Masking multiple layers at the same time

[jrickards]

I had 4 layers and in one section, I wanted to create a mask that "drilled" down through 3 of the layers. It has been a while since I did that but I think that what I ended up doing was creating a selection from the layer mask on the top layer, then creating a layer mask from selection for the other two layers but I was wondering if there was a better way to do this. I tried grouping and the "chain" icon to see if what I did to one layer applied to the others in the group/chain but no luck.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jules

[rich2005]

For Gimp 2.8.x a layer mask created from either a selection or a channel for each layer is about as fast as anything.

Gimp 2.10 allows a mask on a layer group.

Depends on your distro but a linux appimage might work. Try the last 2.9.9 one from here

https://github.com/aferrero2707/gimp-appimage/releases/

Sort of works with my Kubuntu 16.04 except problem with adding python plugins which do not show. - still worth a try.

[Ofnuts]

(03-27-2018, 04:01 PM)rich2005 Wrote: For Gimp 2.8.x a layer mask created from either a selection or a channel for each layer is about as fast as anything.

Careful with that, it depends a bit what the layer modes are. If mode is Normal then fine. Otherwise, since the blend is factorized by the opacity, the effect of the partially opaque edge pixels of the top layers isn't the same. However, in that case the final opacity of pixels is the one of the bottom layer, so you don't need a mask on the top ones.