Anybody here familiar with Photoshop 6? I have a particular problem that I need help with - namely the use of masks. I've never used them before but the situation I'm in is this: I have a .jpg of a complicated Bryce 5 model that I built a while back that I want to place on top of a starfield that I made using the Universe Image Creator package. Currently both images are separate - I want to join 'em so that the model sits on the starfield. The model has lots of holes and gaps in it through which the starfield will be visible. I could do this by clone-stamping the model, but it's big and the clone-stamp is a clumsy tool for a job like this. Alternatively, I could use the magnetic lasso to cut out the model, then invert it and apply the background eraser until I'm left with just the model, but I've used the background eraser before and it has a tendency to miss bits out unless I go over every single pixel. Plus it's time-consuming as hell and difficult to save and recover where I left off - I'd have to do the job in one sitting and get it right first time, which isn't satisfying and leads to a rush job. Which leaves me with masks. If someone could explain exactly what a mask does and how best to apply them to this situation I'll be grateful. Hell, I'll even credit them when I post the finished picture (if I remember!) Cheers.

use mask render in bryce (don't forget to select whatever objects you want rendered as white). it'll create a black and white image, which will be much easier to select the black out of. oh yeah, forgot. export the mask render as a psd. put it over the original render. select all the black, hide the top layer and selecting the original render, open the starfield, copy it, and use edit: paste into :)

Message edited on: 12/01/2004 15:50

Okay, I've rendered the model as a black-and-white image and saved it as a PSD file. Could you be more specific about what do do next, please? I've opened the Universe background and the B&W PSD, but I'm not sure I'm reading your instructions correctly.

This assumes that your B&W render is a mask render, not just a desaturated version of your full pic. Open the B&W PSD file, in another layer paste your color render of the ship. Your ship should show as white in the B&W render. Use the magic wand and select the white. Next switch the selected layer to be your color render and go edit>copy. The result will be a copy of just the ship. You can paste this over your backdrop in either a seperate PSD doc or as another layer in the doc you copied it from.

Here's kind of a step by step. I still use PS 5.5, should be the same as 6 Open all 3 of your images, The render from Bryce, The Mask render ( from Bryce ) and the background image from Universe creator. For best they should all be the same resolution. Select the Move tool, then hold the shift key and drag and drop the Bryce render then the Bryce mask render to the Background image. If they are the same resolution all 3 will be centered to the canvas. If your not familiar with layers in PS, you will need to open the layer tools, Window/Show Layers. all 3 images will be separate layers. Click the mask layer making it current ( it should also be the top layer ) then do as Claymor said and use the magic wand to select all the white areas in the mask ( you may need to shift click with the wand tool, to make multi selected areas. Once the selection is made, hide the Mask layer by clicking it's eye icon in the layer window. Then make the Bryce render the current layer. Right click the layer and select Layer Via Copy. This will create a new layer of just the selected area. Then discard the old layer. You may want or need to use some of the tools found under Select/Modify to adjust the selection before you layer via copy. You can also save the selection under Select/Save Selection, so you can call upon it at a later time ( Select/Load Selection ) without using the mask again.

Not wanting to confuse you even more, I do it a clunky roundabout way, more steps than Drac, but the same result. This illustration was to get a transparent background, so just pretend that your starfield is the bottom layer. so.... bottom (background) layer is the starfield, then the object you want visible, then the Object Mask. Select the white part of the mask, and Edit>Clear. Then Select inverse, and clear. Make the next layer down (the object you want to be visible) the active layer, and hit Edit>Clear again, which removes everything round your object. You can now get rid of your mask layer, and merge the other layers down. I never use the Photoshop maskd, because I can't get my head around them.

Thanks, everyone. That did the trick. I'll postwork it and put it in the gallery later :D