A Wizard and His Pupil – Create a Fairy Tale Manipulation in 75 Steps

Step 9

Open file “Castle”. Using the pen tool or the quick selection tool select the castle. Copy it and paste it into our scene. Convert the castle layer to smart object and resize it like shown below.

Step 10

Add a layer mask to the Castle layer (Layer > Layer Mask> Reveal All). In the layer mask use a round soft black brush to mask the lower portions of the castle so that it integrates nicely with the island.

Layer Mask quick explanation. Layer mask are one of the most important concepts to understand in order to use Photoshop efficiently. There are plenty of tutorials on internet regarding layer masks but here’s the quick version. Let’s say you have a photo and you set it on a table. This is the layer. Now over the picture you put a transparent paper or foil. This is the layer mask. If you draw with a black marker over the transparent paper you will not see the picture under the black paint. If you erase the black paint you will see the picture. This is painting with black and white in the layer mask.
All this time the photo is unharmed – if you remove the transparent paper the photo is intact below. This allows for a great flexibility when doing any image editing in Photoshop.

Step 11

For organizational purposes it is a good habit to group your layers. Select all the castle related layers (you can select multiple layers by holding Ctrl and clicking on each layer) and press Ctrl + G to group them. Name the group Castle.

Step 12

Now it’s time to create our floating road. Open file “Desert”. Using the rectangular marquee tool select the desert, copy it and paste it into our scene. Transform it to smart object and position it as shown below. Also, position the desert layer below the Castle group in the layer palate.

Step 13

Add a layer mask to the desert layer (Layer > Layer Mask> Hide All). Now the desert will disappear from the scene because the layer mask is all black. With the standard chalk brush and a white color at 100% Opacity draw something resembling a road in the layer mask. Name this layer “Base Dirt”.

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