PeaRl Of WISDOmWhen creating a knockout, the big question is: How deep does
it drill? Knockouts are either deep, going all the way to the
Background layer (or transparency if there is no Background),
or shallow, ending at the base layer of a group. We want to
burrow through just the Elaborate Balloon layers, so we need a
group with a shallow knockout.
- Select both the Caption layer and the Elaborate
Balloon group. Click the Caption layer to select
it. Then Shift-click the Elaborate Balloon group to
add it to the selection. - Place the selected layers inside a new layer group.
Click the at the top of the Layers panel and choose
New Group from Layers, as in Figure 5-60. Or bet-
ter yet, press the simple and memorable shortcut,
Ctrl+G (�-G). Name the new group “Knockout
Text” and click the OK button. - Twirl open the new layer group. Click the � arrow
in front of the Knockout Text folder to reveal the
new group’s contents. - Double-click the thumbnail for the Caption layer.
Photoshop once again displays the always fascinating
Blending Options panel of the Layer Style dialog box. - Choose Shallow from the Knockout pop-up menu.
The Knockout option appears circled in orange in
Figure 5-61. Contrary to what you might reasonably
expect, this option has no immediate effect. Instead,
it merely establishes the layer as a potential knock-
out. To put the knockout in play, see the next step. - Reduce the fill opacity to 0 percent. Identical to the
Fill value in the Layers panel, Fill Opacity changes
the translucency of pixels in a layer independently
of drop shadows and other styles. But it also has a
symbiotic relationship with the Knockout option.
Drag the Fill Opacity slider triangle and watch the
text fade into the background art. At 0 percent, all
you see is background. To complete the effect, close
the dialog box by clicking the OK button. - Move the Me on T layer into the group. If you look
closely at the text, you’ll see that the word US! is
Figure 5-60.Figure 5-61.Masks, Knockouts, and Luminance Blending 167