Because the name suggests, masking can be a method made use of to hide or show parts of an object or image. With masking procedures you could obtain a lot of sorts of creative effects with pictures. You can produce a mask that provides a different dimension for your images and tends to make them appear more intriguing inside the process. You can also create a mask that acts as a fogged window show or hide components in the pictures underneath the mask. This technique uses the tones with the look of a chosen object in grayscale to identify the degree of its visibility and alter its look.

Yet another masking approach utilizes the transparency of your object (in an image) itself to have an effect on its visibility. This can assist you to to edit your old images and give them a new look. You can also play about along with your new images and build some thing one of a kind that could be made use of in advertising, social networking or simply for building a photo album. For masking an object, you are able to either use a vector or a bitmap image. The method may be applied to multiple objects or grouped objects at the same time. Usually, business pros use masking for making catalogues for various products that they sell.

Vector masking

For those who have used other vector illustration applications like Macromedia FreeHand, maybe you're acquainted with vector masks, which are pretty convenient for image editing. The layout of a vector mask object crops the underlying objects for the shape of its path, producing a cookie-cutter effect. When a vector mask is made, the Layers panel displays a thumbnail with a pen icon to indicate that it has produced a mask of this sort. Not only that, you also get the selection to customize the color on the masked object and give it a different style altogether.

Bitmap masking

When you have applied Photoshop you are possibly familiar with layer masks. Bitmap masking resemble the layer in which the pixels inside the image affect the visibility of underlying objects. This approach can be applied in two various techniques:

1. By utilizing an existing object to hide other objects - This strategy is equivalent for the way vector masking is applied.

2. By generating what is known as an empty mask - Empty, completely transparent or completely opaque masks can assist in highlighting or hiding objects in an image. A transparent (or white) mask highlights all the masked objects, whilst an opaque (or black) mask hides them.