ok, thanks, I did put it up to 40 and it worked. so now I am down to add layer mask and saved it there cuz I am stuck again.

It looks like the selection from the path is inverted?
The layermask should be less than the path.
(screenshot is not from this tutorial! Just a quick remake)

this would actually have been an easy tutorial if i hadn't wanted to tweak it a little and accidentally messed things up . well written, chris f, thank you!
the first thing i did differently was the font, because i wanted to see what a less "ballooney" font would look like. then i wanted bright pink (for a change ) instead of red, so i changed the colour. then, when i was very near the end of the tut, i thought the balloons looked too transparent and i wanted to add a little more colour and that's when i messed up some layers beyond rescue and had to start over again. then i was just going to add the strings when i realized i didn't like the highlights at all - they looked too sharp after i added the new coloured layers. and i wanted one highlight layer for each letter to make it look natural, so i had to start over again from the step where i cut the text apart. and then i didn't like my knots, so i remade them twice. then i added strings but didn't like the stiff look - i wanted my balloons to be free, so i made loose strings instead...


(oh, and "luft" means "air", in case anyone wondered.)

Very nice AnMal.
Would someone look at my xcf and see if you know why I can't get any farther than adding the layer mask. The next step is baloons layer, shrink 15, add layer mask, switch to it whatever that means, (I think it means select that mask and then fill with black. When I do that, the whole inside of the text turns black. In the tute it is blue. I wiped it all out and started again a couple times and that is the part I can't get beyond.

I would sure appreciate if someone could get me by this step.

I am new to this board, so I hope I am not double-posting. I tried earler, but nothing happened.

Molly,

At that point I think you have to select the mask (either ctrl - click the thumbnail or right click and click on "show layer mask").

I hope I did this right, and I hope it is helpful to you.

I did select the mask. it puts the black text in there but also makes my balloon layer black.

Molly,

I downloaded your xcf file earlier, so I filled the layer mask (selection) with black on it. You are right on track... the black is from the layers below. Just turn off the visibility on them, and you will have the same image as the tutorial.

The reason I replied is that I had just finished this tutorial, but others will probably be more knowledgable than I am.

So you are saying when I turn off the eye on that layer mask layer, I will have the blue there like the tute. I have spent hrs on this and didnt try that. I will try it now

It didn't work. I filled the white mask with black, turned off the layers and I get the shadow layer below. This is making me nuts

Molly,

Not the mask, the 'blur' and 'text' layers below the 'Ballons' layer. (BTW, I'm sure that when you said fill the mask with black, you meant only fill the selection on the mask with black).

You are doing it exactly right, as far as I can see. Good luck!

Cool, Geeze, I would be still doing this a week from now. Thank you BTW, You are allowed to post images now that you have your five posts.

Do you apply the Gaussian blur to the mask or the red layer? I tried it on both but the blue part didn't blur, just the red.

not exactly an easy tutorial

some interesting techniques !
i had to improvise on some steps, blurred the second highlight to get a better result

and im wondering if the highlights could be made in a better way, as they are a bit too random for my taste

heres my result

you dont want to make it blue, molly, you want it to be transparent

alpha select your path
shrink
activate Balloon layer
add layermask 'From Selection' and 'Invert'


and then you blur the layermask

The Gaussian blur is on the layer mask, to give the 'clear' look to the balloons.

I'm uploading the one I did. There is nothing original about it...just my attempt to follow this excellent tutorial.

you have the same problem as me, Jas45:

the N is not readable anymore (looks like a floating pillow ), same as my H

choosing the right font is essential for this tut....

Esper,

That's an interesting point. After your post, I went back to the 'text' layer and tried to reshape the 'N' (and 'S') with the eraser tool. But the hollow area in the top of the 'N' is only 13px wide in it's original form, and in the text we grow the selection by 20px. Needless to say, I still had the problem no matter how much I thinned the letter... we would need >40px of space to give the 'N' any definition.

Do you know of a workaround?

no i dont know of a workaround

i didnt grow my selection by 20px - i used less, but i used a different font

tutorials work the way they are shown, if you choose different values, fonts, colors, words, etc
they may work, but you can never be sure
i guess thats the point where the art begins:
improvising and making it right

i dont think you have to necessarily grow the selection, if you already have a real bubbly font

Esper,
Here is one possibility for the 'N'. It is not intended to be a "thing of beauty", just proof of concept.

The only thing I did was to use the free select tool to subtract from the selection after it was grown by 20px. Yes, I did a poor job with the lasso tool, and ommited some smoothing and the 2nd reflection layer, but it is an approach to defining the 'N' better if need be.