Really dumb masking question

[feathermm]

I purchased the tutorial disc for masking from a member on this forum and it has been helpful, but I still cannot repeat the results he gets.

I suspect the problem is in the masks themselves, which show no transparency. Would you please explain how to create a mask in Photoshop that can be imported into Producer?

Specifically, what I want to do is:

Have an image of building with a plain sky behind it, then have a bird or balloon pass between the building in the foreground and the sky behind it. I can get the image to float behind the building, but the sky is black, not blue, masked out entirely. When I invert the mask, the image fills the house in the foreground as it passes by.

I'm also not able to make gradients work. What I want to do is combine two images with a soft edge between them. I figured it would be a matter of making a white to black gradient mask, placing an image below and above the mask, but that didn't work.

Finally, I'd like to creat an effect of a gradient panning an image, casting a light ray across it as it pans. Is this possible in Producer? Seems like it ought to be, but so far, my efforts have failed.

Your help would be greatly appreciated as my mind has hit a Producer roadblock.

BTW -- in the tutorial, when he selects three image and drags them onto a slide in the timeline, all three go to the same slide. When I do that, Producer sends each image to a different slide. What's the trick? And when he does motion, a green line showing the path shows up. Mine doesn't do this. Again, what's the trick? Thanks. I have the latest version 3.1.

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Carl

One thing we must know for certain is do you have Producer as you state, or Gold as you have posted in the 'Gold' forum?

I don't think Gold supports 'masks'.

Also, by the way the latest is 3.2 and not 3.1.

Brian

[feathermm]

Oh no, as my subject line said, "Dumb question!" Sorry, I'll post in Producer. And yes, I have 3.2 just paid my annual renewal fee.

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

Carl, I'm the one who made the tutorials. Let's see what we can do.

>> I suspect the problem is in the masks themselves, which show no transparency

In this case you will need to use the Grayscale masking, not the Alpha. The difference is subtle if you just have a black and white mask between the two. Producer does just the opposite between the two. I.e., if Black reveals in the Alpha, then it hides in the Grayscale setting. I think the first grayscale tutorial made that point. (Sorry, at work now so I'm thinking off the top of my head).

In your case for the building, you want the mask to be either the sky or the building. It doesn't much matter because you can get your effect done either way. Tutorial 5 shows this being done. In this tutorial, you would make your building black and the sky white. Since you're using a Grayscale mask, the black in the mask (Layer 1) will hide the masked Image (Layer 2) so it appears that the balloon moves behind the building. Not sure what else to say since I can't see your images.

>> I'm also not able to make gradients work. What I want to do is combine two images with a soft edge between them. I figured it would be a matter of making a white to black gradient mask, placing an image below and above the mask, but that didn't work.

Anything above the Mask will hide everything after it. You have to look THROUGH the layers. If you have a full screen picture on Layer 1, you can't see any further because there are no holes. You want the Layers Mask, Masked Image, Image 2. Again, using Alpha or Grayscale will either hide or show different parts of the Images. Get that picture off Layer 1 though. That's your main issue.

>> Finally, I'd like to creat an effect of a gradient panning an image, casting a light ray across it as it pans. Is this possible in Producer?

I don't have time to think about that right now.

>> BTW -- in the tutorial, when he selects three image and drags them onto a slide in the timeline, all three go to the same slide

Hold down the Ctrl Key when you drag images to a slide. It will ADD them to the slide you are dropping them in.

>> And when he does motion, a green line showing the path shows up. Mine doesn't do this.

By default I believe Producer does this so you must have messed with the Preferences. In the Motion tab, right click on your image (you have to be working on a Slide). This brings up a bunch of menu choices. Show Motion Path needs to be checked.