Hard line instead of a feather.

[TheTrackBallGuy]

I'm trying to get a feather on the top of a solid that has a gradient applied to it. I scaled the solid down and I applied a mask to it to feather the solid/gradient, but it's leaving a hard line at the top. I need the top to be softer and not a straight line. I think I have a step or two wrong but, I just can't figure it out. Screen shot below.

[P.M.B]

Not sure why your not getting a feather.   But the built in feather feathers all sides equally so your mask would need to be far beyond the sides and bottom of the comp so that the feather didn't show up there. 

You're likely better served using the mask feather tool.

It's a little weird to use.  You sort of have to pin the areas you want to hold.

AE Basics 46: Mask Feather Tool (CS6 & above) - YouTube

[TheTrackBallGuy]

I have a habit of not providing enough information. I AM getting a feather, but it's leaving a hard line at the top. I made a little video to show what's going on. I want the top of the solid to be soft like I said previously. Also, you can turn off constrain proportions for feathering when you make a mask, so you can only do vertical or horizontal feathering.

[dj.summitt]

Your feather is HUGE - 1k in a Comp that is probably 1080 tall. It should be closer to 50.

[P.M.B]

I see.  I think the problem might be related to your Y scale being at 8%.

[P.M.B]

Even with the feather constrain unlocked it's going to be impossible to get a nice feather only on the top with your layer that narrow.

The bottom is going to feather too.  If you want full opacity at the bottom and feather at the top you're going to have to increase the scale alot or constrain the feather to the top edge only.  You could do that with the mask feather tool or with another gradient layer used as a trakMat

[TheTrackBallGuy]

OK, you both have made some comments, but haven't really offered a solution. The bottom isn't going to feather too Gutterfish, because of where I applied the mask, I just want the top line to be soft and feathered instead of having a straight edge.

[Dave_LaRonde]

I'd put a mask on a solid, feather it, and use the solid as a track matte.

[dj.summitt]

We actually both did offer solutions in:

Me: It should be closer to 50.

And him in

Gutter: If you want full opacity at the bottom and feather at the top you're going to have to increase the scale alot or constrain the feather to the top edge only.  You could do that with the mask feather tool or with another gradient layer used as a trakMat

Essentially you have a very small solid. You are drawing a mask. Then feathering it. Feather works inward and outward from the mask. You are revealing the edge of the layer by having a feather that is larger than the layer. Maybe "increase the scale a lot" by making the layer Comp size (or larger) then draw a mask that has plenty of bleed on all sides. Alternatively, you can "constrain the feather to the top edge only." Whatever it is maybe "make the feather around 50."

[P.M.B]

3000Photos  wrote

OK, you both have made some comments, but haven't really offered a solution. The bottom isn't going to feather too Gutterfish, because of where I applied the mask, I just want the top line to be soft and feathered instead of having a straight edge.

I have offered several solutions & so has DJ  & I understand what you want & I can see how you've tried to do it and it ALL WRONG, Obviously.

That's all I can do for you.

[Rick Gerard]

Mask feather cannot expand beyond the dimensions of a layer.  If you double-click the Rectangle tool with a layer selected you will create a mask the same size as a layer. Let's say you start with a solid that is 500 X 500 pixels, your mask is 500 X 500 pixels. Now you feather that mask by 250 pixels. Check the alpha channel that is created by the feathering. The alpha in the exact center of the layer will be very close to 1.0 (float) or 255 (8-bit) and the edge of the solid will be very close to 0.5 (float) or 128 (8-bit) but the feathering will not extend beyond the layer boundaries. It is as simple as that. If you wanted to have a feathered edge that was 250 pixels high with 250 pixels of solid color then you would need a layer that is at least 750 pixels high and position the top and bottom edge of the mask 125 pixels from the top and bottom of the layer.

The solution is to reposition your mask so the feathering you apply extends to the edge of the layer. Scaling the layer to 8% in Y is going to make the distance from the start of the feather to the end of the feather a lot shorter. The Y feather value of 900 pixels means that the top edge of the mask must be at least 450 pixels from the edge of the layer when the layer is at 100% scale. You can use a negative value for Mask Expansion to move the mask boundary in by 450 pixels but this is also going to affect the horizontal size of the mask.

I'm not sure what you are trying to do but if it is to create some kind of animated soft edge wipe the approach is incredibly inefficient. To proceed with this project you need to start by resetting the scale of your layer to 100% then, if you really need a 900-pixel vertical feather, you need to make sure the layer is at least 1800 pixels high and position the top horizontal mask 450 pixels from the top edge. The rest of the mask can extend beyond the bottom of the layer if needed so the feathering does not expand into the middle of the layer.

