Weeks 3 and 4 Labs
What a fortnight! Between layer masks and paths I think my head might explode. There is still a lot of practicing to be done with the pen tool but it's been fun!
For my lab this week I decided to try and revamp the Cayman Islands logo which is used on all the tourism websites and flyers. To me the turtle is somewhat bland and outdated. I'm no artist but I would suggest there must be something slightly more up to date that could lure the tourists.
This was my starting point
Working with some photos that I went and took from the garden, and a couple of landscape ones (a couple of sunny ones, a lightening storm one and a sunset one) I set about blending them all together. I was trying out a number of techniques from the lectures and if critic were to give their opinion I'm sure it would be that there is far to much going on! That said the result if nothing else gives us a slightly more colourful cayman! I even managed to capture a photo of a gecko displaying his colours which has been the cause of much frustration trying to get the path around him right, still working on getting it just right but I think it is going to take more than a few weeks to get the hang of it!
Weeks 3 and 4 Review Questions
1. Based on the reading out of the book, what exactly is the function of a transparency mask?
A transparancy mask allows change to be made only to opaque pixels on the layer. Any changes you try to make to the transparent pixels will not be applied to that area, it's like not being able to paint over the black lines in a colouring book.
2. What are some of the benefits to using Layer Masks?
Layer masks allow greater flexibility. They allow changes to be made without damaging the original pixels . Layer masks also allow you to save selections.
3. Once a mask has been created, how do you edit the mask?
You edit the mask by painting in black or white. Black makes the pixels transparent and white makes them opaque.
4. How do you know if a mask is active in the Layer Palette?
There is a second outline around the mask thumbnail in the layers palette. There will also be a layer mask icon on the left hand side of the layer in the layer pallet.
5. How would you temporarily disable/enable a mask?
Shift click the mask thumbnail to temporarily disable, this puts a red cross in the thumbnail. Click the thumbnail to re-enable the mask.
6. If you wanted to move either the layer's contents or the mask independently from each other, what would you have to do?
You would uncheck the link by clikcing on it in the layers palette.
7. Briefly explain how Layer Masks can help your digital collages and color/brightness corrections?
Layer masks can help digital collages by hiding the part of an image which you dont want the viewer to see, but the pixels which are not shown are ot deleted or damaged so they can be utilised later if necessary. This allows for a great deal of flexibility. Using a layer mask you can also apply colour/brightness corrections to only part of an image.
8. How can the pen tool be useful as a selection tool?
The pen tool can be used to create paths
9. How do you add an anchor point to a Path?
Click an existing path with the add anchor point tool selected.
10. How would you delete an anchor point on a Path?
Click an existing point in a path with the delecte anchor point tool selected.
12. How do you select an entire path?
Click inside the path with the black arrow selection tool selected. You can also use the shortcut, A to tab bwtween the white and black arrow tools. If any other path tool is selected you could also Option click to select the tool.
13. How do you drag points and handles to reshape a path?
Click and drag points with the white arrow selection tool. As per above you can use A to tab between the white and black arrow tools or you can press and hold the apple key.
14. Explain in your own words what the primary function of a clipping group or layer is.
A clipping layer is one which is restricted by the layers below it.
15. Deke explains how you can improve the appearance of color scans using channels. Briefly explain what some of these techniques are.
You can improve the appearance of a channel by mixing other channels with it using the channel mixer. You would have higher values for the channels you want to keep and a lower value for the bad channel. In order to maintain consistent brightness the vaules of the 3 channels should add up to 100. You could also align the layers if they appear out of sync by selecting the channel and then using the move tool. You can also use the unsharp mask to sharpen individual channels.
16. What are some of the benefits to working with mask channels?
A mask channel allows you to convert the mask to a selection so you can edit at any time, even after saving. The selection can be copied, tranformed etc as a vector shape would be and can be moved into another image.
17. When you save a selection as a mask, where is the mask stored?
The mask is stored as a layer mask in the channel palette. To reactivate the selection you would Command + right click the mask.
18. How can you edit a mask in a channel once you've saved it?
Apple click the channel name in the channels palette. To activate a mask so you can see it to work on you can use the \ to skip between the rubylyth type view and image view. You can then use the brush tools etc to edit at will.