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  • Using a black and white image as a track matt

    Posted by Dan Finn on February 9, 2013 at 2:12 am

    I feel like this should be fairly simple but I’m struggling with it. I’m quite familiar with how masks work, at least in Photoshop. I’m not quite getting the same results in AE.

    The effect I’m going ofter is rather simple, I think. I’m trying to edit some footage that I took on a recent vacation to Hawaii and I’m trying to come up with a simple yet different intro.

    I’m looking to use this image:

    https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vWXyPDRCZ5E/TiXtfsyWgfI/AAAAAAAAAOU/Y2Si3TuN8Gc/s1600/Hawaiian_Hawaiian_Islands_Small.jpg

    and I’m trying to use it as a track matt.

    I’d like the video to show through where the islands are, and the rest to be black. I then would like the track matt to fade out to just the video.

    What I have done is taken that image and inverted it in photoshop. I pulled in a clip that I would like to use for the intro below the track matt, pointed the track matt at the black/white jpeg but it’s not working as expected.

    What is the right way to go about accomplishing this effect?

    Thanks,
    Dan

    John Cuevas replied 13 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Todd Kopriva

    February 9, 2013 at 4:44 am

    Make sure that you have chosen to use it as a luma matte, not alpha matte.

    Details:
    https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/alpha-channels-masks-mattes.html#track_mattes_and_traveling_mattes

    ———————————————————————————————————
    Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
    After Effects quality engineering
    After Effects team blog
    ———————————————————————————————————

  • Dan Finn

    February 9, 2013 at 6:39 pm

    I did try that. If I set it to a luma matte and unchecked the “eye” button on the matt it would sort of work. I would get the desired result except then when I would fade out the opacity on the map to reveal the video beneath it everything would go black.

    I’m sure there’s got to be a better way to do this but what I’ve ended up doing is using the roto brush, telling it I don’t want the islands and I do want everything else. This works, I get the video showing through the islands and I can fade out the map layer revealing the video beneath. The issue is that it’s now been rendering for about 12 hours and it’s telling me it has another 12 to go. Even though nothing is changing from frame to frame on the roto it must still be analyzing every frame.

  • John Cuevas

    February 9, 2013 at 9:17 pm

    Instead of using a luma matte, change your vacation video Track Matte to none. Turn on the Hawaiian Map layer eyeball and change it’s mode to “Silhouette Luma” and then apply your opacity keyframes to bring your video to full opacity.

    Johnny Cuevas, Editor
    Thinkck.com

    “I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
    —THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

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