Tell us exactly what you are trying to accomplish and we can help. Personally, I would just animate the shape of the mask and the feather value to create a feathered transition or create a shape layer filled with a gradient and animate the gradient to create a luma track matte for the layer below.

[TheTrackBallGuy]

Rick, it's not inefficient, because it worked, just fine.

DJ - yep that's almost exactly what I did, if you'd have read the rest of my posts or watched my video you would've seen that. I don't know what the point of you posting that screen shot was.

Gutterfish - You said I did one thing, yet I didn't, and the video shows that. Sorry you're choosing to see a one sided view of things.

As I said in one of my first posts, I'm bad at provided enough information. I didn't need this to be animated I just needed a static bar to go into a premiere project. Now that I'm thinking more about it, I probably should've done this in Illustrator or Photoshop, would've been much easier and a lot less hassle, but I tend to over complicate things. Sorry if anything I said came out rude, just been a long day and it seems like I've been working on this project forever. Last you'll hear from me, y'all have a nice day.

[P.M.B]

3000Photos  wrote

Gutterfish - You said I did one thing, yet I didn't, and the video shows that. Sorry you're choosing to see a one sided view of things.

I know what you did.  What you did was constrain the feather to the top of the layer just like I said you would have to.

All I said is that you you're wasting your time trying to prove it to me.  I never accused you of lying.

The difference between you and everyone else on this page is that you're the only who does not know WHY  you couldn't get a simple feather to work. 

As Rick & myself and DJ all told you....your workflow is incorrect and inefficient.  

You got this to work, yes.  But you're crummy workflow is going to cause other problems

in the future when trying to do other things completely unrelated to masking.

Look at me...still trying to help you out.  I must be an idiot.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

Inefficient means more steps to complete than is necessary and more rendering time. Sorry, your method is not what I would have chosen because it involves a lot more monkeying around than is necessary and frankly, will take longer to render. It was also inefficient because you did not understand how feathering works or take time to look at the results you were getting. We are just trying to help. To fix the problem you just repositioned the mask so that the feathering did not extend past the edge of the layer.

If all you needed was a feathered gradient then create a solid, set the comp panel magnification factor to about 25%, use the rectangle tool to draw a mask at the bottom of your frame about 1/2 way through the center of the faded transparency you want to create and extend it beyond the bottom of the frame a sufficient distance to allow for the feathering, press the f key to reveal the feather property, set the feather, add Gradient to your layer, adjust the start position for the gradient to match the top of the feathered edge, adjust the colors.

No scaling, no extra time calculating and rendering the scaled pixels, no other problems and done in about 2 minutes.

An even more efficient approach would be to use the rectangle tool to draw a gradient filled rectangle exactly the size you want at the bottom of the frame, press the U key twice to reveal all modified properties of the shape layer, edit the start and end color of the gradient and the opacity of the gradient and the start and end points of the linear gradient. One layer, no extra calculations, perfect numerical control over the size of the soft edge at the bottom of the frame. I did this in under a minute by simply double-clicking the rectangle tool with a gradient fill applied, pressing the U key twice to reveal all modified properties, clicking once on the Transform Rectangle > to expand the properties and tabbing through the values and entering numbers. Then I clicked on the edit gradient tool to create my transparent gradient with a lot more control. This method also imposes almost no rendering hit to your project.

[TheTrackBallGuy]

Rick, that actually makes a lot more sense and will work better with what I need it for in the long run. I know I said I wasn't going to respond anymore, but I think I have it all wrapped up now, thanks to Rick. Again sorry if I came across rude, just tired of working on this project, should be completely done by this weekend. Take care all.

[TheTrackBallGuy]

Hmmm did it wrong, but it worked... Thanks fellas!

[P.M.B]

How about letting us know how you fixed it?  You might actually help someone with a similar issue in a way we were not able to help you.

Nevermind. I see you applied a trkMat

[TheTrackBallGuy]

If you'd look a little deeper into that layer, you'd see that it's hidden. I TRIED applying a track matte as suggested, but it didn't work. The way I did it worked just fine. I'm about to head to class, but when I get home later tonight, I'll post how I did it .

With the limited time I have now, I'll explain as much as I can. I made a solid and applied a gradient map to that solid. Then I scaled the solid down to the size I neeeded it for my project. After that I applied a mask to the top of my gradient/solid that I scaled down. I then selected subtract for the blending modes for my mask and set the mask to 300. Gave me a nice feather on the top which is exactly what I wanted.

[P.M.B]

Tells us we offered no suggestionsd, then follows our suggestion to use a trkMatt and then gives himself the credit for the correct answer.   A real pip.

[TheTrackBallGuy]

Here you go Gutterfish, more proof, just in case you want/need it.

[P.M.B]

Don't waste your time trying prove anything to me.

[dj.summitt]

Or, ya know, whatever.