select the Brush tool

. Use a hard round brush. Zoom in to around 300%.
f. Quickly paint around the character with Black set as your foreground color.
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g. Now we need to clean it up. Zoom in to around 500%. Use a smaller brush and remove all of the excess around the character.
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::Tips::
Click, hold shift and click again. It will fill in everything between the two points you clicked.
It's ok to cut in a little bit, hard lines where the background used to be is a lot worse to look at.

h. Now that you have it pretty much cut out, Control + Click (Command + Click on Mac) the layer mask thumbnail.
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i. Select > Inverse
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j. Edit > Fill 100% Foreground color. That will take care of any spots you missed when painting.
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k. Now you can fill the background with a solid color, I used white. This will help spot imperfections. If you cut it out of a white background, set the new background to black instead.

2. Effects.
a. Fading. Select a very large soft round brush. Click the layer mask thumbnail.
b. Paint from the bottom, up slightly.
Screen Shot

3. File > Save...

Finished! There are many other things you can do with masking, but I think you got the basics down now. So go off, and be creative! Or don't, I really couldn't care less.

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Click the link below to download the Photoshop file for this tutorial.
Masking and You PSD

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