New to After Effects- masking? How do I make something not affected?

[Media_Kirby]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to after effects and I have an video clip of a guy reading a magic book- cue adding outer glow for that 'magic' feel. However, the effect is on the guys' hands and I want to stop this from happening - I want them to look normal like the original clip- how could I do this?

Thanks!!

[Towerguy]

Hi. Put a copy of your video above the other and mask out the hands on the top layer.

[Rick Gerard]

Think layers. You separated the book from the rest of the scene so you could add the glow, now duplicate the layer with the hands and separate them. Depending on the shot you may be able to use Rotobrush or a procedural matte to do the job. For most footage, you are going to be stuck with some hand roto work. That is all there is to it.

If the suggestions you have received don't help we need to see a screenshot of your project showing the modified properties of the problem layers. All you have to do is select the layers, press the U key twice, then take a screenshot and let us see exactly what you are doing.