So simple but making a mask or shape into motion path

[Todd Kopriva]

Dave’s instructions are good. If you want more information, see the “Create a motion path from a mask, shape, or paint path” section of After Effects Help.

If the Help document doesn’t contain the information that you need, or if you’d like to add a tip of your own, leave a comment using the link at the bottom of any Help page.

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Todd Kopriva, technical editor, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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How about taking a survey about After Effects documentation? Please?
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[Tom Nelson]

I’ve got to admit – AE’s User Guide and help menu incorrectly or at least inadequately cover this – they both say you can copy the mask, they don’t point out that you need to highlight the mask shape property in order to paste it. Makes a big difference.

Tom Nelson
Videographer/Editor
Essex Television Group

[Todd Kopriva]

[Nelson] “I’ve got to admit – AE’s User Guide and help menu incorrectly or at least inadequately cover this – they both say you can copy the mask, they don’t point out that you need to highlight the mask shape property in order to paste it.”

Step 1 of the procedure in the “Create a motion path from a mask, shape, or paint path” section of After Effects CS3 Help says this:

“Select a Path property in the Timeline panel, and choose Edit > Copy.”

Is that not explicit enough? If you have a suggestion for how to improve Help, please add a comment by clicking the Add Comment button at the bottom of the page of Help on the Web.

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Todd Kopriva, technical editor, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
————————————————————————————————–
How about taking a survey about After Effects documentation? Please?
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[Tom Nelson]

I stand corrected, Todd. The help file for AE is much more complete than the paper user guide, which simply says to “Select a mask” and then “copy the mask to the clipboard.” Simply following these directions and copying the actual mask doesn’t work. I guess I’ll stick to the help file from now on.

Tom Nelson
Videographer/Editor
Essex Television Group