Adobe after effects cs6 masking tutorial

#Adobe after effects cs6 masking tutorial how to#

This is the final keyframe for this movement and completes our little animation. The final part is simply to expand the mask to the left to reveal the whole word again. Now we have a sequence where we start with the whole word вЂmaskвЂ™, which then disappears as the mask shrinks down, then parts of the word are revealed as the mask travels around the text. So what we have so far is the mask starting off revealing the whole word, then shrinking into one corner, then moving up to the top left, I will now create two more keyframes to move it across to the top right of the text, and final the bottom right.

The next keyframe is created in the same manner, here I have advanced the time cursor and moved the mask upwards to the right of the text. In this case though, I have simply advanced the timeline 5 seconds and shrunk the mask to one corner, and created the second keyframe. As the below shot shows, the controls for the mask extend beyond simply moving it, you can adjust the opacity, feather the mask to blend it, even change its shape as part of the movement. Now we have our start position we can create our movement by advancing the time cursor and then adjusting the mask for the next keyframe. Within the text layer on the timeline we selects the Mask and then click the stopwatch next to Mask Path to create our first keyframe at the start of this clip. This allows us to create some interesting effects with just a simple rectangular mask and a single word of text. We set our keyframes in the timeline, and After Effects animates the points in between for us. This is the foundation of creativity within After Effects, but we now have our text and our mask, what can we actually do with it?ДЄs with most things in After Effects, creating movement using masks is based around the keyframe function. The text is still there, it hasnвЂ™t moved at all, the mask just hides parts of it as it moves around. Here is what happens if we drag the mask off the text to illustrate how this works. Inverted works in reverse, everything is visible but what is inside the mask. It is important to note that unless the вЂinvertedвЂ™ box is ticked next to the mask component of the timeline, the mask hides everything but what is contained within the mask itself. There are many instances you will want to do this, but for this project we are looking at masking specifically, and so we ensure our text layer вЂMaskвЂ™ is highlighted, select the rectangle shape tool, and draw a mask around the text, which results in what we see in this screenshot. Using the shape tool will create a mask ONLY if the layer you wish to mask is selected in the timeline, if nothing is selected, the tool will create a shape layer. You can also cycle through the shapes by using the Q shortcut. It is important to understand how the shape tool works for effective masking, the tool is dual purpose and as such it is important to follow the correct steps to get the effect you want.ДЇirst off, the tool itself is on the top menu, or shortcut вЂQвЂ™, the drop down menu allows you to choose from a variety of shapes as we can see here. This is purely to illustrate the technique, you can use a mask on any type of layer you wish in your projects, as we will discuss later on. To get started we first create a new composition, I created a small 320x240 resolution composition for this purpose, and added a text layer that simply contains a single word вЂmaskвЂ™ in yellow.

#Adobe after effects cs6 masking tutorial how to#

In the following part, we will show you how to mask in After Effects.