Graphic Design Tutorials

2 min read

How to Mask Groups in Photoshop and Tips on Reducing Your Production Time

Written by: Ali Baxter

We have received a great response from some past “How to” blog tutorials like How to Rotate Photoshop Brushes and How To Create a Fanpage on Facebook With Custom HTML so here is another quick Photoshop tutorial on a technique that saves me tons of time.

As a Web developer here at Vital, production work is a big part of my job, so any way I can speed up my part of the process is going to help the bottom line. Masking images is a huge time saver itself, but when I learned you could mask a group of layers rather than taking the time to mask each layer individually, again my mind was blown by how such a simple thing could save me so much time!

I have found that masking a group of layers is especially handy when you are prepping images for photo galleries. Generally for galleries you need lots of images that are the same size, with the same effects applied. Whether you are just looking to make all the images a consistent size or your adding rounded corners etc., a layer mask is a great way to give you a consistent, clean edge. In this example I had to crop photos for the Portfolio Luxury Kitchens photo galleries.

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Graphic Design Tutorials

< 1 min read

How to Rotate Photoshop Brushes

Written by: Ali Baxter

This may be old news to some, but when I figured out this technique I was blown away by how much time I had been wasting. This quick tutorial will show you how to easily rotate your Photoshop brushes to any angle you need. It may sound silly, but it’s a huge time saver!

We’re all fans of Photoshop brushes. Easily adding textures, patterns, images etc. to my designs is great although I always felt like they had their limitations based on their “out-of-the-box” layout. I can’t tell you how many times I have used the brush I needed on a separate layer, then rotated or flipped it to where I wanted it to end up. A huge waste of time.

With a couple mouse clicks, you can make the brushes do whatever you want. Here’s how.

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eBook | Website Redesign Strategies

What’s in the ebook? This newly updated, comprehensive, 35-page guide is designed to make sure you get the results you need when it’s time to redesign your website.

Get the Resource