Round One - Challenge Three - Submit

[project_mod]

Round One - Challenge Three

MASKING BRUSHES

This third challenge starts the elimination rounds . . . for the Advanced Track only. Due to the attrition in the Enthusiast Track, elimination rounds will start later there.

Many of you mentioned difficulty using masking brushes, so the theme this week is to use at least one mask in your icon. 77words, unmasked_icons,

Comments

Good sources for animal pics

[rusalkatrix]

Cute Overload
fotocommunity (German site, excellent quality)
Flickr

Feel free to let us know about your own favorite sources. ^^

[tartankilts]

GEK... MASKING..............

XD

Shall try my best to do it and not run away in terror...

[rusalkatrix]

You can do it! XD

[gunshou]

Well, yes, that's true. But remember, we reward creativity and hope that this contest will expand people's iconning horizons. ^.^

[tartankilts]

Pardon my ignorance on masking..

so you can use masks only as a brush?? So let's say I have a black and white image from an image pack that I want to use as a mask. Is there any way I can use it without setting it as a brush?

[gunshou]

No need to apologize for asking questions; the whole idea is to learn new things!

Is there any way I can use it without setting it as a brush?

Well, you can fake it, but then it wouldn't really meet the challenge. ^.^ You can set anything as a brush in PS by selecting it and going to Edit --> Define Brush. It'll appear in whatever brush pack you have loaded at the moment, but it won't be saved to that brush pack unless you go though Preferences and save it manually.

You don't have to use masks as stamps. In the first icon example up there, each texture layer has masks applied to it for a better blending effect. That's perfectly ok too. In that case, the brush used on the masking layer was just a smudgy thing from umasked_icons.

Does that help? If not, I can whip up a more detailed tutorial.

[tartankilts]

hmm.. I realize that sometimes when I save something as a brush, the effect tends to go very different from what I want. Especially since there are some bits that become really transparent, which doesn't really help when I want a particular shape...

but yep. Thanks for the help. I think I get the jist of it.. lol.. I'll just try and whip up a decent icon (i hope)

[lufiamanaelf]

You can also set the mask layer to screen. Then the black will be transparent and all you see is the masked white left over.

Enthusiast entry

[tartankilts]