hmm.. stupid Illustrator / Photoshop question re: transparency

[chromeboy007]

This is probably the simplest thing but I don't know how to google it cuz I don't know what it is called.

Say you have a rectangle and you want to apply transparency to it. But you want one end to be more transparent than the other end so you have a fade from solid to one end to totally transparent at the other. How do you do that?

I apologize in advance for asking a dump question.

Thanks

By transparency I mean opacity. Thanks

 

[chromeboy007]

Nevermind I think I found the answer here:

http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/transparent-gradients-in-illustrator/

Do let me know if you know of a better way

thanks

 

[WildTrackDave]

In photoshop, it's called a layer mask.

Click on the image layer in the "layers" window
Add a layer mask (circle inside a square at the bottom of the "layers" window)
Click on the layer mask (white rectangle to the right of the image layer) to highlight it
Select the desired gradient in the toolbox (black to white)
Apply gradient to the part of your image you want to go from transparent to opaque
Viola!

You can always keep redoing the selection until you get it just the way you want it.

NOTE: Remember to be clicked on the layer mask, not the image. In the image mask, black will represent the transparent parts, white will be non-transparent, and the in-betweens will be semi-transparent.

Hope this helps at all.