From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

800 Using the Transparency Shapes Layer option

From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

800 Using the Transparency Shapes Layer option

Wow, that was harsh but here's the thing, it requires a checkbox that I bet you've never used called Transparency Shapes Layer and you don't turn it on, you turn it off. Here let me show you exactly how it does not work. All right, so the first thing I'm going to do is scroll down this list here inside the layers panel and select our original photograph. And then I'll click on the fx icon and I'll leave the brightness value set to 100% and then I'll click okay. All right, now I'm going to go ahead and crank the size value all the way up to its maximum of 250 degrees, if only to make a point here. And then I'll set the blend mode from normal to multiply. So we're just recoloring these fringe pixels. But I want you to see the problem here. The glow isn't just tracing the right hand and left hand edges, it's also tracing the top and the bottom of our guy which is not what we want. And the reason this is happening by the way, is because this is the actual shape of this layer. That's not what I want, so I'll go ahead and click on blending options in this left hand list and I want to draw your attention to these two check boxes right here, Transparency Shapes Layer and Layer Mask Hides Effects. If I was to turn on Layer Mask Hides Effects, then we would get rid of the inner glow along the left and right hand sides and that's because those are the areas that are traced by the layer mask. That's exactly the opposite of what we want. We want to keep the glow on the edges, so I'll go ahead and turn that checkbox back on. What we want to do is get rid of the glow What we want to do is get rid of the glow at the top and the bottom of the image, at the top and the bottom of the image, which is the natural boundary by the way which is the natural boundary by the way between the opaque area of the image between the opaque area of the image and the transparent area outside the canvas. and the transparent area outside the canvas. And so to tell Photoshop to stop tracing those regions, And so to tell Photoshop to stop tracing those regions, you need to turn of this checkbox right here, you need to turn of this checkbox right here, Transparency Shapes Layer. Transparency Shapes Layer. And that's going to go ahead and get rid of And that's going to go ahead and get rid of the undesired portions of the glow. the undesired portions of the glow. All right, now, I'll go ahead and click okay All right, now, I'll go ahead and click okay in order to accept that change. in order to accept that change. All right, now the last thing I want to do and I'll through this trick in for free, is I want to get rid of the snow in front of the eyes. After all, we put a lot of time into the eyes and they're an iconic element of White Walkers. So I'll go ahead and scroll up to the top of the list, and I'll click on a snow layer right there to make it active and then I'll go ahead and add a layer mask by clicking on this add layer mask icon down here at the bottom of the layers panel. Next go ahead and select the brush tool which you can get by selecting the B key. We're going to want to paint with black in order to pain the snow away. So tap the D key in order to instate the default foreground and background colors and then press the X key to swap 'em. All right, now I need to make my brush considerably larger. So right click inside the image window. Make sure that the hardness value is set to 0% and then I'll crank the size value up to 700 pixels, is going to work quite nicely. Now let's say I want exactly center my brush on the pupil. Now let's say I want exactly center my brush on the pupil. In that case I would go up to the Edit menu, In that case I would go up to the Edit menu, that would be the Photoshop CC menu on the Mac, that would be the Photoshop CC menu on the Mac, I would drop all the way down here I would drop all the way down here to the Preferences command, to the Preferences command, which is not nearly so low on the menu on the Mac, which is not nearly so low on the menu on the Mac, and then I would go ahead and then I would go ahead and choose this command right here, Cursors, which is going to bring up this panel of the Preferences dialog box and then you want to turn on this checkbox, Show Crosshair in Brush Tip and then go ahead and click okay. And now notice that you can see a cross, right there at the center of your brush. And now if you go ahead and align that cross with the center of the pupil and click, you will exactly erase the snow around that iris. And then you want to go ahead and do the same thing over here on the right hand eye and that's all there is to it. All right, I'll go ahead and press the N key in order to switch back to the rectangular marquee tool, if only so we don't have that huge cursor. And then I'll press Shift + F in order to switch to the full screen mode. And notice if you hover your cursor on the right hand side, you will bring back your right side panels, which including in my case the navigator panel, much maligned but very useful for what I'm about to show you. I'm going to go ahead and change the zoom value right here without moving my cursor outside the panel to 44% and then I'll drag this red boundary upward. And I'll go ahead and move my cursor away which automatically dismisses those panels. And that is the final version of my White Walker, complete with a hood, instead of a hoodie, here inside Photoshop. And with that we say goodbye to Game of Thrones. Next week we'll say hello to something quite different, this awesome but tiny harlequin crab. Deke's Techniques each and every week, keep watching.

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