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Each project that you work on in TwistedBrush can be constructed with the use of several, dozens, or more layers.
Layers help give your art an added a sense of depth. They do this by letting you “build” your painting from the ground up, from the sky down, or by branching out from the middle. When you paint on one layer, you do so without disturbing what is on the layers below or above that layer. When everything is where you like it best, merge the layers and they permanently seal themselves to each other!
You can merge just two layers at a time, or you can merge several layers at once--whatever fits your needs.
Note: Before you merge layers, be sure to save your project in its current stage, in TBR format, with a file name that reflects the stage of the work-in-progress. This way, you will be able to later access the project at this exact stage. When the file opens, your layers will be separate, like they are before merging takes place.
You should also save a Restore Point for the work-in-progress. This way, you can separate the merged layers, should you need to do so. To save a Restore Point, select the menu File > Save Restore Point. Once the restore point is made and layers are merged, you can easily ungroup the merged layers and return them to their separate slots in the layer panel. To do this, select the menu File > Revert To Manually Saved Restored Point. A warning will appear advising you that this procedure can’t be undone. If you still want to separate the merged layers, click the Okay button. If you don’t want to separate the merged layers, click the Cancel button.
Keep in mind that recovery will not work if you open the merged layer, add new images to it, and then save a new restore point. Nor will it work if you save another restore point that has nothing to do with this merge. New restore points overwrite previous restore points. A way to get around this situation is to save separate TBR files of different stages of the work-in-progress without overwriting them. Doing this can consume a lot of disk space, but, on occasion, the effort can prove worthwhile. Once you are satisfied with the results, you can delete the unneeded files.
Merging Two Layers
When you only want to merge two layers, you need to make sure that the two layers are one atop the other in the stacking order in the Layer Mini Bar. Their layer slots don't have to physically touch each other, but any layer slots between them must be empty layers. The reason for this is simple: When you click Merge in the Layer Mini Bar pop-up or when you select the menu Layers > Merge Current Layer, the layer that is active will fall onto the first layer beneath it and those two layers will join together. Note: You can also use the merge button in the Layer Panel to accomplish this task.
Merging Visible Layers
Let’s say that you have a work-in-progress with six different layers, like the workspace that’s shown below. You want to merge three layers that hold parts of the girl's pinwheel with the layer that holds the girl and her father, but you don’t want to merge them with the other two layers. First, make the other two layers invisible by left-clicking on their layer slots. The color of these slots will change from white to grey and they will contain a closed eye, demonstrating that they can't be seen in the workspace.
Above, four of the layers are visible and two are invisible.
To merge the four visible layers, select the menu Layers > Merge Visible Layers. The four layers will join together without attaching to the invisible layers. When you make this merge, the visible layers will join together and your other layers will remain separate. Again, all of the layer levels that you want to merge will have an open eye in their layer slot in the layer panel. The layers that are invisible will show a closed eye, just like they do in the Layer Mini Bar that abuts the left side of the workspace. (You can see the closed eye in the invisible layers in the above graphic.)
Note: Don’t click Flatten. If you do, all of your layers--visible AND invisible--will join together and seal themselves to the background layer. You only want to flatten all of your layers when you are certain that you don’t need the separate layers and when you don’t want to change what is on the background layer.
When you merge layers together, either by merging specific visible layers or by flattening all of the layers together, the file size compresses and saves disk space. Computer memory is freed, too.
Flattening Your Layers
When you are finished with your painting, you may want to permanently seal all of the remaining layers together so the work can be saved as a png, tiff, or jpeg file, et cetera. Before you do this, make sure that all of the layers have been toggled to visible mode like the ones shown below. Why? Because all of the layers will flatten, but the finished image will display ONLY what was visible on the individual layers. At that point, select the menu Layers> Flatten as shown below.
Copy and graphics for this page were contributed by TwistedBrush member shutterbuggy ~Rita.
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