3 Replies Latest reply: May 22, 2009 2:41 PM by Christian Davideck RSS

    stacked clipping masks

    Christian Davideck Community Member

      It would be quite useful to have stacked clipping masks in Photoshop, i.e. a hierarchy where a layer inside a clipping mask can itself act as the base layer for another clipping mask, the layers of which would be further indented to the right (as seen in the following image). Subsequent alt+clicks would cycle a layer's hierarchical position (released/indent1/indent2/.../released).

       

      stacked.png

       

      Specific example (as shown above): an adjustment layer should only affect a single layer inside a clipping mask.

       

      I currently do not see any easy workaround or technique which would achieve the same result (except for creating "recursive" smart objects (SMO inside SMO) which is hardly convenient). Or does anyone know something else ... ?

        • 1. Re: stacked clipping masks
          Reynolds (Mark) Community Member

          Same result? Create a group of all the layers - put the mask that is currently on layer 1 on the GROUP. Change the groups blend mode to Normal. Now there are no clipping groups necessary and your curve will only affect the layers held within the group. If you want the curve to affect JUST layer 2, you can still create a clipping group there.

           

          I will admit that once in a while I have needed stacked clipping groups, but there are always other, better ways to achieve the same result.

          • 2. Re: stacked clipping masks
            Christian Davideck Community Member

            thanks for trying to find a workaround, but that won't do it ... if I remove the mask from layer 1, it doesn't have the correct shape for it's layer style (drop shadows, etc.) any more, for example.

            • 3. Re: stacked clipping masks
              Christian Davideck Community Member

              Anyway, this is just a simple example. I've many times come across more complex layer configurations where stacked clipping masks would come in real handy. So I hope maybe the Adobe team will one day warm up to this idea ...