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Sticky: Quick fur masking tutorial 5 replies

Ziaphra posted 1 year ago

Due to the many requests on a fur masking tutorial I had on my image 'Squog', I will show you what works for me. Open the image you are using...obviously!

Duplicate the layer you are planning to mask and hide the original. Erase the extra unwanted bits. Your image and layer palette will now look like this.

Full size image here: http://rookery1.plime.com/storage/423500/423854_bf...

Duplicate this layer now and click 'layer' and then 'create mask from item'.

Full size image here: http://rookery1.plime.com/storage/423500/423855_47...

See image below for direction and what your layer palette should look like once you have created the mask layer.

Full size image here: http://rookery1.plime.com/storage/423500/423856_3e...

Making sure you are on the empty 'untitled' layer below the mask layer, select a shape brush tool (I have selected brush 20) and using white, start to shape your fur. Experiment with different brushes, sizes and alpha.

Full size image here: http://rookery1.plime.com/storage/423500/423858_25...

To show the importance of experimenting, on the image below the top half is still rough where I used the brush at 100 hardness and the lower half shows where I changed it to 55. You will also see and ugly line around the edge of the image (shown by the red arrows)...this can be gotten rid of by using the same brush on the mask layer itself. (Note that I also added a white layer at the bottom).

Full size image here: http://rookery1.plime.com/storage/423500/423859_7c...

You can find the egg at the link below if you wanna have a play. ;o) http://a.viary.com/imagedetail?fguid=6c798ba2-3e55...

Ziaphra posted 1 year ago

Note that this tutorial shows how to create a fur mask for a plain coloured background. I used the eraser for Squog using the same principle as above (the mask in the layers was to colour the head to match the squirrel's body). I also added more fur by sampling the colours and drawing it on a new layer. I have yet to figure out how to do this on a background like the squirrel, so if anybody can add to this, that would be great! :o)

meowza posted 1 year ago

Thanks for taking the time to do this, Z!
Invaluable reference for those playing around with animal crossbreeds, which people seem to love doing!
And when I say invaluable, I mean valuable. Invaluable sounds like it's the opposite.
Weird language, this english thing.