Mask Depth

[ProShowFan Profile Private message]

Welcome.
In ProShowProducer 4.5 in the Layer Settings tab, you can set the depth of the mask (Mask Depth). Where can I find this option in ProShow Producer 5.0?
Greetings to all.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

PSP 5 handles masks a bit differently ... when you get used to it I think you'll like it better.

Open the Slide Options. Go to Effects. The Layers section is what you're looking for here. Right click over the layer you want to use as a mask. Select "Use as Masking Layer" from the menu options that appear. That layer becomes a mask as indicated by the little vertical line the extends downward and angles over to the center of the next layer. Notice that this small horizontal section has two little triangles associated with it: one pointing up and one pointing down. Click on this line and drag it up or down to include as many layers as you want. If you drag it all with way up to the mask layer itself, the mask is cancelled.

Likewise, you can click on the next layer below the mask set and drag it UP until until the dark indicator line is against the bottom of the last masked layer ... let go of the mouse button and it becomes the last masked item. Or, drag it into the mask group (below the mask layer but above the last masked layer) and it becomes part of the masked group (you can drag it out again if you want).

That's the basics of it.

Have fun.

Dale

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

PSP 5 handles masks a bit differently ... when you get used to it I think you'll like it better.
... That layer becomes a mask as indicated by the little vertical line the extends downward and angles over to the center of the next layer. Notice that this small horizontal section has two little triangles associated with it: one pointing up and one pointing down. Click on this line and drag it up or down to include as many layers as you want. If you drag it all with way up to the mask layer itself, the mask is cancelled....
Dale

The funny part is that ver. 4.5 used exactly the same method, though the arrows were less visible. That is probably the reason why we never noticed it, and always worked with the second method, the one where you have to specify the mask depth.
Ver. 5 got rid of the "mask depth" menu, and stayed only with the arrows. I remember that when ver. 5 first appeared, we were all at a loss. At least I know I was.

[ProShowFan Profile Private message]

PSP 5 handles masks a bit differently ... when you get used to it I think you'll like it better.

Dragging layers are known to me. I understand that PSP5 dragging layers is the only option.
Thank you for your prompt assistance.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

The funny part is that ver. 4.5 used exactly the same method, though the arrows were less visible. That is probably the reason why we never noticed it, and always worked with the second method, the one where you have to specify the mask depth.

Ver. 5 got rid of the "mask depth" menu, and stayed only with the arrows. I remember that when ver. 5 first appeared, we were all at a loss. At least I know I was.

I never realized it existed in version 4.5 either, and when first facing version 5, I stared at the screen without a clue. So that makes two of us, and I'll bet others are raising their hands and saying, "Me too!"

Barbara

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

I never realized it existed in version 4.5 either, and when first facing version 5, I stared at the screen without a clue. So that makes two of us, and I'll bet others are raising their hands and saying, "Me too!"
Barbara

I've been thinking about this a bit, and realized that it must be somehow related to previous versions of Producer with which we were so familiar, and which didn't have those arrows. I guess we were so set in our ways, that we continued to work with the mask depth menu, in Producer 4.5, even when we were given other options. I only discovered this, when that menu was taken from us.
BTW, Producer 4.5 also had the right-left arrows to push something in and out of a mask. Those arrows were rather good, and I miss them.

There are other things too, that I discovered in ver. 4.5 only after I had to work with ver. 5.
This makes me think that habit is a dangerous thing.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

BTW, Producer 4.5 also had the right-left arrows to push something in and out of a mask. Those arrows were rather good, and I miss them.

They were a one-click operation. I miss them, too.

Barbara

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Yep, the handling of masks in v5 is essentially the same as v4.52, except for the mask depth feature (which was removed in v5), it's just refined a bit. I'd forgotten about that . . . I must have been thinking of v3.2 handling of masks. You get used to some things along the way and forget just exactly how it was.

In actuality, PSP v4.5 didn't have the ability to drag a layer outside the mask (only within the mask). That ability didn't occur until 4.52.

Early versions of 4.0 did not have the lines linking masked layers (like we have in v5 now). Those only appeared in the last public releases of v4.0. In those versions, the "arrows" to indicate that you could move the mask line up/down (to include or remove a layer from a mask) did not appear until you hovered the mouse cursor over the horizontal line that marked the last masked layer. The little up and down arrow icons on the horizontal mask line didn't appear until v5 (but the up/down arrow icon that appears when you move the mouse cursor over that horizontal line was retained).

How soon we forget ... becoming creatures of habit. Techniques seem to tend to blurring with time when you use them so often ... and you forget exactly when you could or couldn't do something. So, I stand corrected.

Dale