[Award Winner] Tutorial~The Mystery Behind the Mask ~ Photoshop Masks +

[StillCypher]

Hmm.. I think I am quite a bit in the same boat. Would you take a quick look at my post for the GIMP version? In mine, my videos are sound less and only 20-80 seconds in length. I then explain in the post exactly (4-10 bullet points) what I am doing in each step of the video. Do you think this would be a good format for you (and most others) to learn? ie, short, quick, hit and run videos?

All right, once again, my two cents -- for whatever it's worth!

I went through your entire tutorial (Hey! It's not done yet! There's a cliffhanger at the end!), and I still think my personal favorite is the text version with screenshots. I'm not saying that the videos would not be helpful -- but not only did these go off of my screen and cut off the view of what was happening, but they were very fast, and I missed what you were doing (not helped by the missing portions, I think!).

I think that in a text-type tutorial, one could assume that the viewer has some basic skills with the graphics program they're using (PS, GIMP, etc.) and some of the screenshot examples could be left out -- things like 'create a new layer and name it 'Water Texture' and other such basic instructions -- thus cutting down on the number of screenshots you'd actually need to use.

Not that I want to make things hard for new users!

For part of your tutorial I went along in Photoshop and found your instructions pretty easy to 'translate' from GIMP. I wonder if it is possible or practical to author some of these tutorials with a partner who uses the other program, making notes of how the procedure would be performed (or if it is not available) in that other program.

For instance:

What if you want to see the image without the layer mask? You can temporarily disable a layer mask if you like. [In Photoshop, Shift-click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers Palette. A red X will show on the layer mask thumbnail.]

And here's another totally outrageous idea... There are some tutorials that I like to refer back to frequently. How about providing a downloadable (PDF) version I can keep forever and ever and ever??

I know. I'm making MORE WORK. I'd actually be willing to help out some. I'm a pretty good editor, and although my PS skills are hardly up to professional quality, I'd be happy to try to fill in the PS equivalents to GIMP commands.

(And I'm probably up to about 25¢ now, huh?)

[jfrazierjr]

All right, once again, my two cents -- for whatever it's worth!

I went through your entire tutorial (Hey! It's not done yet! There's a cliffhanger at the end!),

Actually, I hope to get that part done tonight. However, EVEN when I get that cliffhanger part finished, I plan to throw up several more posts/videos adding additional tips and tricks.

and I still think my personal favorite is the text version with screenshots. I'm not saying that the videos would not be helpful -- but not only did these go off of my screen and cut off the view of what was happening, but they were very fast, and I missed what you were doing (not helped by the missing portions, I think!).

Even the later ones? I actually plan to redo the original one and get the physical dimensions down some to avoid the off the screen problem. As for the speed, I tried to go at slightly slower than my normal speed, but no so slow that I wasted a lot of time which would bloat the file sizes of the video (which as stated is why I did very short videos as stated before)

I think that in a text-type tutorial, one could assume that the viewer has some basic skills with the graphics program they're using (PS, GIMP, etc.) and some of the screenshot examples could be left out -- things like 'create a new layer and name it 'Water Texture' and other such basic instructions -- thus cutting down on the number of screenshots you'd actually need to use.

I wanted to make this tutorial accessible to anyone, no matter what their level of experience was, however, it was made for intermediate people in mind. Typed out bullet points are much less time consuming for me than taking screen shots.

And here's another totally outrageous idea... There are some tutorials that I like to refer back to frequently. How about providing a downloadable (PDF) version I can keep forever and ever and ever??

I know. I'm making MORE WORK. I'd actually be willing to help out some. I'm a pretty good editor, and although my PS skills are hardly up to professional quality, I'd be happy to try to fill in the PS equivalents to GIMP commands.

(And I'm probably up to about 25¢ now, huh?)

I would love to do the whole PDF thing, and wanted to... but... I really don't have any way that I know of to do such, at least not that I know of. If someone could point me in the right direction to some free software for layout that would export to PDF, that would be ok. However, it has to be something brain dead simple. While I am a techie and fairly smart, I just don't have the time to learn any new programs right now...

[Midgardsormr]

If someone could point me in the right direction to some free software for layout that would export to PDF, that would be ok. However, it has to be something brain dead simple. While I am a techie and fairly smart, I just don't have the time to learn any new programs right now...

The easiest free way to export PDF that I have yet found is to get one of those programs that acts like a printer but "prints" a pdf instead. Pdf995 is the one I've used to print from CorelDRAW. Then use whatever layout tool you like--as long as it can print you can make a simple pdf.

As for video tutorials, I find them somewhat cumbersome. I prefer a text-and-pic approach. However, I'd rather have a video tutorial than no tutorial.

And finally, yes, the PS counterpart to the Gimp tutorial is very helpful. I am not as accomplished with masks as I should be, and I've already learned a bit more about them from this thread. I learned a bit from the Gimp tutorial, but it's difficult to keep on target when you have to keep stopping to poke around the UI looking for equivalent commands.