Simple Wipe Issue

[Walter Soyka]

[Nick Mars] “What I’m trying to figure out is essentially how I could animate a crop on just those two layers of the longer rectangle pieces.”

You could animate a mask on the layer:
https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/alpha-channels-masks-mattes.html#about_masks

Or you could use the Linear Wipe effect:
https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/transition-effects.html#linear_wipe_effect

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Nick Mars]

Walter,

Thanks for the response. While its true I desperately need to take a few weeks and really familiarize myself with the basic Adobe tools, I do always start by doing some extensive googling to find an answer for myself before turning to these forums. That being said, I couldn’t find a way to translate either of the links above to solving my issue.

Let me be more specific, I was a bit rushed before my day job has been crazy.

I’m animating a logo. I took the 2D image into Illustrator, image traced it, and broke it into 4 layers I can manipulate later.

I then brought this .AI file into After Effects and dropped them into my composition, promoted them to 3D, then created a shape from vector layer. I have been able to animate all of the motion with no issue. However, I am trying to have two of these layers combine a vertical “wipe” type of animation with their horizontal movement. It seemed to me that it would be easiest to simply mask the layers and keyframe the mask making this move. Here is where the fun begins:

I can not add a mask to these layers. It simply won’t let me. When I select the layer in the timeline then go up to the rectangle tool and draw, it adds a “rectangle” onto the layer instead of a mask.

So. I tried making a new shape, adding the masks where I want them, then copy pasting onto the new layer. Besides some weird keyframe jumps that I had to sort out (why AE can’t handle copy pasting well with keyframes I will never understand) it seemed to work, but then when I went to set them up I discovered the copied masks no longer had a “Trkmat” dialogue box for me to use (on these shapes from vector layers, which contain the objects I want to ‘wipe’).

Okay. So then I tried an adjustment layer with the masks on it above both of the layers I want affected. Nada.

Last I tried a full on solid layer, then adding a “Set Matte” to these shape from vector layers and setting it to reference the solid + inverting the alpha channel. And still, no effect.

Am I missing something super obvious? This is driving me up a freaking wall.

On a side note, I’ve tried using the linear wipe tool as well, but to be honest I can not get that tool to work ever. I must have watched a dozen youtube tutorials, and they all simply change that value from 0-100 and it wipes, and I can never get any change to happen to my layer when trying to use it. So if that’s the best solution to my problems here… still help, please haha. Is there some type starting parameter you need to set when using it?

Thanks,
Nick

[Nick Mars]

Well if anyone else finds this forum, I was confusing how you control layers and paths. I solved my issue by creating rectangle shapes as new paths within my shape layer, then adding a merge layer and setting it to subtract. ????

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