Planet Eclipse Tutorial

J
Posted By
Jerry
Sep 12, 2007
Views
377
Replies
4
Status
Closed
Using PS CS3

I have the tutorial for planeteclipse from the Adobe Photoshop Exchange and it also can be found on the web at:
http://www.oman3d.com/tutorials/photoshop/video/solar_eclips e.php

It seems to be a great tutorial and teaches a novice such as myself many techniques for PS. The one thing <probably me> is that it works fine until very close to the end, then something goes wrong. Just before adding a gradient layer, the tutorial says to add a Layer Mask and it show no visible change to the way the image looks in the tutorial, however when I do that, most of the image goes transparent leaving only the orb and the glow around it. The background should stay black.

I was wondering if anyone knows why this is happening.

Also does anyone know if it is possible to get a printout of the tutorial rather than using the video tutorial. I followed the video tutorial and made my own hard copy, but I must have missed something or the tutorial is in error.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you

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N
nomail
Sep 12, 2007
Jerry wrote:

I have the tutorial for planeteclipse from the Adobe Photoshop Exchange and it also can be found on the web at:
http://www.oman3d.com/tutorials/photoshop/video/solar_eclips e.php
It seems to be a great tutorial and teaches a novice such as myself many techniques for PS. The one thing <probably me> is that it works fine until very close to the end, then something goes wrong. Just before adding a gradient layer, the tutorial says to add a Layer Mask and it show no visible change to the way the image looks in the tutorial, however when I do that, most of the image goes transparent leaving only the orb and the glow around it. The background should stay black.

I was wondering if anyone knows why this is happening.

You probably missed a part where the layers were merged. It’s a rather clumsy tutorial anyway. This guy makes life far more complicated than it needs to be. For example, he uses the paint bucket as aa fill tool, even though there is a fill menu and a fill shortcut to do so. Although it works in this tutorial, the paint bucket is *not* a good tool for filling a layer. He also makes a white circle in a layer, and then uses Fill Opacity to make it black. You can simply make a black circle and leave it like that.


Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.com
J
Jerry
Sep 13, 2007
Thanks for the reply, but I did merge the layers then unlocked the background. Still has me confused why it does not work.

"Johan W. Elzenga" wrote in message
Jerry wrote:

I have the tutorial for planeteclipse from the Adobe Photoshop Exchange and
it also can be found on the web at:
http://www.oman3d.com/tutorials/photoshop/video/solar_eclips e.php
It seems to be a great tutorial and teaches a novice such as myself many techniques for PS. The one thing <probably me> is that it works fine until
very close to the end, then something goes wrong. Just before adding a gradient layer, the tutorial says to add a Layer Mask and it show no visible
change to the way the image looks in the tutorial, however when I do that,
most of the image goes transparent leaving only the orb and the glow around
it. The background should stay black.

I was wondering if anyone knows why this is happening.

You probably missed a part where the layers were merged. It’s a rather clumsy tutorial anyway. This guy makes life far more complicated than it needs to be. For example, he uses the paint bucket as aa fill tool, even though there is a fill menu and a fill shortcut to do so. Although it works in this tutorial, the paint bucket is *not* a good tool for filling a layer. He also makes a white circle in a layer, and then uses Fill Opacity to make it black. You can simply make a black circle and leave it like that.


Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.com
F
Fred
Sep 16, 2007
Thanks for the reply, but I did merge the layers then unlocked the background. Still has me confused why it does not work.

Maybe you had a selection active?
J
Jim
Sep 28, 2007
Hello Jerry,

On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 04:04:26 -0400, "Jerry"
wrote:

Using PS CS3

I have the tutorial for planeteclipse from the Adobe Photoshop Exchange and it also can be found on the web at:
http://www.oman3d.com/tutorials/photoshop/video/solar_eclips e.php
It seems to be a great tutorial and teaches a novice such as myself many techniques for PS.

Yes it is. One bit of advice that I would offer is to avoid the constant merging of layers. The effects shown in the tutorial can all be achieved without all that merging. By skipping the layer merging and using adjustment layers you will be free to go back and change various aspects of the eclipse if you later decide you don’t like it.

The one thing <probably me> is that it works fine until very close to the end, then something goes wrong. Just before adding a gradient layer, the tutorial says to add a Layer Mask and it show no visible change to the way the image looks in the tutorial,

That is correct. When a layer mask is added, it defaults to white which reveals all.

however when I do that,
most of the image goes transparent leaving only the orb and the glow around it. The background should stay black.

I didn’t follow the tutorial through myself. I just watched what he did and worked to achieve the same results by way of different methods.

I was wondering if anyone knows why this is happening.

Could be an active selection. I have been side tracked more than once by that problem myself. If you have a selection active and you then create a layer mask on some layer, Photoshop will take that selection into account when creating the layer mask.

Also does anyone know if it is possible to get a printout of the tutorial rather than using the video tutorial. I followed the video tutorial and made my own hard copy, but I must have missed something or the tutorial is in error.

Fortunately it is not a very long tutorial. I find that making notes as you have done is better in the long run because I can go back and modify my notes to reflect where I have deviated from the tutorials directions.

Best Regards, Jim
http://artsnova.com/blog

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