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Paint Shop Pro Tutorials -- Magic of Masks--ver 4.12

Using the Magic of Masks with Paint Shop Pro (ver 4.12)

Masks are one of the most powerful tools a digital artist using PSP has at their disposal. New with version 4, and above, comes the ability to save your masks. This can greatly simplify the process of creating certain types of graphics such as buttons for your web pages. A mask enables you to create beveled edges on textured surfaces giving the illusion of 3-dimensionality. Masks can help you achieve other effects, as well, such as disappearing text and much more.

Along with some of the advancements made in masking with ver 4, and above, came just enough change to confuse users of earlier versions. The following tutorial will help users of previous versions as well as introduce new users to the "Magic of Masks".

As well as demonstrating how masks work this tutorial will give you a quick idea of how to use the built in textures to create your own, well... textures.

Open a new 200x100x16.6 million color image in Paint Shop Pro.

Set the foreground color to a really pale beige. I used R: 243 G: 210 B: 177.

Select the Paint Brushes tool and set the options as follows:

Brush Type: Normal
Size: 50
Shape: Square
Paper Texture: Woodgrain

Quickly sweep the brush back and forth over the image a couple of times. The object is to lay in only a little color. If you paint the color in too dark you'll lose the grain. If you think your image is too dark, choose Edit, Undo and try it again. You should end up with something resembling figure 14.1.

figure 14.1

You can add an interesting look to the woodgrain by adding a coat of white hot wax. Set the foreground color to white and choose Image, Special Effects, Hot Wax Coating (see figure 14.2).

figure 14.2

See how this adds to the illusion of real wood?.

And now for the fun part... the mask.

Choose Masks, New, Empty. Nothing seems to happen, right? This is probably where a lot of people get confused. The mask is actually there but you don't see it. To see the mask, choose Mask, Edit... there ya go, your image has turned completely black! Not to worry, though, that's just the mask, and it's waiting for you to edit it. If you're sceptical, choose Masks, Edit and you'll see your original image. When you want to "edit" the mask you must specify that you wish to do so by choosing Masks, Edit. In fact, you'll notice a checkmark next to the word "edit" in the menu when the mask is on.

Make sure the mask is on and that the foreground color is white.

Select the Line tool and set the Width to 20. Place the cursor in the upper-left corner of the image and click-and-drag it to the bottom-left corner. This will draw a white line down the left side of the mask.

Place the mouse back in the upper-left corner and draw a white line along the top of the image. You should now have a mask that resembles figure 14.3

figure 14.3

The mask still needs a little work. If you want the bevels to work properly, the corners need to meet at an angle. The corners of the white lines need a little work.

Set the foreground color to black and set the line tool's Width to 1. You might want to zoom-in a little for the next step.

Draw a thin black line from the upper-right corner outwards ( see figure 14.4).

figure 14.4

Repeat this process for the lower-left corner. Your mask should look like figure 14.5.

figure 14.5

Select the Flood Fill tool (the foreground color should still be black). Set the options as follows:

Match Mode: RGB
olerance: 0
Fill Style: Solid Color

Click in the small white triangles to fill them with black. This will leave you with the completed top-left mask (see figure 14.6)

figure 14.6

At this point you could, if you choose to, save the mask. Choose Masks, Save give the file a name (leave the default extension .msk) and click Save. This will make it easy to create other beveled, textured buttons later on.

Choose Masks, Edit.

Choose Colors, Adjust, Brightness/Contrast and set the %Brightness to 15. Click OK and you're image should resemble figure 14.7.

figure 14.7

This gives the textured image a lighter-colored, beveled top and left side. Now on to the bottom and right side.

Choose Masks, Edit to turn the mask back on.

Choose Image, Flip and then Image, Mirror. Voila! The other mask.

Again, you can save this mask for future use if you'd like.

To apply the effects of the darker right side and bottom, choose Masks, Edit to turn off the mask. Choose Colors, Adjust, Brightness/Contrast and set the %Brightness to -25.

You should now have a finished textured, beveled button like the one in figure 14.8.

figure 14.8

I encourage you to play around with different masks and images and to have some fun with this powerful tool.

That's it.... Be sure to check out some of our other Paint Shop Pro tutorials.

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