The Layer Mask is a grayscale image, which also means that there is only a black and white color. The layer mask will appear as a small thumbnail next to the original layer. If the thumbnail is black, it means that your painting is hidden. Your painting is visible when the thumbnail is white. It will turn gray only when the opacity of your brush changes.
Understanding the layer mask will help you control it easier. And you will able to create a lot of effects, reducing your working time with it.
You can watch the video about this tutorial here if you love video more that text:
2.1. Preparing
First, you shouldn't have anything around your main character or the object you want to create this effect. The main character with this transparent background will be the best. If it's a scene on your comic page, you should put it in a separated layer and the background is in another layer.
This is the image with "Transparent Background":
Next step, you can copy this character and paste it into a new file or simply use the same file with others. This depends on your choice. However, I recommend creating a new file so as not to ruin your original file and use it later.
My work is pasted in the new file.
Now duplicate the layer that contains your main character. Right-click to that layer ("Layer 1 Copy") and choose "Duplicate Layer" for quick access.
And you have 2 layers that look the same. Give them a name, so we will not get confused later. As you can see in the image, I have the "Stretch" layer at the top and the "Original" layer at the bottom
2.2. Using Mesh Transform
I'm going to choose the "Stretch" layer. Then go to the "Edit" menu, find "Transform" and click "Mesh Transform".
When you applied the "Mesh Transform", a mesh will appear around your character like this:
It is a collection of "Transform" squares that help you change the shape of the image. You can also increase the number of these squares by changing the number in the "Tool Property" box in the menu on the left. Remember to change these numbers before you edit the mesh! Or you have to repeat all steps you've done above.
Go back to your mesh, hold and drag those little white squares to transform your character. Make the image larger and slightly distorted. You can even spin them around if you want to do it. I will move on the left only. Because that's where we will make the scatter effect. Then click OK. The picture will look weird but don't worry.
2.3. Working with Layer Mask
Go back to your 2 layers earlier. Right-click on each layer, search for "Layer Mask" and choose "Mask Selection" for both layers
And here are your layers after adding Layer Mask.
Click on the Mask (thumbnail) of the "Stretch" layer to work on it. Using the "Bucket" tool and remember to choose the "Refer only to editing layer" tool. Select the transparent color box. And fill the entire image.
With the transparent box color, the image is not painted but erased. It's a great way to quickly erase something.
Right after you fill with the bucket tool. The thumbnail of the layer mask of the "Stretch" layer will become black. And you will see the image in this layer also disappear because of the layer mask effect.
Finally, we will use a scatter brush. You can create your own "Scatter" brush or download it from Clip Studio Assets. I will have a tutorial about creating custom brushes later.
Now we will choose the "Stretch" layer mask. Let's use the "Scatter" brush with the black color to paint to the left of the character.
For the layer mask of the "Original" layer, we will use the same "Scatter" brush with the transparent color box. Let's erase inside the character.
Why we are doing this? Because I'm going to make the "Original" layer disappear with the "Scatter" brush in eraser mode. And in the "Stretch" layer which has nothing will be appeared again in the place my "Scatter" brush drawing. We just playing with the layer mask effect to make things disappear and appear!
I change the paper layer color to black to show you the final result. You can quickly change the color by using the "Bucket" tool and filling the "Layer Color" box in the "Layer Property" box.
That's it for this tutorial. I'm glad you like it!!! See you in the next tutorials. :D
