Introducing

Hello everyone, I'm CLGTart and today I want to show you how to create Scatter Effect with Layer Mask.

 

Layer mask is a grayscale image, which also means that there is only a black and white color. The layer mask will appear as a small thumbnail next to the original layer. If it is black, it means that your painting is hidden. Your painting is visible when the thumbnail is white. It will turn gray only when the opacity of your brush changes.

 

Understanding the layer mask will help you control it more easily. And you will able to create a lot of effects, reducing your working time with it.

Preparing

First, you shouldn't have anything around your main character. A main character with this transparent background will be the best. If you have a character stay in your comic page, you should put it in a separated layer.

 

This is the image with "Transparent Background":

Next step, you can copy this character and paste it into a new file or simply use the same file with others. This depends on your choice. However, I recommend creating a new file so as not to ruin your original file and use it later.

 

My work is pasted in the new file.

Now duplicate the layer that contains your main character. Right click to that layer (Mine is "Layer 1 Copy") and choose "Duplicate Layer" for quick access.

Now you have 2 layers that look exactly the same. Give them a name, so we will not get confused later. As you can see in the image, I have the "Stretch" layer at the top and the "Original" layer at the bottom

Using Mesh Transform

I choose "Stretch" layer. Then go to "Edit" menu, find "Transform" and click "Mesh Transform".

When you applied the "Mesh Transform", a mesh will appear around your character like this:

It is a collection of "Transform" squares that help you change the shape of the image. You can also increase the number of these squares by changing the number in the "Tool Property" box in the menu on the left.

Go back to your mesh, hold and drag those little white squares to transform your character. Make the image larger and slightly distorted. Just do it on the left, because that's where we will make the scatter effect. Then click OK.

Working with Layer Mask

Go back to your 2 layers earlier. Right click on each layer, search for "Layer Mask" and choose "Mask Selection" for both layers

And here is your layers after adding Layer Mask.

Click on the Mask (white thumbnail) of "Stretch" layer to work on it. Using the "Bucket" tool and remember to choose "Refer only to editing layer". Select the "Transparent" color box. And fill the entire image.

 

With the transparent box color, the image is not painted but erased. It's a great way to quickly erase something.

Right after you fill with the bucket tool. The thumbnail of layer mask of "Stretch" layer will become black. And you will see the image in this layer also disappear because of layer mask effect.

Finally, we will use a scatter brush. This one is just a simple brush shape, you can create your own brush (like me) or download from Clip Studio Assets.

 

Now we will choose the "Stretch" layer mask, we will use the "Scatter" brush with the black color to paint to the left of the character.

 

And for the layer mask of the "Original" layer, we use the same "Scatter" brush with Transparent color box to eraser inside the character.

I change the paper layer to black to show you the final result. You can quickly change the color by using "Bucket" tool and fill the "Layer Color" box in "Layer Property" box.

That's it for this tutorial. I'm glad it you like it!!! :D

 

You can watch the video about this tutorial here:

You can also check my Youtube channel for more tutorial about drawing and creating effect:

Thank you for watching!