Don't understand masks compared to Photoshop

[eobet]

I chose "mask to below" on a pixel layer with a black and white image on it and ended up with what looks fine to me in the layers panel:

But my image is still 100% red instead of being transparent with a red sketch on it...

...what am I missing?

 

[Sara72]

Hi,

Try 'Rasterise to Mask' instead, you need to place the black and white image on the layer above the pixel layer that has the colour fill. If you just want to turn the white area's red you could also try using the blend mode: Multiply on the black and white image, again the colour fill layer needs to be below the image.

The 'Mask to Below' that you used works in a way, that if you had text or a shape on a transparent layer and you wanted the image/photo below to take on that shape or text that is what it would do.

[eobet]

On 7/3/2019 at 5:14 PM, summersara said:

The 'Mask to Below' that you used works in a way, that if you had text or a shape on a transparent layer and you wanted the image/photo below to take on that shape or text that is what it would do.

That is what I thought it was, and that is what I want.

Imagine that the red image is the photo I want to take on the shape of my black and white image.

So why did that not happen?

[Alfred]

11 minutes ago, eobet said:

So why did that not happen?

As Sara indicated, you need a layer with a transparent background instead of a white background. Inverting the black and white image and choosing the ‘Rasterize to Mask’ command will give you the opacity map that you want.

[Sara72]

Hi eobet,

did you try the Rasterise to mask? The Mask to below is more a clipping mask.

[Dazzler]

Yes, there are three methods of masking, one is the 'Rasterise to mask', which is pretty much equivalent to the Photoshop way of doing it. 

The second is by nesting layers in other layers. This is more interesting and would be the way to go if you want the mask to be a vector shape rather than a rasterised image. The parent layer becomes the mask and the inner layers are then masked by it.

The third is using the blend mode set to erase. Not so keen on that way of thinking, but it's there if you need it.

It looks like in your case the mask is a solid flattened image with a background colour containing a greyscale image map, so you'd have to use the 'Rasterise to mask' method. 

[eobet]

Thank you all. This was the correct procedure:

1. Rasterize to mask
2. Merge to below