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 A
clipping mask is used to define the visible areas of
the layer or players above it. Our example uses the
following three images: |
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The
obvious advantages to clipping masks are that you don’t
make a selection, Photoshop does, and you can move it
around, resize and transform it. All live.
After
you have the clipping group, you can use filters and
styles on it, and it can be used as an object in what
ever way you want. |
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mask underneath the image layer, if the image is in a Background
layer, you will have to either duplicate it (working with the copy
layer), or convert it to a regular layer: |
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If your image opens with
the layer named Background it is a partially protected layer and
you will have to convert it. |
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In Photoshop CS you can right click on the Background
layer and select Layer from Background from the fly-out menu. Or: |
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| Go to Layer>New>Layer from Background. |
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Either way, a dialog will appear. By default it
will want to name it Layer 0. You can accept it or change
it. |
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| Open the mask . . . |
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. . . and drag, or copy and paste, it into the
image. By default it will be the top layer. |
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| Make the bottom layer active. |
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Click and drag the bottom
layer to the top, and the Clipping Mask will disappear. |
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To make the Clipping
Mask work, you need to make create a Clipping Group. There are
two ways: 1) Hold the Alt key down and place the cursor on the
line between the two layers. The cursor will change to two overlapping
circles. When it does, click the mouse. Or . . . |
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| In CS, Layer>Create Clipping Mask |
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As soon as you create the
Clipping group all of the layers in the group will show only the
area within the mask. |
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With the Mask layer active
and the move tool, you can move the Mask around and because this
is a live effect, you see the selection. You can resize or transform
the mask, and you can move it around until you get the exact selection
you want. |
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When we got the selection
we wanted we selected it and using Edit>Copy Merged, or Shft+Ctrl+C,
we pasted it over a background. To get the image on page 1, we
applied a some layer effects. |
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