OVERLAYING TEXTURE ONTO BLACK AND WHITE IMAGES

[Logan Lukow]

Let me be the first to say that I am in way over my head.  I run a side business where I make signs for local companies.  Part of that process is making concepts, where I lay out the design in a black and white image, then overlay whatever texture the sign is going to be over that image.  In the past, I've outsourced this process but I want to do it myself as to avoid waiting on the other party.  How do I do this?  I have looked for tutorials, and I can't find any.  I have attached an example of what I am talking about.  So in affinity photo, how do I take the black and white image, make the white transparent, then overlay whatever texture of choice over the black? 

I had this image already outsourced.

[firstdefence]

Put the texture you want under the design and change the blend mode of the design layer to Screen.

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Put the texture you want under the design and change the blend mode of the design layer to Screen.

Close, but no cigar! That gives you the desired texture in place of the black, but the white remains white.

If you want the white to turn transparent, go to the Layers panel, select the B&W image and apply the ‘Erase White Paper’ filter. Now drag the texture layer upwards and drop it on the black/transparent thumbnail layer. (There is no need to set the layer blend mode to ‘Screen’ for this method.)

Edited January 8, 2019 by Alfred
Corrected error pointed out by MEB.

[All Media Lab]

Wow! That's a nice tip! Have to remember that one.

[PixelPest]

Mmmh - don´t the white parts need to be transparent in first place then? What is not the case with the example image - even it´s a PNG.

[All Media Lab]

When you take the first example image (PNG) and apply the "Erase White Paper" filter to it the white (TEXT) becomes transparant and you can then put a background underneath.

[PixelPest]

I  know how to get it transparent - but it won´t work from what I know without enabled alpha channel the way Alfred was describing it. That was my point. 

[MEB]

Hi PixelPest,
Alfred already corrected his post to add the Erase White Paper step which was missing from his original reply, however the instructions are still incorrect: the texture layer must be dragged over the logo layer (not over its thumbnail) or alternatively drag the logo image (already made transparent) over the thumbnail of the texture layer.

[Logan Lukow]

Is there a tutorial video out there documenting this?  Can anybody here make one and post it to this thread?

Thank you all so much for your help.  I'm going to give it a try.

[PixelPest]

10 minutes ago, MEB said:

the texture layer must be dragged over the logo layer

Seems not 100% true to me:

[MEB]

Please read my whole reply carefully. There's two ways of doing this. You are dragging the logo layer over the thumbnail of the texture layer (the second way on my reply). The other way is to drag the texture layer over the logo layer (not over its thumbnail).

To learn more about layer clipping versus layer masking please check this video tutorial.

[v_kyr]

16 minutes ago, MEB said:

however the instructions are still incorrect: the texture layer must be dragged over the logo layer (not over its thumbnail)

No way, if dragged above it will cover it. - In the meantime @PixelPest showed the options.

[Logan Lukow]

You guys... I think I got it figured out!  This is really a huge help!  I run a small business and I really didn't want to fork over $10 a month for photoshop.  Rip off if you ask me.  This is going to save me time and money in the long run.  Thank you all so much!

[MEB]

v_kyr,
You are dragging the texture over the thumbnail of the logo - please drag it over the right area of the logo layer  NOT over its thumbnail.

Note that all these steps must be performed after the removal of the white background from the logo.

[PixelPest]

3 minutes ago, MEB said:

Please read my whole reply carefully.

Bear with me will you? I was reading the email notification and didn´t noticed you´re editing your post - that´s the reason for my reply:

[Logan Lukow]

How do I export it so the background remains transparent?  I just exported it and the background was white.

[MEB]

4 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

Bear with me will you? I was reading the email notification and didn´t noticed you´re editing your post - that´s the reason for my reply:

I've just added the second method (or alternatively drag the logo image (already made transparent) over the thumbnail of the texture layer.), that's all. That reply in your mail is still correct. Both ways will achieve the same result.

[MEB]

Logan Lukow,
Are you exporting to a format that supports transparency like PNG or TIFF (JPEG doesn't support transparency)? Also make sure you have set the document to use a transparent background (menu Document ▸ Transparent Background).

[v_kyr]

5 minutes ago, Logan Lukow said:

How do I export it so the background remains transparent?  I just exported it and the background was white.

Depends on the exported format (use PNG too) and the tool you are previewing this.

[Logan Lukow]

Got it, I was using JPG.  

I AM EXCITE!!!

[Alfred]

59 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi PixelPest,
Alfred already corrected his post to add the Erase White Paper step which was missing from his original reply, however the instructions are still incorrect: the texture layer must be dragged over the logo layer (not over its thumbnail) or alternatively drag the logo image (already made transparent) over the thumbnail of the texture layer.

You’re quite right, of course, Miguel. I was checking my steps on the iPad version and misdescribed the desktop equivalent. (On the iPad the clipping position is shown as a line through the middle of the layer, instead of a line at the bottom and to the right of the thumbnail. The cropping/masking position is shown as a highlight on the thumbnail, but since I was using my finger instead of a stylus I couldn’t see the thumbnail at the time!)

[firstdefence]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

Close, but no cigar! That gives you the desired texture in place of the black, but the white remains white.

If you want the white to turn transparent, go to the Layers panel, select the B&W image and apply the ‘Erase White Paper’ filter. Now drag the texture layer upwards and drop it on the black/transparent thumbnail. (There is no need to set the layer blend mode to ‘Screen’ for this method.)

I did it in Affinity Designer because I'm hardcore  anybody can do this in Affinity Photo, if you want to knock out the white as well just add duplicate of the design and change its blend mode to exclusion.

Drops the Mic... 

[firstdefence]

Actually it doesn't really work, its a bit fake, but it looks like it does lol!

Picks the mic up and skulks off stage. 

[JimmyJack]

36 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Actually it doesn't really work, its a bit fake, but it looks like it does lol!

Picks the mic up and skulks off stage. 

Ha! Ya had me scratchin' my head!! 

In Designer (and Photo for that matter), I think it would be quite easy to Invert the PNG then Rasterize to Mask. 
.... taps mic: "Is this thing on??" 

[toltec]

56 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

I did it in Affinity Designer because I'm hardcore  anybody can do this in Affinity Photo, if you want to knock out the white as well just add duplicate of the design and change its blend mode to exclusion.

If you are really hardcore, you can 'Erase White Paper' in Designer.

In the Pixel Persona, go Select Tonal Ranges > Shadows then Invert the selection and press Delete. You can then drop the texture on the layer like wot @Alfredsaid.

If you just select the Highlights Tonal Ranges rather than selecting the Shadows and inverting, it tends to leave half white pixels around the edges although you can remove them with Blend Ranges. Perhaps a bit too hardcore ?