Editing the mask

Now let s edit the mask itself. To make this easier, 

we need to make the mask layer visible on its own 

temporarily.

Click on the Mask layer and then on the 

Working with masks

  Show Mask Only button.

Masks are always shown in black and white   never any colors. White represents the areas that are 

transparent and black represents the opaque, masked areas.

Looking at our Mask layer and its gradient, can you see what we need to do in order to clear out the 

center of the scalloped frame? (Make sure the opacity part of the gradient is visible before you 

continue.)

Since the first two control points on the left are white, and they correspond with the inner structure 

on the Box Trap layer, they are the ones we need to edit.

G     

Drag the first two points downward, making them black, so that the mask looks like this:

G     

Click the Show Mask Only button again (so 

it is no longer down) and make sure that the 

bottom three layers are now visible. 

You should see the rippling of the TIA layer, the 

When working with masks, you will often 

white tendrils of the Wave Trap layer, the bluish 

toggle the Show Mask Only button on and 

purple structure of the Box Trap layer, and the dots 

off to alternatively work on the mask and 

of the Gaussian Integer layer   masked to only 

judge its effect on the final image.

appear outside of the scalloped edge.

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