Masking question for Motion 4

[Stephen Smith]

Is this a photo of a martini shaker that you want to animate?

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

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[Michael West]

Sorry Stephen, for the lack of info.
I created it with the bezier tool using an image as the template.

Here is the image I used for the outline:
https://www.123rf.com/photo_8980087_classic-cocktail-shaker-3d-render.html

I made each section as an individual part (cap, lip, main body, etc.) and gave each the Write On behavior to make it “appear”.
When it all “appears” as a single unit, it rises up.
When it reaches the top of the Motion Path, it “shakes” a bit, up and down, before Spinning to empty into a glass.
I want the cap to fly off (Motion Path, again)just before it Spins, and as it does, it reveals the spout.
I made the spout by copying the outline for the cap, and making it smaller.
Hope this better explains what I’m trying to do.
Thanks.
Michael

[Stephen Smith]

I would put all of the layers in a group and animate the group. Then you can animate the layer that has the top separately so it can fly away from the rest of the objects. Hope this helps.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

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[Michael West]

Did that.
What I need to know is how I cover up the spout part under the cap and have it come into view as the cap comes off.
ex. you grab your right index finger with your left hand, completely covering it.
As your left hand moves up, each knuckle of the right indez finger comes into view.

Right now I’m having it appear a couple of frames before the cap flies off, which is discernable only if you’re looking for it, but the OCD part of me wants it to look “real world”.

Thanks again for your expertise and your patience.

[Stephen Smith]

Can you change the layers length so it becomes visible only when you are ready?

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Vimeo page

[Michael West]

Not certain what you mean.

[Stephen Smith]

A layer by default starts at zero seconds. Can you move the layer so it starts at say 12 frames. So it is not visible until you want to see it.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Vimeo page

[Jason Watson]

It seems to me that you should be able to have the spout visible (in the layer timeline sense) the entire time, as long as it is under the cap layer. Your layer hierarchy would look something like this, from top to bottom:

Cap
Spout
Shaker

Since the cap will be completely over the spout, you should just have to move the cap to reveal the spout. As Stephen mentioned, this would probably work more easily if you group everything but the cap into a group. Depending on the look you are going for, instead of using Write On for every layer, it might be easier and more cohesive to use a mask on the shaker group to reveal everything. I would probably make an over-arching group with a sub-group so you can animate the shaker as a whole and the cap separately from that. Your hierarchy would look like this-

{Group} (Reveals, Shakes, rotates into pour)
Cap (flies off)
[Sub-group]
Spout
Shaker

Hope that helps.

[Michael West]

Stephen & Jason:
Sorry for the late reply.
Thanks for your input.
I solved the problem by not using a cap, after all.
The imagery is stylized, so needing a cap is just a touch of OCD on my part.
However, the info you both provided will give me an opportunity to play around once I finish editing the footage and delivering the product.
Again, thanks to you ,and Creative Cow, for being there.
Michael