7b Edge masks are easy

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7b Create special edges for pictures using masks

Right click this mask & choose SAVE PICTURE AS
from the menu to download this mask.

Also grab this drill guy
for our exercise

same mask used on grayscale layer of the same image

This frame effect is a gray scaled picture of our drill guy.

We masked our B&W drill guy out of the center of the image to create the frame.

Next add drop shadows to the frame and slide the full color drill guy beneath the frame by putting him on a lower layer.

Be sure to go test drive this mask in your Deformation Browser (Image menu) for instant previews on changing those shapes & edges as easy as flipping TV channels.

A little tweaking & menu shopping will let you
revamp and disguise
old masks in a flash.

One lone mask
quickly becomes
your mega masks kit

Need more headroom?
Need more foot room?
Cylinder horizontal

More elbow side room?
Cylinder vertical

Different shape?
Chef guy shows you circle
and there are a bunch more.

Doink them outer edges?
Rotating Mirror (wow)
Perspectives
Skew

Okay you've got the idea.

Go play around with them to discover all the options mentioned above along with a whole bunch more.

same mask, slightly different shadow effect

We can create themes for a variety of edges similar in flavor without being identical, for better looking pages with continuity without cookie cutter repetitions.

All these images used the same mask

mask with drop shadows Surprise, the mask7b you just downloaded is way larger than the drill guy ... and that's perfectly okay.

Your image can be larger or smaller than the mask.

When you apply Masks>
New> From Image... the mask custom fits itself to the picture.

Even with completely different proportions the mask automatically resizes and contorts itself to suit the circumstances. A round circle mask applied to a tall skinny rectangle image winds up as a tall skinny oval. Now this 'trick fit deal' only happens with regular image masks. Masks retrieved from the Alpha Channel of an image must fit the image.

the biggie to remember about masks...
anything white gets seen
anything black disappears
And all those shades of gray from black and white represent the 256 different levels of transparency. Each lighter shade of gray become less and less "see through" the closer each shade gets to white.

The mask7b you grabbed is actually designed to wipe out the center portion of the image (but that's our drill guy) so we are going to invert the data first, which is flip the effect. As we slap this mask onto Drill Guy (we like Drill Guy and have no intention of wiping him out) we will first ... invert the data. Yeah yeah sure, I could have made you a mask with the colors reversed, but let's go ahead and get used to inverting that data.

Remember on these masks that white means you'll see it and black means you won't, and it's dead easy to reverse those colors anytime you want by checking Invert Mask Data. If you want to permanently change your mask, choose Negative on your Colors menu and resave the image.

By varying drop shadows and applying a circle distortion to our Chef Guy mask we achieved a different look with the same old mask. There are many ways to disguise & reuse favorite masks.

(Menu> Image> Distortions> Circle)

Okay let's put some edges on a photo

Have your drill guy and the mask7b images open in PSP
Make Drill Guy active by clicking him.
Menu> Masks> New From Image
The edge should pop right onto your image
Menu> Masks> Delete, it'll ask you for a yes or a no
Say yes to finalize this mask operation
Apply your drop shadows

Everything go okay? Anything goof up?
Are we talking big success, or did we smoke the Drill Guy?

Of course we can always back out of the whole deal by saying no at the end when we DELETE the mask. Completely free to start over again fresh ... Or just stalk off for medicinal Oreos and a cold Dr. Pepper.

If the wrong part of your image got vaporized, check the INVERT MASK DATA field on your mask box and change the setting.

Remember to finish every mask operation
by hitting Delete on the Mask menu
before going forward in the project.

Everything already looks pretty normal so it's real easy to forget this DELETE MASK step. Miss this step and you could wind up confused or screwed.