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Animating multiple masks over a single layer
Hi guys,
This has been bugging me for a while now!
I want to animate multiple masks (independently) over a single layer.
Here’s a diagram:
Referring to my diagram, I have 5 different shaped masks
each has a different motion path (represented by the white dotted line)
they all cut through one layer (the blue rectangle)
The only thing I can think of is to put my five shapes into one precomosition
then to place that precomposition directly above my blue rectangle layer
then to set the TrkMat for the blue rectangle layer to: Alpha Inverted Matte “five shapes Precomposition”
But I’ve had no luck with that approach!
Any Idea how to go about this?
-Cheers
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5 Replies
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You can animate masks by animating the Mask Path property for each. If you’re animating the position of a mask, just be sure to select the entire mask path. The easiest way to move (transform) an entire mask path is to use the free-transform mode.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
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I’m sorry that I seem to have not been able to express myself correctly… but I would like the layer, which the mask reveals to be linked in such a way that mask does not simply reveal the layer- but the layer is warped based on the ways in which the mask path is animated.
So if the mask is a square- and it’s two top corners reveal the letter “Z” in each of its corners and it’s two bottom corners reveal the letter “A”… as the mask moves up- the top corners will eventually contain the letter “A” and the bottom corners will be empty. I don’t want this- I want the layer to move with the mask.
I have begun to think that this is simply not possible- with masks- and that I must convert the mask into an alpha matte- and somehow manually puppet the layer which it reveals- so that it appears to be linked to the alpha matte.
Any suggestions would be helpful- as I am willing to go any route on this one.
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You’re right that masks don’t have any such functionality built-in.
You might be able to accomplish something like this with expressions.
And I have a feeling that if this is possible, it might involve the Reshape effect, which is a warping tool that utilizes masks. You might be able, via expressions, to link a mask in one comp to the mask used in the reshape effect in another comp.
You might want to pose this question in the Expressions forum. -
I figured it out in the end:
I made a new solid. Drew out a shape on that solid then animated the position of the solid. Then pre-composed all those layers and used that as my track matte.
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Oops, I responded to the wrong mask inquiry topic.
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