why is my mask moving with my text here?

[bluefire777]

losing my marbles, why is my text moving with my mask.

when I animate text I select the text layer and set the position transform after placing the track cursor.

If I move the mask I first select the mask Path, position the cursor, then move the mask shape in the view window to set the keyframe.

I believe thats what im doing but I get this scenario now where the mask seems to just be following the text..

The AEP file

learning text animation 1.aep - Google Drive

[bluefire777]

More information, my mask starts here, and when I animate the text by moving it Left using "Y"  (V tends to move the mask)

Im finding the mask is moving with it.

but the mask doesnt appear to move when I create keyframes for the text and the "mask path" has no animation applied...

[bluefire777]

I dont know why I cannot SELECT my text here, with V, Y or clicking the text layer...

[Mylenium]

You have a fundamental misunderstanding here. Your mask doesn't show any keyframes and you seem to be working off the wrong assumption that masks would be independent entities. They are not. They are always children of the layer, hence it's only normal they inherit the layer movement. Perhaps you need to find a good tutorial on YouTube?

Mylenium

[bluefire777]

Hi Mylenium!

My first day on after effects. (sweat).

Ok thats GOOD to know thank you (mask always part of text group). I`m doing a tutorial from udemy, the guy is pretty good but he moves fast, and the interface is older I think.  I`ll search youtube too for masking.

Because he was doing the following where he`d lay a mask over the text, then move the text up to form the first keyframe, (which moved the mask with it) then he`d move the mask back to its original location. Then set the 2nd keyframe to animate the text back into the mask to make it visible.

here:

I started again with it. I think i`m getting there.

the masks are set to "add". 

I made sure I selected the "mask path" to animate its position back in keyframe 1. at 0 frames. (thats for both text layers).

I then moved the time line cursor forward to where I want the text lines to animate back into the mask to be visible.

Now I`m selecting the text layer below, but it only shows the anchor point, I can`t seem to use V or Y to select and move text into view within the mask..? Any tips on what I might be doing wrong here? This is where i`m stuck.

The only way I was able to see the text last time  and move it was temporarily change the mask to "none" from "add". But I didnt know if that was stuffing up the results... None of this is shown or explained in the video, but I dont know if that was the functionality of an older version of AE..

[bluefire777]

ok I was able to choose NONE for the mask paths, to see the text again, then place their new keyframes, and it animated out ok.

position 1: anchors show theposition of the texts.

position 2: the texts animate into the masking blocks. Then change the mask paths back to ADD..

[Andrew Yoole · Accepted solution]

Using masks on the actual text layers to do these type of moves can be very painful, because the position of the mask and the text are always linked, so there is no independence.

The faster and easier way to what you want to do is to use a solid or shape layer as a Track Matte.  This way the matte shape replaces the mask as a totally independent layer, so you can animate both the matte shape and the text layer freely without upsetting each other.

Create a solid above the text layer. sized or scaled to match your previous mask.

Set the Track Matte setting of the text layer below to Alpha Inverted Matte.  AE should automatically turn off visibility of the matte layer.

An inverse Alpha Matte acts like a reverse stencil:  the text will be visible anywhere in your comp, UNLESS it is  behind the matte layer.

[Roland Kahlenberg -]

An alternative to precomposing is to use Effect>Distort>Transform to animate transform properties of the Text Layer without affecting the Mask. Lastly, as others have suggested, you need to get to grips with AE's Render Pipeline. An understanding of the subject matter will allow you to solve numerous issues you will encounter in AE.

[bluefire777]

you guys are awesome.

I`m feeling comfortable already much better than yesterday. I`m obviously not watching the best training video on udemy even though its 4.7 stars.

Thanks Andrew for the follow up and better workflow, kudo`s Warren and Roland for the same.

And the great advice and I will keep that info in my OneNote as I learn and practice it, plus start a section on the render pipeline, thats going to be a journey in itself.

[Warren Heaton]

You're running into the hierarchical rendering order in After Effects.  That is, things render as they appear inside the Layer from top to bottom.

Right now, your Position parameter change happens after the Masks, so the masks will be affected.  You need your position change to happen before the Masks.

Use the Position parameter of a Text Animator to change the text position (Animation > Animate Text > Position)  or Pre-Compose your animated text (Layer > Pre-compose...; Move all attributes) and then apply the masks in the containing Comp.  Either of these will have the text moving before the mask. 

-Warren