Technical Slop

Tweakable

A long time ago, I had a few tricks for making tweakable D-Maps. That was PhotoShop 5.x or so. Since then, they've changed a few things that obseleted those tricks. All of a sudden, Clipping Groups and Adjustment Layers did't work the way they used to. That really sucked because certain D-Maps that had tweakability suddenly had no tweakability, and I *hate* being destructive. Doesn't everybody?

Take a peek at Layer Mask and Invert for an introduction. We will be playing with the ideas in those two D-Maps, but we'll be moving things around to make them tweak friendly.

Exclusion Invert

Time for a first here at Technical Slop. Going to be using a Blending Mode other than Normal. Don't be scared; it won't bite.

First the Invert variation. It looks something like this:

At the bottom, is a Zoom Cube that has been inverted. Doesn't have to be, but it helps me keep things straight in my head. Next up is a basic gradient set to Exclusion. Clipped to that is the tweak Curves Ad-Layer.

(Now, neither example given in Layer Masks and Invert didn't have a mask of any sort. In this example, I gave it a makeshift mask by adding an extra Layer at the top. Why? Just because.)

Pretty cool, huh? Ready for some more coolness?

If Exclusion can add tweakablility to an Invert D-Map, can it do the same for a Layer Mask D-Map?

You bet.

Exclusion Layer Mask

This is pretty much the same. All you have to do is add a Curves Adjustment Layer.

Once again, that's pretty much it. Just add a Curves Ad-Layer and give that point Input: 0 and Output: 128. Clip it and you are good to go.

Goose bumps!

That was fun. Let's move on and have some more fun.