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Proportional Scaling masks in After Effects is not working for me

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
August 25, 2020
5 replies
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I'm an after effects newbie but i'm pretty sure if i hold down shift when i create a mask shape, that mask shape should scale at a 1:1 ratio. so if i choose the elipse and drag it out holding shift, it should be a circle.

But what i'm finding is that holding shift stretches the mask shape so the shape is twice as wide as it should be. Although it retains this stretched proportion. So i cant create perfect circle or square mask shapes. Just wide elipses and rectangles.

However if i just create a shape (not a mask shape) the shift key works as expected and i can drag out circles, etc. I'm using AE 17.1.3

Anyone else experiencing this, or has a fix? or am i being an idiot?

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tomb7496687Author

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R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

The only thing your screenshot of the comp shows us is that you have an oval mask on a horizontal rectangle and you have Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio turned on.

Select all layers, press UU to reveal all modified properties. Make sure the Comp is selected in the Project Panel, check the Pixel aspect ratio of any distorted asset using Interpret Footage if it is an image or video or Solid Settings if it is a Solid. This screenshot shows a perfect ellipse on a shape layer, a square solid that is not showing up as a square. A circular mask on the square would show up as an oval.

Check your comp, try creating a square shape layer, check the Solid that contains the mask, and make sure all of the transform or shape properties are at their default settings. Your screenshots look like the scale of the shape layer with the mask is set to something like 400, 50 instead of 100, 100. That is way too much distortion for just a pixel aspect ratio error.

tomb7496687Author

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Hi Rick, where's the toggle pixel aspect ratio? Should that not be turned on?

everywhere I check the pixel aspect ratio is says square pixels, and I haven't changed that anywhere and I wouldn't know too either - so I don't think it's that.

like I said I'm new to AE so apologies if I misunderstand you guys. But if I create a solid but then select it and change the dimensions of it, so the ratio becomes for example 30/120% of what it was when created, then the mask I then create when I hold shift matches that new size ratio - so is that normal? Maybe I don't have a problem maybe it's doing what it's supposed to, but it seems pretty odd... because then I either need to create a solid and not resize it. Or manually punch in dimensions to make the mask square or circlular (if you can even)

if I create a shape layer and resize that, I can still mask it with the shift key and get a circle or square. I don't quite see why that shouldn't be possible with a solid layer

tomb7496687Author

Participating Frequently

Here are some screen grabs, i've made the mask shape large so you can see the shape of the solid being masked. When i hold shift dragging the mask shape, you will see the distortion reflects the proportions of the solid being masked. I don't have anything complicated going on, just a background, solid layer and then masking that. I'll add some screengrabs but you will see that a horizontal solid shape, will mean a wide elipse mask when i hold down shift. And a more vertical solid shape layer means the mask will be a vertical elispe when i drag it out and hold shift

tomb7496687Author

Participating Frequently

Hi, thanks for your replies, i checked the comp settings and the comp IS set to square pixels, so it's not that. And yes, i'm holding shift when i drag the mask shape but as discussed above it becomes a very stretched elipse and not a circle.

Some other info, I've noticed that the mask distortion, so the way it stretches proportionally when i hold shift, seems to reflect the dimensions of the solid layer being masked. So i originally noticed the shift issue when i was trying to mask a solid horizontal rectangle (about 1000x200 pixels) would mean the mask elipse was stretched horizontally when i press shift and sizes proportionally in that shape. But if the solid underneath is more like 1000x800 the resulting mask shape is less distorted when pressing shift.

Yesterday in fact i did think i was able to create a perfect circle mask with a larger solid layer shape, but this morning i don't seem to be able to replicate it, the mask shape just jumps to a simular ratio to the solid layer shape it's masking when holding shift....

Again, if i just create a shape, so no mask, the shapes size proportionally as they should when holding shift. The problem just seems to effect mask shapes and the nature of the distortion seems to depend on the dimensions of the solid being masked.

Joost van der Hoeven

Community Expert

If the solid you used to draw the mask on has been scaled disporpotionally, the mask will too.

tomb7496687Author

Participating Frequently

Hi, thanks. Ok, I was just following a basics tutorial and the guy I was mimicking, creates a solid layer 1920x1080 and then resizes the solid shape with the select tool. He creates a horizontal rectangle. Then he creates a mask by dragging an ellipse over it, holds shift and gets a perfect circle mask.

I'm doing the same thing but my ellipse isn't behaving that way when I hold shift, so I can't get a circle mask.

so what am I doing wrong? Do you mean when I create my new solid layer I need to set the dimensions to (for example) 300x300 pixels so I have a perfect square solid, and then I can draw an ellipse mask with the shift key and I'll only then get a perfect circle mask? Sounds weird, what am I missing?

Justin Taylor-Hyper Brew

Community Expert

To create a circle mask:

Click the ellipse tool
Hold Shift (and Control/Cmd if you want it to stay in the center)
Click and drag out our shape, proportions will remain in a perfect circle.

And yea, if you're using non-square pixels that will cause an issue, double check your comp settings

R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

99.9997% chance the composition is set to non-square pixels. You can also have a solid layer or an image that is also set to non-square pixels. Everybody stopped using non-square pixels for output years ago, you shouldn't be using them today. Check the composition settings.

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