Professional tips, tricks, and important points
Masking is an essential skill; much like in basketball, you have to be able to pass, dribble, and shoot the ball. So, while it may seem complicated, it is simply a matter of practice and knowing the application of the technique, usually through practice, practice, practice.
As a professional, I use brush masks constantly for compositions, and I can give you the following tips to help you along your way:
- Always use a soft brush. No matter how precise you are with the stylus, a hard-lined brush will show up as a bad mask. If you need a hard line, use a vector mask.
- You can always check the preview (remember the white square) to see how the mask is being shown.
- Take your time creating vector masks; do the fewest number of nodes to capture the detail, but realize that your viewer will not be looking as closely as you are, so a bad mask is not the end of the world, and it does not have to be perfect.
- I use a bold red...
