How to matte entire shapes in a pattern

[PinnacleGames]

If the title sounded confusing, that's because I was confused on how to phrase the question. I need to create an effect where a pattern of dots trickle down and then fill in completely (see attached images). I've used two different mattes, one of a solid with fractal noise applied, and one that fills to white to complete the transition. I then precomped those mattes together and set the dot pattern I created to luma matte that precomp. What I'm ending up with is all the dots cut into pieces when what I want is either for them to show or not show. Does that make sense? Any ideas how to make this happen?

[Mylenium]

Your matte doesn't make much sense. If you want stuff to hard-clip, adjust the contrast accordingly so you only end up with blacks and whites. Conversely, match the grid pattern by quantizing your matte with the Mosaic effect, not using the built-in square mode of Fractal Noise. And if you want the matte itself to be animated, you may need to matte the matte with your gradient/ another fractal noise, which may also need to be adjusted and quantized. It's all about structuring your steps, not trying to do it in a single sweep.

Mylenium

[PinnacleGames]

Yeah, I knew I was probably going about this all wrong. Thanks for the tip. I'll see if I can use mosaic to fix my issue.