Reverse stacking order of masks, how?

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

You can set the Stroke’s Start and End properties to 100%. Then keyframe the Start property down to zero.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Asia.

[Göran Thorén]

Thank’s Roland but that isn’t really the problem.
The problem is that I need the stacking order to be reversed so sequence stroke gets right.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Doing what I suggested reverses the order in which the masks are stroked. No?

RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Asia.

[Göran Thorén]

Yes and no.
It reverses the direction each mask is drawn but not the ORDER the masks are being drawn.
In my case I have almost 300 masks (which I now have manually reversed the order on) where the first mask is located on the bottom of my comp. the second mask a bit further up, the third even further up and so on.
What I need is to reverse the order of the masks to get the opposite result; from top to bottom.
I guess it’s a bit tricky to wrap ones head around the problem when you can’t see the actual comp… 😉

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

So, You have your masks stacked up in the Timeline, from the top as follows –
Mask 1
Mask 2
Mask 3
Mask 4
Mask 5

And you now want to reorder it as such –
Mask 5
Mask 4
Mask 3
Mask 2
Mask 1

Is this correct?

What you can do is use the Layer>Arrange>Send Mask to Back menu item. Select the second to last mask (Mask 4 as per the example above) and hit the Short-cut key CTRL+SHIFT+[ . Then select the next mask further up the hierarchy. Once you get to the top, the last mask will now be ordered first.

It’s a bit tedious but if you combine your mouse to select the masks and use your other hand for the key combo, it’ll be a pretty quick exercise.

Unfortunately I don’t know of a way to reverse the order at one go, like you can with layer orders.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Asia.

[Göran Thorén]

Wow, thank’s Roland!
That’s a really handy trick!
I’ve used AE for allmost ten years but I have never came across that.
Or maby it’s not every day you have hundreds of masks that need reordering… 🙂
I thought the old “select from bottom cut’n paste” would do the trick but not when it comes to maskes unfortunately.
After effects do seem to have a couple of things to develop still…

Thank’s a million anyway Roland!

/Göran

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

You’re most welcome Göran.

Cheers
RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Asia.

[Harold Durnez]

Hi Göran & RoRK

I’m in the same predicament…
Have you guys come across an easier solution since?
(Definitely a suggestion for a script)

Hope to hear from you soon.
H

Harold JM Durnez
harold.durnez@gmail.com
http://www.behance.net/HaroldDurnez
https://vimeo.com/channels/harolddurnez

[Davy Force]

FOUND AN EASY WAY FOR THIS FOLKS!!

Select bottom mask first (mask 100 or whatever) then multiselect (shift) the first mask (mask 1) so youve multiselected in a reverse order. CUT the selection (to delete paths) then paste back into same layer- Mask later order will now be reversed-
your welcome!

[Harold Durnez]

NO WAY! haha so simple.
– Thanks man !

Harold JM Durnez
harold.durnez@gmail.com
http://www.behance.net/HaroldDurnez
https://vimeo.com/channels/harolddurnez