Masks with ProShow Gold

[dennocb]

I am new here and to ProShow Gold. I have been searching for a tutorial on how to use the masks with ProShow Gold. I did find a link listed in one of the postings for a tutorial, but it appears to be inactive. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place. Can someone direct me to a tutorial for using masks? Thanks so much. I have learned so much already from this group.

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Welcome to the forum.

If I remember correctly Gold cannot do masks in the same way as Producer (someone will correct me if I am wrong). However if you have a photo editor capable of transparency a technic can be used. Waaay Baack I did mask in Gold and the method is in thread http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewtopic.php?t=43 . There are also downloadable files at http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewtopic.php?t=262 associated with this method. This may do what you want. I just used rectangular areas so that a zoom did not show expanding photo edges, however the transparent area could just as well be a heart shape. Complexity depends on your knowledge of the photo editor.

Brian

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

There isn't a tutorial, per se, that covers masks as done in PSG. There are tutorials in the PSP section and most of what is done there will apply--however--I can't recommend them to you because they'll be confusing since they include functions and menu picks that don't exist in PSG. It won't be a real tutorial but here's an explanation from my experience that will, I hope, at least get you started.

First, while we talk about them differently and they have slightly different usage, in PSG, a mask is done the same as a frame. They're both just an image that has part of it that is transparent. That image is laid on top of the image you want framed/masked--in PSG that just means that you have two layers, with the mask/frame as the top layer. The difference between a mask and a frame is more terminology than what you do in PSG, but I think people usually use frame to mean something that goes around the outside of the picture and adds something visible to the picture. A mask is something that enhances the picture by the way it subtracts from it. Either way, the steps are the same:

-- obtain or create an image that will create the desired pattern with the parts you want to show through made transparent*
-- create the composite image with two layers, putting the mask on top

*Making a mask is a job you'd do in an image editing program that allows you to select a specific color to be designated as transparent. You can start with another image and edit it to become the mask/frame or you could simply start with a black rectangle of the right size and add a pattern of shapes in some other color then designate that color as transparent. The edited image is typically saved as a PNG file (tho' there are others that work) since JPG doesn't support transparency.

The creative part is both in making the mask to select what shows thru and then what you do with the mask as far as fading it in or out, zooming the image behind it, or moving one or both layers.

Hope that helps.
Dick