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Photoshop non destructive layer mask?

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malcolm polycount sponsor
I often find I have to do operations to my layer masks, ideally I would just use a smart object for the layer mask, but this doesn't appear to be possible.

Right now I am making a smart object with my non destructive edits in it and then duplicating it then rasterizing it and then using the result so I can always go back. And I just realized you don't need to rasterize the smart object just copy and paste it which helps.

Anyone got a better solution?

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  • xXm0RpH3usXx
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    xXm0RpH3usXx polycounter lvl 13
    i can add a mask as usual to a smart object...
    or did i get something wrong?
  • WarrenM
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    No, he's asking if he can use a smart object AS a layer mask. I don't think that's possible...
  • EarthQuake
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    Yeah I don't think thats possible, you could make an action to copy it into your layer mask though, that would probably save you a lot of time if you're updating it frequently.
  • MM
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    MM polycounter lvl 17
    if i understand you correctly, then you can just use clipping mask.
    its the same method as below but instead of text you use smart object.

    http://www.shutterstock.com/newsletter/205/Using_a_Clipping_Mask_in_Photoshop_Fast_and_Easy-2.html

    85695211.jpg

    after you do that, you can load selection of the main image and apply it as the layer mask of the smart object to completely mask out the image.

    you can still change smart object anytime but only draw back is if you move around the main image then u have to update the layer mask manually.

    37843128.jpg
  • malcolm
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    malcolm polycount sponsor
    Unfortunately that won't as I don't have alpha information in my smart object, it's a depth fog pass that I have some non destructive adjustments on. Converting it to a transparency map and then making it a clipping mask would not retain my adjustments because it's a grey scale map and using curves on it is how I adjust the fog distance and thickness.
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    A node based editor for photoshop would rock.. bam, plug in a levels node into the mask, plop a sharpen into the whole layer.. all non-destructively.. ahh, one can dream :)
  • Deadly Nightshade
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    Deadly Nightshade polycounter lvl 10
    Node-based Photoshop, now that would be something.
    But we all know that Adobe are more interested in adding YET ANOTHER slider in Lightroom for all the photographers out there, rather than actually developing things that us game developers would want.
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
    Isn't that what Substance is?
  • Deadly Nightshade
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    Deadly Nightshade polycounter lvl 10
    Bigjohn wrote: »
    Isn't that what Substance is?

    Yeah - and Substance isn't "Photoshop".
    Having something like it in Photoshop though that would be GOLDEN
  • Ace-Angel
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    Ace-Angel polycounter lvl 12
    Node-based Photoshop, now that would be something.
    But we all know that Adobe are more interested in adding YET ANOTHER slider in Lightroom for all the photographers out there, rather than actually developing things that us game developers would want.
    The funny thing is, Photographers are more likely to buy a plugin or a set of actions rather then go hunting for a slider which they don't even know if it exists or not.

    It also doesn't help that A) No one ever asked Adobe for such a thing, and B) Some people who work at Adobe actually don't know what a node system is...there was also this once on the Voice forums where an Employee from Adobe lambasted and called everyone who wants to use a node system in their 2D texturing editing pipeline a bunch of idiots, but that's another story for another time.
    Bigjohn wrote: »
    Isn't that what Substance is?
    Yes and no, but simply put, Substance is nowhere as intuitive as one might hope.

    The node system is very strange, it doesn't use the same functions as those of standard HLSL shaders (EI: there is no such thing as Mutiply, you have to look for a Blend node, access its properties and change it to Mutiply manually) so it can bring people to a crawl for those who has shader knowledge and know what node does what.

    It also doesn't help that it doesn't use texture uniform names like those found in GIMP or PS, and alot of the functions which would be easily usable through the use of simple set of numbers, which dictate opacity and such, need to be fed through magical portals before being fed into the node that tells you how much X should be desaturated by, so people who use Photoshop alot will find the constant accessing of this or that, or having to run nodes through nodes to get a single constant to be problematic.

    Simply put, we currently don't have anything like that at all. Photoshop lacks the people to implement the solution, and Subtance has too much of learning curve that doesn't fit with already implemented pipelines in an intuitive way.

    I recall someone long ago made such tool, it was essentially a shader editor for 2D textures that allowed you to save them out, but the author abandoned it because no one was buying it and he couldn't afford to keep on working in it. It didn't have any texturing editing tools, and was pretty bare I recall.
  • Jerc
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    Jerc interpolator
    I agree Substance can have a steep learning curve for a pure PS artist, but if you look closely, almost all the terms and values we use in there are equivalent to what you would find in PS (even though they are displayed in a node based environment), and if some of them are not, I'll be happy to get your detailed feedback cause I'm sure there is still plenty of room for improvements :)
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