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Wow! What Happened?? Please Help.
Well I’ve been using my AE everyday since I got it on Saturday and all the sudden my “M” button key command does not work anymore. It used to bring up “Shape” with a watch for a keyframe but now it brings up “mask path”. There is a highlighted “shape” button to the right of “Mask Path” but if you click it, it only reveals the pixel dimentions and gives you a ellipticle or rectangular option, thats it, no keyframe options.
Does anyone know what happened or how I can set “Shape” keyframe manually? The Shape option in the “Layers” drop down only takes me to that same useless window.
How do I fix this? the online help is NO help.
Thanks!
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4 Replies
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If you have a layer (solid or footage) that contains a mask, hitting M will make the Mask Path property visible for any selected layers that have a mask. If no layers are selected, the property will become visible for all layers that have a mask. The Mask Path property allows you to set a keyframe for the shape of that mask by hitting the stopwatch next to the words “Mask Path”.
Shapes are very different. Shape layers are created by using the pen tool when no other layers are selected. But I’m a bit confused … the M key doesn’t seem to have anything to do with shape layers.
Now I don’t like the new Help as much as the old help, but searching for “shape” and “shortcuts” led to the conclusion that shape layers don’t use the “M” key. So I’m not sure what “shape” you mean”. Could it be that some of us oldtimers used the word “shape” instead of “mask path” in our advice?
Or that you really want to keyframe a “mask path”?
Or maybe you could say exactly what you want to keyframe? A shape layer? A mask on a footage or solid layer?
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Hmmm? Strange.
I got to this point by watching the “Light Saber” Tutorial by Andrew Kramer (Link Below) where at 1:14 in the video he says and hits the letter “M” and then the “Mask Shape” option comes up with a stopwatch. By the way I AM talking about after using the pen tool on a new layer solid. It had been doing it for 4 days for me but then yesterday it started with the “Mask Path” for reasons I don’t understand. Could it have been a automatic update that changed it? Cause I wouldn’t know how to change the Keyboard commands if I tried. Hehe.
BTW, my timeline slider doesn’t seem to be moving the video anymore manually other than if I click one frame at a time while holding it.
Any Ideas???
Tutorial Link (Watch and listen at 1:14 in)
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/light_sabers/ -
It looks as if Andrew was working in AE7 for that tutorial, not CS3 or CS4 … judging by the buttons available at the top of the timeline. AE7 uses “mask shape”. Maybe you have more than one version of AE on your computer, and opened CS4 by mistake?
As for your CTI (current-time indicator) can you scrub it back and forth? Do you have Live Update selected (the first button at the top of the timeline in AE7)?
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Hey thanks for the responses Steve, they all worked great!. I still don’t know what happend with the “M” key changing cause I’ve only had AE CS4 but for anyone reading this, “Mask Path” is apparently the same as the old “Mask Shape”.
Thanks again Steve, I’m sure you’ll be able to help this old newbie in the future too. Hehe
DW
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