b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

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b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby marion » Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:18 pm

I feel so stupid.. :oops: ive watched introduction to proshow masking 10 times at least now and still dont get it.
I made a mask (PNG) in ps white shape black bg.Set to transparancy no shape visible, set to grayscale it is.
Black shape on white bg only shows shape set to grayscale inverted.
Watching the video with the lama's and HI text gradient set to transparancy shows pic but inverted noting happens to the text, neither set to any other setting.

First layer mask (either b&w or w&b)
second layer photo with text
3rd layer background

Hope i explained it well enough to understand?
Marion

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby cherub » Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:40 pm

Marion,

I am sorry but I couldn't quite understand what you were trying to do. A link to that tutorial that you watched would help a lot.

But here are some very short instructions:
(1) If you want to use a mask made of white and black, remember just this point: BLACK HIDES AND WHITE REVEALS.
Save such a file as JPEG and not as a png.
Producer will use this file as a mask and mark it automatically as GRAYSCALE.

(2) If you want to use a png file, use white as the color to reveal, and use transparency instead of the color black. Producer will interpret the transparency as black, and only the white part will be revealed.
This kind of file will be automatically categorized as a TRANSPARENCY mask.

(3) I'm guessing that you are talking about using text as a mask.
Producer 7 (and 6) are capable of creating TEXT LAYERS. You don't have to prepare anything in Photoshop.
Just create your caption, using the color white, and then convert this caption to layer (Right click > Convert to Text Layer)

When this text layer is used as a mask on top of another layer with a picture, the picture will be visible only through the letters of the text. Producer will categorize this mask as "Transparency".

AS A RULE:
You can only see the results of what you are doing, while working on the slide, ONLY if you select the layer UNDER the mask and not the mask itself.

Hope this helps a bit. I wrote it as simply as I could. :D :D

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby marion » Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:12 pm

This is the link

http://www.photodex.com/share/im42n8/pdxdpmg4

A jpeg is indeed set to grayscale which means i dont see the pic but the mask itself, so i have to change it to inverted to see the pic myself?
PNG ike you said works perfect.
Can i attach screenshots?

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby cherub » Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:24 pm

Marion,
I couldn't watch that tutorial. It crashed my browser for some reason. But I'm sure Dale will be more than happy to post here too :)

To your questions:

You see the mask itself only if your mouse is selecting it. That's why I told you before, to select the layer UNDER the mask. That's how you can see that the mask is working.
You don't have to change anything to "Inverted". Leave it as is. Inverted will do something else entirely.

To attach screenshots here, you need to upload the pictures somewhere else, and to post here only the link.
If you want to embed the picture in this forum, just know that there is a limitation of 600 px.

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby marion » Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:39 pm

yes i know i an se the mask only that way but i still dont see the pic.
I will send you a screenshot of it with we transfer.

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby marion » Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:40 pm

oh, i need an email adress for that.

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby cherub » Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:44 pm

My email is on my site.

Just as an afterthought, a few years ago, when Producer didn't have Text Layers yet, I shared a style that used text as a mask. The text was made in a graphic editor.
Please download the style from here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19112 and try to understand its workings.
You may also wish to read the thread that discusses that style.

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby cherub » Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:22 am

This is what Marion sent me:

JPEG MASK
Image

and this one:

PNG MASK
Image


OK, Marion,
I can now see that in the case of the jpg mask you did exactly the opposite of what I told you to do :D
I wrote above, black hides and white reveals, but from your example I can see that what you want to show is actually black and not white :D
You can invert the mask, but in this case I think that you'll see the edges of your picture beyond the mask, so that's not good.

Please remake your jpg file so that what you want to show is WHITE and the rest is black.

In the case of the png file, I can see that you are not using transparency, as I told you, but black instead.

I also told you not to select the layer that is a mask (don't put the mouse on it). Put the mouse on the layer BENEATH the mask.

Please follow the instructions that I gave you above.

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby marion » Fri Jul 03, 2015 3:02 am

i used the layer below to view the result in the second screenshot and it just showed the pic as it is, not the shape. But im going to use png with white and transparancy from now on, thats perfect.
sorry for not checking what you said, but i understand this now! Thanks for your patience,
Marion

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby im42n8 » Fri Jul 03, 2015 7:54 am

The PSP transparency setting for masks makes the layer color insensitive. So the mask can be any color. When set to normal transparency, whatever is under the mask is revealed (what is outside the confines of the mask is hidden). If set to transparency inverted, whatever is directly under the mask is hidden (what is outside the confines of the mask is revealed). So, if your mask is black and white ... and transparency is used, it's treated as a GRAYSCALE WHITE Layer. If you used transparency inverted, its treated as an Grayscale Inverted white layer. Heck, your mask could be composed of hundreds of colors ... if it is a normal transparency mask, it is treated as if it were a Grayscale White layer (all color is ignored).

Transparency masks recognize OPACITY in the layer but NOT color. The opacity in any portion of the layer is adjusted via the ALPHA channel (which each layer possesses). All colors are effectively treated as a numeric 0 (which is white). ... ... ... that includes an all black layer set up as a transparency mask. The translucency (or amount of opacity) possessed by a layer is directly adjustable via the alpha channel ... but NEVER via color information.

Grayscale masks do not ignore color. Each color has an effect upon opacity where a number of 0 (white) is completely opaque and 1 (black) is completely transparent. Red, yellow, blue, green, etc all have a numerical value that determines the translucency of the mask. White and Black are merely the two ends of the color spectrum. Hence, one of the reasons that most masks are composed simply of black or white. Further grayscale masks also recognize the amount of translucency in a layer because they recognize any ALPHA channel settings (the opacity function is what varies the layer's translucency).

The link below is a summary of the behavior of masks (as given in the tutorial).

http://fenimorephotovideos.com/fpvp_documents/ProShow_Producer_Mask_Conclusions%20_Updated_20130818.pdf

This should make things a tad easier to understand. It's a hard thing to grasp at first ... once you get it tho ... you'll wonder why you didn't get it! :D

Dale

PS There have been some problems lately with viewing shows on the Photodex Share site. Photodex is aware of the problem. I looked at the site and was able to view the tutorials there without a problem. However, that doesn't mean it's the same for all. So, these tutorials are also on YouTube. The link below is for a page on this forum in the tutorials section that contains all of the masking tutorials there (the updated version).

Comprehensive Masking Tutorials (Updated for v5+)
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=21946
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
FPVP Blog "Making the Difficult Easier," FPVP News

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Re: b&w mask not transparent on transparancy stting

Postby BarbaraC » Sun Jul 05, 2015 4:24 am

Marion, as mentioned, there's a difference in how a grayscale mask and a transparent mask looks, but both can be used to accomplish the same thing. Perhaps while you're learning, you can do what I did when trying to learn masks, which was to use only grayscale masks. Why? Because it was easier to see them and to see the more subtle gray areas. Think of white as the brightest light which shows everything, and think of black as no light at all shining on the image so that it can't be seen. Anything that's in between white and black is less light and shows a dimmer view of the masked image.

Once you've understood the grayscale mask, you can move on to transparent masks where 100% opacity is the exact same thing as pure white in a grayscale mask, and 0% opacity (totally transparent) is equal to black in a grayscale mask. Anything in between those two is like gray in a grayscale mask.

As I said, both types of masks can accomplish the same thing, but when learning, it's easier to use grayscale because you can clearly see the blacks, whites, and grays.

Barbara
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