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Masking a tree in Photoshop?

Rotornut44

Rotornut44

Resource contributor
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672
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us-florida
Hello.
Does anyone have foolproof way of masking a tree in Photoshop? I have followed a handful of tutorials on YouTube, (All of which use the same relative method in the end) but I just cant seem to get a satisfactory mask. The subject being a pine tree probably isn't helping the case either. I have linked my PSD file below if anyone would like to open it up and mess around with it.

This is the original tutorial that I followed, however no matter what I've tried so far, the trunk and branches of my tree don't come out cleanly masked.

Download Here

-CB
 
Maybe the key is the use of Dxt1 ?, this format just admit White or black color without gradients and needed for the trees alphachannels.
 
I should probably clarify since I wrote this way past my bedtime.
When I say that the branches and trunk aren't cleanly masked, I mean that there will be areas of transparency in the branches and trunk due to the lighting of the tree.

-CB
 
All right, once I have seen the video I understood your question but I got lost at the half of the tutorial. english is not my native language as can be seen. but it seem very interesting the way to créate alphachannels.
 
Tejal Bernardo said:
All right, once I have seen the video I understood your question but I got lost at the half of the tutorial. english is not my native language as can be seen. but it seem very interesting the way to créate alphachannels.
Click to expand...

It is a very interesting way, and I'm definitely going to try it more for future masks, but I think the exposure of the subject has to be very good. For the time being, I just painted over as much of the mask as I could in white. I'll slap the model together and see what happens..
 
Yes definitively is the way to go. more or less all this work but I have to see how to refine the borders, something that never get well. problably refining the selection in the selections panel. but all this save a lot of work when creating trees for fsx. there are a few tutorials about calculation of alphachannels and the Apply command too that I think is for the same.
About your problem could be you have to get the contrast higher enough for the selection tool.
 
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Hi, playing with this techinique I have observed a weird effect. when painting over selections, in a some grade the inside selection is painted too in a minor grade, weird ¡. don't knwo what happen there but it's what i've seen. and could be related with your problem, have some logic. don't know either what to do with the two alpha channels created because it can't be fusioned. I wanted something to be achieved fast and easy and now I have to read the two or three tutorials I have seen and marked in the net. as usual all very simple. anyway the "calculation tool" has been a great discovery.
 
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