I'm upgrading from Fedora 11 to Fedora 13, which means upgrading to Krita 2.2. One of the features I use most is the layer mask, which I use to blend different exposures. However, I can't figure out how to do this in Krita 2.2.

I think the "transparency mask" is the thing to use, but after adding such a mask, I can't seem to paint on it. Here's what I tried:
1. Open the first image file.
2. Add the second image as a layer using Layer > New > Insert Image as Layer
3. Select the second (top) layer, right-click, then select "Transparency Mask".
4. Click on the "+" symbol that appears next to the top layer in the list of layers. This shows the newly-created transparency mask.
5. Click on the transparency mask. The background changes to show that it is selected.
6. Attempt to draw on the mask using the pixel brush.

The result is that nothing changes. I would expect to see parts of the lower layer showing through, but this doesn't happen. There also appears to be no way to view the edited mask.

My installation lacks any krita help files, even though I installed all of Koffice (I use gnome, not KDE). I wasn't able to find any help files on the web either.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Mask uses brush and eraser for painting. Try to paint with eraser.

Yeah, I had to ask about that too.

The bit to wrap your head around is that Krita acts differently than Gimp / Photoshop / Blender / Maya etc. In Krita, the brush always paints white on the transparency layer, regardless of what colour your have selected for the brush.

For example, if you have black / grey / green / orange etc. selected, and you paint on the transparency layer, it always paints white.

Weird, I know!

You can kind of work around this by using opacity options instead of colour. Would be nice to be able to use both as in other apps though.

Dev's: Would it be useful to have a bug / wish filed on this?

Thanks, slangkamp and Kubuntiac, using the eraser works. Using the brush seems to undo the eraser, but doesn't do anything if used initially.

I'd like to see support for the "other way" of doing things. Sometimes I paint the mask with grey to give only partial transparency. I'm not sure how I'd do this with the existing feature.

That's because by default, the entire transparency mask is white/opaque, and as mentioned, the brush *always* paints white. Thus painting white on white doesn't change anything until you use the eraser (which paints black).

I worked this out myself by experimenting and looking at what the layer thumbnail did, which is now much easier, thanks to slangkamp, who fixed it so it updates instantly.

stinky-tofu wrote:Sometimes I paint the mask with grey to give only partial transparency. I'm not sure how I'd do this with the existing feature.

it should work, if you use the transparency slider in the tool options