Masking Animation

[inquestflash]

Hi forum.

I'm practising with the camera animations and settings, and I came across a thought on how to mask a particular section of my animation. I cannot figure out how to

mask the section when the text makes the rotation at the point of the statue. So what I did was, as seen in the video link I have provided, I played with the opacity settings and made it seem like it is disappearing when it gets to that certain frame. and reappears as the text rotates into view again. But I'm keen to know how to

use a mask, because I tried some things but cannot figure it out.

Thank you.

https://ufile.io/9cszn

[lambiloon]

Hi check given video hope that helps you to understand masking in After effects...thanks.

[inquestflash]

Hi Thanks for the reply.

I believe there is more than meets the eye in this case with Masks. Because this text is rotating in 3D space. I have tried masking separately on each layer one at a time to see if masking will work. I'm only trying to achieve masking on particular frames within the animation on a specific part on my object.

[lambiloon]

yes there are many ways you can try which is good for you .... thanks

[Rick Gerard]

I would put a pale yellow solid above the text layer, change the blend mode to Multiply so you can see through it, then draw your mask on the solid. The next step is to go to the Text layer directly below the solid and set Track Matte to Alpha Inverted. That should do it.

Step 1: (note: you can choose any color and blend mode you like, just pick one that is easy to see through so you can easily see the edges you need to mask)

Step 2:

That's about it. Track mattes are one of the most used tools for compositing. You can create them with masks or gradients, or just about any image. Read up on them by searching Track Matte using the Search Help field in the top right hand corner of After Effects.

If the camera is moving and you've done a bunch of motion tracking it is a little more complicated because You'll have to animate the mask or track the camera, but if the camera is not moving it will only take a minute to generate the matte.

[inquestflash]

Hi Rick, that was the way to go, but my element 3D layer needed to track matte the solid which is the mask. I should of mentioned that Element 3D is a plugin and the text is generated within this plugin. But because the mask was interfering with the text animation I simply made the mask, disappear and reappear using the opacity settings and the result was spot on!

Thanks heaps Rick!