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Mask corruption
I’ve been getting roto work from Silhouettefx contractors. They export roto shapes into an AE file as 100s of masks on a solid layer which I then import into a master AE file.
After import, some of the contractors’ mask layers cause problems, eg either crashing during rendering or inability to save the master file. Same result on different machines.
Maybe the Sfx shape export is buggy and AE masks descriptions are dinged in some subtle way. The Sfx forums are down but I’ve submitted a support ticket.
Any ideas? Can I identify problematic masks without having to delete them one at a time? Is there a workflow or utility that repairs mask integrity? COW gods, I beseech thee.
ae 11.0.4.2
osx 10.8.5
MacBook Pro 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
iMac 3.1 Ghz Intel Core i5 -
3 Replies
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[Dave LaRonde] ” Why don’t you have ’em export image sequences you can use for mattes? Why fool around with masks on a solid?”
Hi Dave,
Vector is more flexible than raster. Also, we’re talking a significant amount of roto. Vector files are small, raster files not so much. Upload/download is faster, especially when contractors are doing 2-3 revisions for each shot.
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[Dave LaRonde] “That’s all true, but so is this: once you have the roto work in AE and you have not already settled on a resolution, you’ve got problems. Thus, the more flexible scaling of vectors isn’t too relevant.”
I don’t need scalability, I need tweakability. I can always bake the data later.
“Second, it’s AWFULLY tough to screw up a black & white image.”
You’ve been at this awhile Dave, yes? Anything that can go wrong, will. Even “black and white images” are not immune to Murphy’s Law.
Rather than debate my workflow, I’d prefer to have insight specifically on why masks are problematic / unreliable, or point me to other threads about the vagaries of masks and how to resolve them.
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[Dan Kelly] “Vector files are small, raster files not so much.”
Here’s the thing: Mattes are black and white and do not need to be in an uncompressed format.
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