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Track matte unavailable

Guest
Nov 21, 2012 Nov 21, 2012

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I am sorry if I am asking a silly question but I am attempting to get better by following some guides and tutorials. One thing that has been confusing me for quite a bit is there is a certain source that I cannot apply a track matte to. I will explain everything that I am doing as thoroughly as I can.

I am busy creating a 3d wall that is currently only made up of 2 sources.

The first source is made up of many rectangles that fade in at random times until they are fully white. I did this by making a line of rectangles that do this first, then expanded it vertically, and then expanded it further to fill the whole composition.

The second source only has text in it.

The problem is that I want to apply a track matte to the first source but there is no drop-down menu.

I am following a guide that I found here: http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/motion-graphics/lear-to-make-a-custom-3d-wall-text-reveal/ and the step I am having problems with is step 48.

I am using after effects cs6 on windows 7 (64bit)

Any help will be much appreciated.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

LEGEND , Nov 21, 2012 Nov 21, 2012

A track matte is always a layer above the layer it is assigend to. You are having a severe misunderstanding here. The option will become avialable as soon as you add a third layer on top. Rather than jumping off with tutorials showing stuff that you may not understand, perhaps read the help about som basics?! Just sayin'...

Mylenium

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Explorer ,
Nov 21, 2012 Nov 21, 2012

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Look at the bottomo left of ur AE interface...there are 3 toggle on/off switches...they are responsible for the properties of each layer u see in the timeline. Click the one regarding the matte properties and there u go!

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Guest
Nov 21, 2012 Nov 21, 2012

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Thank you for your reply. I do understand how to apply track matte but there is no option to do it for that layer. Here is a picture that will maybe make it more clear what I mean:

http://i.imgur.com/ommrc.jpg

As you can see there is an option to add track matte to "element" but not for "fields big"

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LEGEND ,
Nov 21, 2012 Nov 21, 2012

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A track matte is always a layer above the layer it is assigend to. You are having a severe misunderstanding here. The option will become avialable as soon as you add a third layer on top. Rather than jumping off with tutorials showing stuff that you may not understand, perhaps read the help about som basics?! Just sayin'...

Mylenium

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Guest
Nov 21, 2012 Nov 21, 2012

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Ah I see what I did wrong now. I have tried some basic tutorials, however this one is a lot more complex than those. I'm working on trying to understand what they are doing in this one and have already learnt some very useful stuff but you are right. I still have a lot to learn. I will continue to work my way down the list of basic tutorials I have found. Thanks a lot for your help.

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LEGEND ,
Nov 21, 2012 Nov 21, 2012

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I have tried some basic tutorials, however this one is a lot more complex than those...I will continue to work my way down the list of basic tutorials I have found...

And the first place to stop would be here

It's a solid, take-it-to-the-bank compilation of Basic AE knowledge, from the guy who literally writes the AE Manual.  Can't do much better than that.

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Explorer ,
Feb 23, 2022 Feb 23, 2022

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The important thing is that the Adobe community members find a safe place to be condescending, instead of merely helpful

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New Here ,
Nov 02, 2023 Nov 02, 2023

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LATEST

Rather than giving unhelpful feedback, perhaps learning some basic manners? "just sayin"

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New Here ,
Jun 30, 2015 Jun 30, 2015

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Thank you fella, save my entire night o' study.

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New Here ,
Jul 05, 2015 Jul 05, 2015

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that was very helpful, thanks

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 10, 2016 Mar 10, 2016

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dude, been looking for this!  Gosh, hard to find.  Thanks!

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LEGEND ,
Mar 10, 2016 Mar 10, 2016

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krstrobe wrote:

dude, been looking for this!  Gosh, hard to find.  Thanks!

If you missed this, there's probably a lot of other things you're missing too! I'd highly recommend going through something like this first: Getting started with After Effects

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New Here ,
Aug 06, 2016 Aug 06, 2016

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Thank You MR.Trazaman

Your trick works for me

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New Here ,
Dec 07, 2017 Dec 07, 2017

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Thanks for being actually helpful.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 13, 2018 Jun 13, 2018

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Thanks. you are a savior.

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New Here ,
Feb 12, 2014 Feb 12, 2014

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If you can see the "Renderer:" from the composition panel, change it to Classic 3D.

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New Here ,
Jan 10, 2016 Jan 10, 2016

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I love you for the rest of my life

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New Here ,
Mar 04, 2016 Mar 04, 2016

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There is no Track Matte section at all in my program. How do I get this to show up?

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LEGEND ,
Mar 04, 2016 Mar 04, 2016

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Go to the very top of the timeline.  Right-click on the Layer Name column to reveal column selections.  Pick Modes.

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New Here ,
Aug 15, 2016 Aug 15, 2016

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That's exactly what I was looking for!

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New Here ,
Oct 31, 2022 Oct 31, 2022

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I was wondering if you might be able to help me out with an After Affects problem with Track Matte.Track Matte Problems.jpg

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New Here ,
Oct 31, 2022 Oct 31, 2022

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This dropdown box is coming down but it has some strange items in it and track matte is not one of those.

 

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 08, 2022 Nov 08, 2022

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this! is what I'm stuck on, normally I have the shape layer and the text or image I want to reveal below and that drop down menu no longer has alpha trackmatte on it??

 

did you ever figure it out?

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Adobe Employee ,
Nov 10, 2022 Nov 10, 2022

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Hi @defaultfez57wxuwu54 and @jenniferb91418180,

 

Thank you for taking the time to post about this issue. Layers can now use any other layer in the composition as a Track Matte, not just the layer above, so the checkbox has been replaced with a layer picker. Discussion on this new feature is here:https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-beta-discussions/feature-focus-selectable-track-matte-l...

 

Cheers,

Jason

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New Here ,
Aug 13, 2019 Aug 13, 2019

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To be fair, i've spent about 20 hours on Adobe learning the basics of AE tutorials and just ran into the same problem. While they sometimes do a good job of explaining what things actually do in AE, that is not always the case. At least the original poster is asking questions and not quitting or faking it bc they don't want to admit they don't know something!

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