How to Use Alpha Lock, Clipping Mask & Layer Mask in Procreate - Procreate Tips

Hello everyone and welcome back to another mini tutorial video here on Procreate. For today's video we're actually going to talk about the differences between Alpha Lock, Clipping Mask and Layer Mask. So I finally want to show you guys in one video the differences between all three and what are the best case scenarios for each one of these tools. For that we're actually going to be using this element here, this leaf, and I'm going to show you how to properly use all three of these tools. So let's just start with the first one, which is Alpha Lock. When is actually best to use Alpha Lock? So let's just imagine that we have this leaf and we're adding some texture to it, we're adding some shadows, some light and shadows. Well, just taking a look here at this file that I've prepared for you, we have the leaf element as one layer, we have the background as a separate layer. So then we would just click on the leaf layer and select Alpha Lock. As we click and select that option, we see now the alpha kind of background, the famous background that we see on a Photoshop file. For example, once we start a new file and delete all of the layers, we're usually given this checkerboard kind of texture and that means that this layer has now a locked alpha here on Procreate. So now just using a brush, I'm going to be using a noise brush and a tone just a little bit darker than this leaf. And now I can just draw, I'm just going to increase the brush size here. I can just draw, I'm going to increase a little bit more, some shadows to this leaf. And because this layer is set to Alpha Lock, I don't really have to worry too much about painting anywhere that's outside of the leaf because Procreate is actually understanding that what we want is to actually get the alpha of the leaf and set it as the boundaries, as the mask. So basically, the advantage of Alpha Lock is to be able to draw freely, don't have to worry too much about where you're actually drawing on the outside of the boundaries of your layer. But the disadvantage, and I would even say a bigger disadvantage of Alpha Lock, is that we're drawing shadows, anything that you're doing here, if we were to now draw some highlights, we would be drawing all in one layer. So we don't really have a breakdown of layers here and any changes, if there's any feedback or any changes, if you're doing this as a freelance work for a client, actually starts to become a little bit more painful. Like say, he actually wants to get rid of some of these lines, now you've got shading on top of that and you're basically going to have to redo this whole element here if you have everything merged in one layer. So as quick as it is to actually use Alpha Lock, it comes with a big disadvantage if you need to make any changes down the road. So let's just undo that and let me just show you how can we achieve the same thing in a different way. So once again, Alpha Lock is really quick, it's a really quick solution when you're drawing everything in one layer. So we're going to click on this layer, we're going to deselect or we're going to turn off Alpha Lock for this layer, now we're going to create a new layer, click on our new layer and set it to Clipping Mask. So what is Clipping Mask? Clipping Mask is a tool where any layers that are created on top of our base layer and set to Clipping Mask, they will actually obey the parent. So what I mean by that is making another layer here and if I set it to also Clipping Mask and making another one, setting to Clipping Mask, we see all of these little arrows pointing down in a chain reaction to the base layer. So that means that all these three layers will all respect the boundaries, the alpha boundaries of our parent layer. So now if we go back into the brush and just paint those same shadows, that same idea, we now have the shadows as a separate layer. That is much better and that's what I call non-destructive work. And there was a video that I actually just talked about a little bit of these principles and especially the principle of creating non-destructive work. And in your career as a freelancer, it's going to be very, very important and actually as much as professional even to say that using non-destructive work is one of the best ways to actually move forward as you're doing work for clients. Because if there are any changes such as like, please take off the shadows, please change the color of the layer, the base layer, it's going to be much easier if you don't have everything merged into one layer. So let's just make another, create another color here. This is going to be white and I'm going to use a similar brush. And now in another layer, I'm just going to draw a little bit of highlights here. So once again, it is so much easier now to just decide if we want to have these highlights or if we want to have these shadows or not, it all becomes much easier because it's all non-destructive kind of work because we're using clipping masks. So now let me show you the last thing to do here, which is the layer mask. When do we use it and why do we use it? Say now, for example, that this is some freelance work and the client has now requested for you to add a little variation here to the leaf. So the leaf's looking maybe too sharp, it's looking too perfect and we need to add some parts where it's a little bit broken. So one way to go about it, we have to click on our base layer. We would use then an eraser brush and I'm just going to set the brush a little bit bigger here and we would have to maybe do something like this. This is a very crude example of just making this leaf a little bit more interesting. However, by doing this, we're actually creating destructive work once again because we are actually deleting pixels from our base layer. So what is the best way to actually do that? Well, I'm just going to undo that and now if I go back into the layers panel, click on our base layer and select mask, that is a layer mask. And now layer mask works with tones of white, with the range of white all the way to the black. So meaning that if you stop in the gray area and if you use the same brush and you start to paint parts of this, you don't use actually the eraser, you actually use now the brush. So I'm just going to set back into the studio pan and more of a larger kind of brush size. As you can see, because we're using gray, it's only removing 50% or so from the base layer or when I say removing actually should mean obscuring because that's what layer mask is actually doing. It's not deleting anything but rather obscuring. As you can see, if I turn off my layer mask, we see that the whole leaf actually comes back. So when you're actually working with layer mask is actually, there may be a case where you're using or you should be using gray values, but basically we should be using either a pure black in order to obscure, completely obscure objects or areas or pure white in order to reveal areas. So let's go back into the black value and make sure we are using a studio pen. And now if I go and I do the same thing here that we did before with an eraser, now you can see that I do have the same effect and going back into the layers panel and turning off layer mask, I still have my whole leaf in the case there's any changes. For example, oh, can you please bring this back? I actually don't want to see a leaf that has that many parts that are obscured. So you can bring this one back, you can bring this one back. And all of a sudden, again, it becomes much easier. You're going to have your object ready to go. The changes are going to be faster for you to re-deliver files and deliver things upon feedback and client notes. So once again, working in a non-destructive way is a very, very important way and professional as well to actually work in digital illustration. So I hope that this actually clears out for you guys in terms of what are the three different ways and how to actually best make use for those tools in Procreate whenever we're working with alpha lock or clipping masks and finally layer masks. So I hope this really clears out. So that's it for this video, guys. I hope you guys enjoyed. And if you did, a like would be super appreciated as well as make sure to hit the subscribe button down below for more news, tips and tricks, reviews, and speedpaint videos. And that is all for you to become a better digital illustrator. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you guys on the next one. Ciao.