How To Mask Objects In Photoshop

Hey guys, this is Maads 101, and today I'm going to be showing you how to mask objects in Photoshop.

So right now, I have these two images on my desktop: one of lava and one of the Earth. I'm just going to open these both up in Photoshop.

All right, now basically to mask something, a mask just means I want this to be shown here, so I'm going to hide this layer real quick. Uh, all right, so I'm going to hide that layer. If I want to mask, if I just want to display something, like if I want to decide where I can display it, I can make a square right here and make that a mask.

Then you'll— Instead of seeing the layer over the whole image, you'll just see where that square is. All right, if I just draw some junk, um, yeah, you'll just see that scribble. You'll see whatever image, but in that shape.

And so, as you can see, it's more faded at some parts of the image. Um, whatever you mask, you'll see like that. So generally, people like masking text, but you can mask in any shape you want.

To make a mask, you want to make sure the layer masking is not locked. Then, you want to make a new layer right under it. I'm going to hide this layer real quick, and you can make anything you want be there. So I could go like that, and if I make that a mask, you just right-click on it and you say, “Create Clipping Mask.” That's all you see.

So I can put a black background behind that right here, and again, that's all you see. So, uh, now I'm going to just real quick remove that. I'm just going to make a text mask, so bring that right there, and I'll write "Earth," drag it into the middle.

And again, it doesn't matter what color I want it because it will always be, uh, if it's a mask, whatever layer I had behind it. So, I'm going to pick a real wide font so we can see as much as possible, like something like this. I don't really like that font.

Yeah, yeah, that's nice. All right, and I'm going to make that about 200— No, 150. 110, that's nice. Yeah, now I'm going to bring that to the center, or maybe—I think it's wider than the Earth was, so I'm going to scale that to be just about right.

Let me put that over the Earth real quick. Okay, so if you want to check what's going to fit behind it, you can just put it over and then select the layer first, align it exactly where you want it.

So now I can see everything is going to be part of the world, and so now I just bring it under, go to this layer, right-click, and then you say, "Create Clipping Mask." There you go, you've got your Earth, and I can just put a layer behind there. I'll make it black. There we go.

And, uh, if I click on this layer, uh, as you can see, this is this layer, and I can move it around, and it will just move what's displayed. So I'm going to do that again with lava just so you get an idea of like different effects you can do with this.

So I'm going to do this real quick on this layer. All right, and I'm going to apply that, put that layer beneath it, and I'm going to create a clipping mask. There we go, we have our mask. And now you can put a layer behind there, go like that.

I can draw whatever I want, and if I draw on this layer, if I do anything to this layer, it will, uh, add it to the mask. So I'm going to remove the mask real quick, rel clip. So to remove it, you just right-click and you say, "Release Clipping Mask."

So there we go, we have this layer. Uh, let's see what can I do to it. Oh, I have an idea. I'm going to erase part of it. Where's my erase tool? All right, let's bring the hardness down and the size down, size up.

And now, if I recreate that clipping mask, as you can see, it gives like a cool effect on the lava. So yeah, you can do pretty much whatever you want with this, and, uh, you don't really have to see what you're doing.

You can edit the layer while it's, um, being a mask. In the mask, you can move what part of the mask you're using. But if you go over— if you don't like masking completely, you're going to see the original. So try to bring it completely under.

Those were just, um, a couple different effects you can get by making a mask. Um, you can play around with it. There's a lot more stuff you can do with it. Just know that the basic concept idea is, um, anything you see on that layer will be displayed in the other layer, but, uh, based on how opaque it is and at what you display, that's the shape that you'll get your first layer.

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