Feathering Mask has Edges

[Delaney5FF0]

Hey guys -- new to AE and posting in this community so thanks for being patient with me!

Having a tough time feathering a mask. When I try, it produces a hard edge. I'll post a screenshot of my whole desktop. It's my first week using After Effects so thanks in advance because I feel like it's probably something small or silly!

[Ro Hackett]

Can you click on Mask 1 in the layers to show us exactly where it is in the preview? 🤔

[Ro Hackett]

I think you have it simply too high and possibly off screen .... bring that 1000 down to about 120 and see what happens

[Delaney5FF0]

So I'm currently following a tutorial, the feathering in the tutorial is supposed to be set to 1000 and the ellipse is supposed to be half offscreen. My issue is more with the hard edge at the bottom, not so much at the top! Sorry -- I wasn't very specific. 

[Rick Gerard]

We are not seeing the mask path in your screenshot or any other modified properties. Select the layer, press uu, make sure that the layer is selected and view mask is selected so we can see the actual mask, and solo the layer or turn off the other layers (Layer 2) so we are only looking at the problem layer. 

A 1000 pixel feather would almost completely remove all the pixels in a layer that had a mask that was 500 X 500 pixels. 

The workflow to set a feather on a mask is:

• Select the layer
• Create the mask with the Pen tool (g) or one of the shape tools (pressing q will cycle through the shape tools)
• Press f to reveal the feather property or press mm to reveal all mask properties
• Drag the feather value or unlock the link and drag either the x or y feather value until you get what you want
• Solo the layer and/or reveal the transparency grid in the comp panel to see exactly what you are doing with the layer

[Delaney5FF0]

So here's a screenshot of the mask alone:

Along with the properties:

Are there other properties I can expand on that would give you a better look? It's the hard edge at the bottom that I'm having trouble with.

[Ro Hackett]

I will say you should turn it down to about 120 hust for now so you can see what is happening... the feathering is to big. The edge tou are seeing is the edge of the shape layer. 

You are masking what is outside the circle so it is very gradually going towards transparent. 

To mask what is inside the circle check the small invert box on Mask 1

[Delaney5FF0]

Is there a way for me to make the shape layer bigger so it doesn't cause that edge?

[Ro Hackett]

(I meant showing as opposed to masking) ...

Yes scale it under transform.... hit the arrow then hit it again to show scale.... but it might scale your mask aswell i cant remember...