#Mask drop shadow after effects how to#

You can only do this on one layer at a time, so I’ll turn off the right side of the image to make things easier to see. Which means I need a way to tell Photoshop that my layer masks should hide both the contents and the layer effects.Īnd we can do that using an option called Layer Mask Hides Effects. I need the two strokes in the middle to disappear. Sometimes hiding a layer’s contents and just reshaping the layer effects is what you want, which is why it’s the default behavior in Photoshop.īut in this case, it’s not what I want.

#Mask drop shadow after effects how to#

But when I added a mask to hide one side of the image, the stroke simply reshaped itself around the other side.ĭownload this tutorial as a print-ready PDF! How to mask layer effects in Photoshop That’s why my stroke initially surrounded the entire image. You want your shape layer to accept shadows but not lights and you want the animation layer to cast shadows and accept lights. Before you move it around, change a couple of settings on the shape and animation layer. After Effects tutorial with the aim to explain how to mask elements, such as trees, without using regular mask tool.The idea is to paint masks in Photoshop. Instead of hiding the layer effects, Photoshop reshapes the effects to fit the content that’s not hidden by the mask. Once everything looks lined up, change the blending mode on the rectangle to multiply. What’s happening is that by default, a layer mask hides the layer contents but it does not hide any layer effects that are applied to the layer. So what’s going on here, and how do we fix it? How do I get rid of the two strokes in the middle of the image? How layer effects and layer masks interact in Photoshop And it’s the stroke, not the image itself, that will be our main focus. The border was created using a stroke, which is one of Photoshop’s layer effects. Notice the white border around the main image.

Behind it is a wood texture image that I’m using simply as a background. In this document, I have a photo of a couple sitting on a park bench, which is the main image I’ll working with. By choosing different curve profiles, you can get the. You can get the latest Photoshop version here. The Contour shapes allow you to change the falloff of the Photoshop shadow effect in a non-linear fashion. Drop Shadow is the basic part of Adobe After Effects software. I’m using Photoshop 2023 but this applies to any recent version. In this tutorial, I show you some examples of problems you can run into when combining layer effects with a mask, along with the tricks you need to know to get your effects and masks working seamlessly together.

And the reason is because of the way layer masks and layer effects interact, which is different from how masks work with a layer’s normal contents. Problem is, they don’t always work as expected when used together on the same layer. Layer effects and layer masks are two of Photoshop’s most powerful and creative features.