By request, I’m writing a tutorial on how to use the layer mask tool in photoshop. It is the easiest thing in the whole world and once you learn how to use it, you’ll be thankful. 

Let’s begin.

To start this, I am going to take you through a step by step tutorial. So if you wish to follow along with me, and give it a try at first, then here are the image you will need:

Got it saved? Good! Open up photoshop so we can get started. You are going to upload the first image by going to File > Open. Once you found it and it’s loaded, you’re going to go to Layer 1 and create a new layer. Drag that new layer to the absolute bottom of your layers palette. This will come in handy for later.

The first thing you want to do is create a new group. You can do this by going down to the bottom of your layers palette and clicking on the folder image (). Select all the layers of your gif and move them into the folder by dragging them and hovering over the new folder you’ve created. No need to rename it right now. Your layers palette should now look like this:

Now that you have all that done, be sure to have the group selected before selecting the lasso tool (), and make a random shape around your GIF. Once you connect the line together it should have a dotted line showing where you drew your selection. This is the part where you get into the layer mask. Remember that folder icon? If you move your cursor to the left two icons, there’s another one that you are going to want to click ().

Select the bottom layer that you made in the beginning of this tutorial and colour it white so your gif should look like this:

Go to File > Save for Web. Make sure that your gif is set for “forever” where it has the loop option, or else it will just only play once. And there you go! You can go on now and create your own. 

A layer mask can also work with the brush/eraser tool. All you have to do is group whatever GIF you want or just have the image layer selected and add the layer mask like shown above. Then you use the brush/eraser tool to get the right type of mask you’d like. Play around with it, learn new tricks. Have fun!