Help with Roto Brush effects, affecting the lines of other masks.

Report · Feb 04, 2021

Hi. I am reletively new to After Effects, so bear with me please. I have used the Roto Brush tool to create a mask... literally my first time doing so. I made some additioanl masks with the pen tool to cover some inperfections. My problem is this: I adjusted the effects of the Roto Brush tool so that my image looked the way I wanted it to. However, those same effects, are now affecting the pen tool lines. How can I control each masks effects independently of each other?

Report · Feb 04, 2021

You may want to try going into the Effect Controls panel and changing the stacking order of the effects. For example, click on an effect name and drag it above or below another effect. There is a blue line when you can drop the effect.

Report · Feb 04, 2021

Hi Rob,

Maybe I'm not explaining it quite right. Sorry, it makes sense it my head, lol. I made a mask with the Roto Brush tool, and I used the effects in the effects control panel, to control the lines of the Roto Brush. Then, on the same layer, I made a mask with the pen tool. The lines of the pen tool are being affected by the effects in the Roto Brush effects control panel. I see that if I click on the mask layer, there are a few attributes I can change, feather, opacity, and expansion. However, there still seems to be all of the effects from the Roto Brush (I have no idea why). Isn't there a way for this Not to happen? I want to be able to control the lines of pen tool masks independently of the Roto Brush line. Maybe it isn't possible, but the logic in my thinking seems it should be. However, I know very little about After Effects. So, it might just be wishful thinking. I tried to correlate it on a screenshot. Hope it makes sense.

Report · Feb 04, 2021

I have the masks on top of the Roto effects. Should it be below? I figured if it was above, it would be affected.

Report · Feb 04, 2021

I'd try changing the stacking order of the effects. Sometimes the order of influence isn't what you expect.

Report · Feb 05, 2021

It would really help us help you if you selected the problem layer, soloed the layer so it is the only layer we could see, then pressed the U key twice so we can see what you have done to the layer, where the mask is, and what you are trying to remove or add with the Rotobrush tool. Your screenshot tells us nothing at all and it looks like it might be a perfectly good composite of an actor over a background. On the other hand, only Layer 1 is showing so maybe nothing is happening yet, both masks are set to subtract so maybe we are not even looking at layer 1 at all.

If you want to use masks before you use Rotobrush, mask the layer, pre-compose, use Rotobrush on the Pre-comp.

Another option, use Rotobrush then add a solid above the Rotobrush layer, set the blend mode to something like Overlay with a blue layer so you can see through it, draw the mask, animate it and use it as a track matte for the Rotobrush layer.

For almost all effects masks render first, effects second, then transformations (anchor point, position, scale, rotation, and opacity). If you need to change that order you need to pre-compose.

Report · Feb 05, 2021

I appreciate your response, although I kind of feel attacked by some of your words. I did mention I was very new to AE, and this was my first time working with matte's. I will look into the things you've mentioned, honestly I don't know what most of them are. I've only been using this program for about a week.

Report · Feb 05, 2021

I'm not trying to attack, I'm trying to show you how to get answers quickly to your questions. I've taken a lot of criticism in my 50 years in the movie business and been fortunate enough to get a lot of praise. You can't let a recommendation that comes with instructions on how to do better as an attack. Most of the users on this forum don't know how to effectively ask a question so that they can get a solution to their problem quickly.

After Effects is an incredibly complex app that requires a lot of study and practice to master. I use the search help field in the top right corner of AE all the time. I read the user guide and look for good tutorials all the time.

If you are new you should spend a fair amount of time with the User Guide learning the basic UI and workflow rather than just poking around on YouTube looking for tutorials because most of the new tutorials on YouTube are prepared by enthusiasts that don't often have efficient workflows or explain things properly. Most of the folks that try and answer questions are here to help. I spend a lot of time helping, but I'll tell you directly when your approach is not going to work and that is never a personal attack.