Adobe Photoshop and After Effects CS5 - Let's Create a Cool Border With Photoshop's Alpha Channel

When we show our work or customers work, hopefully, we want it to look very, well lit, you want to stand out. Cropping is a good way to highlight the potential of art, but when we want to do with this site, we have some tools to choose from. I just created a display, that is a beautiful tile work. Looks good, works great tiles, great pictures, but needed a little 'of something. I understand that the definition of design, execution, may actually help create it apart from highlighted items.

How could the screen frame chip? What's better than the tile itself ... with an alpha channel support some of Photoshop and the mixed layer in After Effects this should be a fairly easy task. I thought the two presentations, either the presentation of the company's products or just a family album that show very well with this technique, which is definitely worth sharing.

Choose the image you want to be your limit. It will help build the slide show in After Effects first to have a simple "before and after 'contrast to assess your limit. Note size of the composition, as will determine the size of the border you want to create in Photoshop.

Open the image you have chosen your line in Photoshop. In my case, I decided to add the line that I wanted to make the edge of the frame. You can do the same pattern or texture that overlap in Photoshop to create four times up, down, left and right limits the bandwidth, but you could also choose the format that will be the '"alpha" out of the center so that it comes from outside of the frame.

In both cases, when you built your border in Photoshop, create an alpha channel to remove the central part of the images that we will use this as a finished image in After Effects. A simple way to create alpha, using the share is to copy the image layer, scale it down to 90% using the Free Transform tool:. Typing "Ctrl + T" and then enter 90% of the width and height (just below the toolbar) Use this "inside the left image to create the owner of Alpha, the image you want to show through.

Highlight this small part of the image to select reverse. When you create a new channel in Photoshop to create a section of the channel, which is not selected, invert the selection, which is your body. Now the channels tab, click Save Selection as a channel, the second icon from the left channel tab, "Save selection as channel". If you click the eye next to the new channel is the top event of default red to show the region that has been added to this new alpha channel. This is the part that is not visible in the saved file.

Save the selection as a targa file type "TGA", then import the file back into After Effects. Place this new file as the top layer of the composition and see your newly created connection with the underlying layer shows through.

These simple steps to create an alpha transparent area and in this case, create the desired image with a transparent area on the screen. When you import this file into After Effects, placing as the top layer of the entire composition shown below, except in the lower layers will appear in the center, the area of ​​alpha.

This same technique can be used in many applications, mixing images and video with a creative way.