mask on top of mask in photoshop?

[Tim Nelson]

Is there any way to do that? Say I have a layer with a random mask applied to it. And then I want another adjustable mask on top of that, say a gradient from top to bottom. Basically I don't want to have to destroy my original mask when I put the gradient on it.

[Chad Warner]

Do a search for "clipping masks" in the photoshop help. It may be what you're after.

[Tim Nelson]

That sort of works...I can use the bottom layer to work over the existing mask, and put my gradient on it. Then the layer above, I just keep a copy of the mask and leave it disabled in case I need it again.

 

I guess I could also put the layer in a group and put an additional mask over the whole thing.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess I was just hoping there was a way to keep stacking masks on top of each other in the same layer, but these work well enough.

[Stephen Thomas]

One way might be to make seperate layers for each of your masks and put them in a group with the blending mode set to screen or add. Then each time you want to apply the combined mask just copy and paste the result to your other layer mask slot.

 

Hope that made sense!

[Chad Warner]

One thing that I discovered while playing with this was that you're able to apply two masks to a single layer, but I can't figure out how to "activate" the second mask.

[Tim Nelson]

The second mask is a vector mask, so I don't think it has the paintability that the regular mask does. You have to edit that like a path. Stinks though, if they let you add a vector mask, why can't they just let you add another layer mask?

[Scott Erstad]

You can group the above layer to the lower, or you put said layer in a folder, whcih can also have a mask.

I employ both methods regularly, the second is very helpful when painting a given thing with multiple layers like veg.

 

If this is unclear, I can make a quick PS setup and post it as a zip, just ask.

 

Cheers,

Scott

[William Alexander]

Look at the image is that what your after?

 

 

If not there's always calcualations working in channels to create an alpha-channel that can be used as a mask...but thats a lot of work

[Tim Nelson]

Yeah, William, thats what I ended up doing with mine. The only problem I saw with that was if you had adjustment layers on top of the main layer, then you start to mask that out too. But overall the group thing worked for me.

[William Alexander]

Yeah, William, thats what I ended up doing with mine. The only problem I saw with that was if you had adjustment layers on top of the main layer, then you start to mask that out too. But overall the group thing worked for me.

 

 

..... Calculations on the mask channels ect is the only way to get what your are describing, I believe. I use the calacualtions very frequently to combine masks, alpha channels-channels to create 'combined' masks-channels for transparencies and keying in PSD. The calcualtions-technique is closer to working in Shake, combustion for VFX though.

[jucaro]

Have you tried converting your layer to a smart object then apply another mask on that smart object? that way, you can still edit you first mask if you want to. almost like max stack layer.