Transcript:
Hey, everyone in this video. I would like to show you how we can create something like this, and by this, I mean, an image that fades away to nothing. So let’s review what I’ve got going on here inside of my layer’s panel. I have a solid color background, nice and simple, and then the only other layer is this pixel-based image just here which you can see is fading from opaque to transparent and I was able to achieve that through the use of a layer mask, which has a gradient applied to it. And if I hold down the shift key and click on the mask to temporarily disable it, You can see that’s my original image just there. Now I’m actually going to grab the mask and throw it away because we are going to recreate that look from scratch in just a couple of moments, but first I’m going to jump into this blank document just here and show you how to actually draw a gradient, so tap the G key that will grab you. The gradient tool also probably good a good idea. Guys to double check that you haven’t accidentally chosen one of these other tools that also use the G as the keyboard shortcut, so we’re using the gradient tool. You’ll see the options running across the top of Photoshop. You should see a gradient just up here now. If you click on the gradient itself, it will open up this gradient editor, fantastic box where you can actually dial in your own gradients, but we are keeping this super simple today, Guys, so cancel straight out of there if you open it up and rather than clicking on the gradient, click on the drop down arrow next to the gradient. Now, when you do that, you will open up a whole bunch of folders. Basics at the very top is what we want and we are just looking for the one that goes from black to white. And if you hover over these, they will sometimes tell you what they are, but in this case, it doesn’t want to do so. The reason guys were seeing weird colors just over here is because it’s picking up the foreground and background colors, which I have just down here, so don’t worry about those. Just find the solid black to solid white option and click on it and then you can just click away and we are almost ready to start drawing. I’m going to quickly jump into Photoshop 2019 Guys, having chosen the gradient tool and then clicking on the drop down next to the gradient in the options. Just up here. I want you to see. This is sometimes what you will actually be presented with actually earlier versions of Photoshop. This is what the gradients would show when revealed at the top just up here. So if you see something that looks like this again, just hunt around for the black to white option. Click on that and you are good to go excellent. Let’s jump back into Photoshop 2020. We’ve got a gradient tool drawn from black to white, so I’m just going to click drag and release across the canvas and lets. See what we get, okay, fantastic, we’ve got a gradient that indeed goes from black to white, and we can see all these nice shades of grey in between so note the gradient just up here there, guys. Basically, the color on the left is your starting point and the color on the right is the finishing point. So if for example, I was to drag from the top to the bottom. I should get black to white from top to bottom, and indeed that’s the result that we get excellent. Guys, you can draw gradients in any direction that you like. If you want to keep a gradient square in other words, keep it vertical or horizontal use the shift key while you’re drawing the gradient. So if I want a perfectly vertical gradient, I’m going to hold down the shift key and then draw from, say bottom to top, and that’s the result just there, hold down the shift key draw from left to right perfectly square again. Very nice Gradients don’t have to be drawn over a long distance. Either everyone you can draw them. Over a very short distance, so for example, let’s draw out a gradient that is only that long. This is the result you can see. The majority of the page is either black or white with a very short transition period. Just through there, so you can see basically whatever distance you drag the gradient over that is representing the transition from your start to end color fantastic. So that’s how you can draw a gradient guys. We are nearly ready at this point. So if I come back to my composition just here. If I select that topmost layer, all I have to do is add a layer mask and we can start drawing our gradient with that layer selected. Come to the bottom of the layer’s panel and we’re looking for this little guy just here when you hover over it, it will say add layer mask. This is fine just down here. So if I click on it, it will now add a mask to our layer now. The mask comes in as pure white think of the mask. As sitting over the top of the contents of the layer with layer masks, white reveals black conceals, so because the entire mask is white, we can see the entirety of the content of this layer. Now, if, for example, I was to grab the paintbrush and draw a black dot in the upper right corner of the mask. It would obscure that part of the mask, but when I say obscure, it would make that area of that layer transparent, in other words, that part of that layer would disappear, okay. We have our grading tool selected one last thing to keep in mind. Guys, make sure you’re targeting the mask, and we know we are targeting the mask because we can see this little boundary around the outside if I click once on the thumbnail for the layer itself. And if I come out here and I draw a gradient, I have completely obliterated the pixels within the layer itself, so in other words, that’s bad, so let’s undo that. Click once on the layer mask. Always keep an eye guys. You want to be making sure you are targeting the mask, okay. The mask is targeted. We’ve got a gradient. We’re drawing from black to white lets. Come out here onto our canvas and draw from say left to right and fantastic. Look at this, we’ve got a image, which is nicely fading away and remember, it fades away to the part of the mask. That is black. Now you don’t have to keep undoing guys. So for example, I don’t have to undo and then redraw a gradient on the mask. You can actually just continue because you’re drawing from black to white. You can just continue to draw wherever you like as many times as you like, so remember, draw yourself a short gradient guys. You get a very quick transition. If you draw yourself a long gradient, you get yourself a nice, long, gentle transition transition from opaque to transparent that is now, uh, in the original example. I had the image completely opaque at the top and completely transparent at the top at the bottom by thank you part so drawing from black to white. I just want to draw myself. A gradient which starts here with black and finishes up here with white. So let’s try that, and I’m also going to throw in the shift, key and fantastic. That’s the result just there, guys. If I turn on my background, just now fantastic. That is the result just there, so I might leave it at that point. Just there, guys. I hope that helps you with your fading of content within Photoshop. Catch you later, you!