Creating single mask featuring multiple elements

Report · Jul 16, 2019

Hi everyone, I asked a question back in April about animating symbols for a weather map (see link to thread above) but have since got back to this project with hopefully a new way of animating the temperature symbols.

My question is this: I want the temperature symbols to 'pop up' out of the ground on the map graphic (there are 15 of them and they would require 15 masks (or 'windows' if you like) and have set up a symbol layer in the native AI file which would be updated daily, with the changes feeding into the AE file for rendering later.

However, it does not matter how I phrase my query here or on google, I still can't get a satisfactory answer to the thing that's got me really stumped: how do I create that popup effect in AE on a single layer?

What I'm trying to do is this: imagine a 'window' that is invisible, into which a temperature icon slides upwards into view - but 15 of them, all at the same time in various locations. All these temperature icons are on the same layer in Illustrator, as mentioned earlier.

What I want to do is create a mask in AE that has 15 windows - ie, a single mask layer but composed of 15 'holes' or 'windows' into which those temperatures appear.

I suppose the equivalent in Illustrator would be drawing 15 boxes, using CTRL+8 to make them all one compound path and using that as a CTRL+7 clipping mask, with portions of the base artwork appearing within each and every box.

If that makes sense to you then you know what I'm looking for - I need to keep the daily MO as simple as possible - update the daily temperatures in Illustrator, then they all pop up within a group of windows/masks on AE in a prearranged sequence, then all I have to do is hit render.

Can anyone help with this? Kind thanks in advance!

Report · Jul 16, 2019

Well, to be blunt: Your workflow doesn't make a lick of sense. None of what you do bears any relation to AI's use of symbols or whatever. Frankly you are only making your life complicated by clinging to this wrong notion. All of what you want can easily be achieved, just not by swapping out masks or whatever convoluted workflow. It's a simple matter of setting up those 15 symbols as pre-comps, animating them in a parent comp and then swapping out content as needed/ toggle layer visibility of pre-configured elements.

Mylenium

Report · Jul 16, 2019

I'll explain why I'm doing it this way later, but precomping individual elements in AE slows down the work flow. I'm using AE as the animator, purely and only as such - the only thing I want to do daily is to open it, rename the file as the date in question then render it, then save, close.

The legwork of changing stuff is all done in Illustrator, mainly because of the way we use its symbol library and updating values in linked text boxes (you can't do that in AE.) It's a single-view file with four different slides based on where the precomp is sited.

I'd better go for now - beating the traffic. Cheers

Report · Jul 16, 2019

If I'm reading your correctly, I think you'd want to have your single symbol file, and then layer that within a precomp, and then use your alpha or opacity adjustments on the precomp within your main timeline.

Report · Jul 16, 2019

If you can work with two layers it's very simple:
Create a shape layer and draw 15 individual rectangles on it - your 'windows'. Place it immediately above your symbols layer.
Set the symbols layer TrkMat menu in the timeline to : "Alpha Matte : "Shape Layer 1".

Report · Jul 16, 2019

jamesn44620985 wrote
.....I still can't get a satisfactory answer to the thing that's got me really stumped: how do I create that popup effect in AE on a single layer?

Sorry, but there isn't a way to do it in AE on a SINGLE layer. Two layers? Yes. One of which is the AI file which you update & re-save. The technique is described above. You won't be able to modify it beyond changing your symbols in AI. Want anything other than the 15 pre-arranged ones? Nope.

Report · Jul 16, 2019

Single layer - you can - but it's a pain...

Draw your 15 masks on your layer. Select the layer.

Hit M on the keyboard to reveal mask path for those masks. Hit shift P to add position for the layer. Enable animation for all of those properties.

Move the playhead.

Use the pan behind (Anchor Point) tool to drag the layer in the comp window. The masks won't visually move.

Report · Jul 17, 2019

simply it's not possible to do popup animation in a single layer using masks, don't lose your time.

so even if you have 100 precomp this will not slow down the work flow because you will do this one time only, and each time you will follow same steps, open AE, update link, render, save and close

if you want to use after effects and you don't need to add more than one layer i think you use the wrong application.

Report · Jul 17, 2019

Hi everyone, it was Mike Abbott's tip that worked for me (the two layers with the alpha matte) - in fact i ended up doing three shape layers and precomping them into one (three lots of five shapes for a total of 15) and the trick worked just the same.

That's been a big help, and thanks for everyone else's input