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Transparent mask in AE?
HI all. I’m having a quandary.
It’s about masking…I’m animating a fish and its jumping out of the water and back into the waves. The background and the waves both need to be transparent (masked) so I can place the rendered image of the fish against a colored background. I can’t figure out how to make the mask transparent without it being in the animated layer (where it moves with the animation). Ideas?Thanks
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4 Replies
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Hmmm. Not entirely sure I’m following here… It sounds like you may be looking for track mattes for the waves and background(?) which would easily allow you to control their opacity independently of everything else, but I can’t be certain that’s what you’re after.
Can you explain the composition & elements you’re working with a little more clearly?
• Archie •
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Thanks for the reply.
I guess what Im wondering is if there is a simple way to mask the shape of the waves to where their shape will be transparent when it overlaps the fish to give the illusion of waves without altering the fish shape.
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Well almost certainly yes, there is, but again without further information it’s difficult to know what to advise.
What are the elements you’re working with? Is it just a flat animation or do you have layers in place?
As long as your waves, your fish and your background are all on separate layers then their masks will function independently of each other.
Or are you working with real footage?
It’s impossible to tell what the composition is like from what little you’ve said, I’m afraid 🙁
• Archie •
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Hi,
There is no background, only the fish and the wave which is in front. I guess Im not describing what I want to do. I want to animate the fish jumping out of the water (the transparent bkg) and when it dives back, the wave layer that it over laps will mask it, but the wave is transparent too, so the fish as it dives back into the water, will be partially masked by the wave layer (which is transparent) until the fish disappears. I want to do it this way in case I want to put the animation on a blue bkg or a red one or whatever.
Is that more understandable?
I drew a picture
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