• Adobe After Effects

  masks

  Posted by Ara Hollisian on June 13, 2007 at 11:45 am

  When I am cutting out a mask I am having the hardest time figuring the following out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  1. I make a mistake when I create a node with my pen tool and then I undo and then cannot continue making nodes. When I click my mouse it starts a new mask?

  2. When I want to move a node I click on move tool and move the node and then I click on pen tool and continue to click away, again it starts a new mask?

  3. When I complete a mask and then I want to adjust a node or two I am in the dark on as how to do it???

  Much obliged,
  Ara

  Darby Edelen replied 18 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Peter O’connell

  June 13, 2007 at 12:32 pm

  Hi, to continue on the same path I option command click the last point. That tells AE I am working in that mask. To add points along a path, command click along the path. You have to be using the selection tool in both cases.

  Pete O’Connell
  http://www.barxseven.com
• 

  Darby Edelen

  June 14, 2007 at 1:05 am

  [ajcvideo] “1. I make a mistake when I create a node with my pen tool and then I undo and then cannot continue making nodes. When I click my mouse it starts a new mask?”

  Click on the last vertex that you placed with the pen tool and then continue clicking with the pen tool where you want new vertices and it should work fine.

  [ajcvideo] “2. When I want to move a node I click on move tool and move the node and then I click on pen tool and continue to click away, again it starts a new mask?”

  Note that when using the pen tool you can hold down cmd/ctrl (mac/pc) to switch to the selection/move tool. Then use the same tip I gave above to continue creating new vertices for the same mask.

  [ajcvideo] “3. When I complete a mask and then I want to adjust a node or two I am in the dark on as how to do it???”

  You can select the layer and hit ‘m’ to show all of the masks and ‘Mask Shape’ properties associated with the layer, select one of these and it selects all of the mask’s vertices by default. You can then use the selection tool to select/deselect vertices and move them(you can also press cmd-t/ctrl-t to free transform the points).

  These are from memory, as I’m rendering right now, but if you have any trouble please let me know and I’ll try to be helpful =)

  Darby Edelen
  DVD Menu Artist
  Left Coast Digital
  Aptos, CA

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