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Masking: Trying many ways to get a result
I am learning about different ways to make a mask, link its position to that of a beam. (I want to repeatedly wipe beams across the screen and have video images appear and disappear under the beams.)
I know there are a lot of ways to approach masking, including creating a mask on a layer, shape layers (I don’t understand them yet), track mattes, and silhouette or transfer blending modes; and a lot of ways to link the position of the mask to the position of the beam, e.g., animating position, parenting (including introducing a null object), and creating an expression. (I don’t understand any of this deeply yet.)
Right now I want to make a rectangle that is 1200 pixels wide x 480 pixels tall, skew it 45 degrees to the right, use it as a mask, link it to a beam, then animate the position of the beam; the video will be revealed and hidden by repeated passes of beams. I am trying to make a mask to those specs on the layer that contains the video and beam effect. I made the mask the right height and width. How do I skew it 45 degrees to the right?
Also, it there someway to make a shape layer with a rectangle on it with these specs?
Thanks, as always.
Victoria -
6 Replies
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What Dave said. Also, if I understand your question correctly, you might look into using track mattes. Make your rectangles in a precomp. This tutorial which emulates the opening of CSI: Miami, shows how to create and use rectangular track mattes. Perhaps you will find an idea in there somewhere.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Dave, How do I get the parallelogram the exact dimensions that I want? I used the pen tool and could not get it exact and do not see how to enter the coordinates numerically. Thanks.
Victoria -
Szalam, the great and powerful – I will check out the tutorial. Thanks.
Victoria -
A piece of cake for someone who knows how to bake; at least I can follow a recipe (toll house, anyone?).
I now have my rectangle. Now I will see what I can do with it. One thing: when I hit shift, left or right arrow, my computer moves the vertices 40 pixels, not 10. Maybe it is something in my preferences.
Many thanks.
V. -
If I get a bonus question…
I am working with the mask. It appears that add/subtract performs the same function as invert on/invert off. How do they differ?
V.
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heh @ revealing pun
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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