Mask first step - does not show black area

[sifupeter]

I'm trying to do the first, most basic step of masking and getting stuck right away, where the mask is supposed to show a mask ie. black area. Opacity is at 100%. Every tutorial simply shows drawing the mask, whether by using apreset cirlce, square or pen, and as soon as the mask is complete the screen goes black except for the mask. This does not occur for me at all. The mask outline is on screen, but there is no mask.

I'm using Premier Pro 22.6.2 on MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014). I can't upgdate to OS 12 to be able to use After Effects Context Aware or I would try that. 

I would like to mask a moving lens flare but can't even get past this most basic step first. 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi @sifupeter,

Thanks for the question. You might try the effect in Premiere Pro Beta to see if the same bug happens. You could also try it with a different effect. Isn't that one in the Obsolete folder? I don't even see it anymore on an Apple Silicon Mac. Let us know.

Thanks,
Kevin

[sifupeter]

Thank you Kevin, I did notice it was marked in obsolete folder and therefore might not expect all to work as it might have in the past. I will try Premiere Pro Beta , hopefully that works on my older OS.  When you say try with a different effect, do you recommend another effect that can mask a moving spot, that would not be obsolete?

[sifupeter]

Premiere Pro Beta will not work with my OS, and my Macbook Pro can't be updated to the level required (can only go to 11). If you happen to know of a different technique or can point to resource to do so, let me know. Thank you!

[Ann Bens]

A mask with dust and scratches wont produce a black area it shows what you have masked.: the lens flare.

Need to set the radius.

Please show screenshot without the mask.

[edited reply]

[sifupeter]

Hi Ann, I did try to set radius to various amounts and did not see the expected results, but of course could be due to my inexperience with the tools. Here is a screenshot without a mask. In this case, I had given up on masking and started using an small semi transparent image w/motion to cover it (not turned on since you asked for screenshot without mask). You can see the layer with all my keyframes chasing around the flare spot (the green spot below the archer's left hand). Did you have any advice then, on how to use a mask that is not wrong (if dust and scratch is wrong) or not obsolete? A challenge here is that both the spot I want to remove/minimize AND the background are moving around. So having a static BG to rely on behind the mask is not going to work. I have seen that in many tutorials, which makes great sense given when BG is stable, easy to let BG show behind mask. Thank you!

[Ann Bens]

The Dust and scratched does work but as it is a non GPU effect it takes a hell of time to set it up.
And I dont think it will give the result you are after.

I would mask from Opacity from a copied superimposed clip

Pick a little spot from the image and put that over the flare.

[sifupeter]

Thank you Ann, I will try that!

[PaulMurphy]

It looks like you're trying to make an area of your video transparent. To do this, you need to add the mask to the Opacity effect (located above Time Remapping). In your screenshot, it appears that you're adding the mask to the Dust & Scratches effect, which will only mask out that specific effect, not make the area transparent.

Try adding your mask to the Opacity effect, and you should see the desired transparency.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

Cheers,
Paul

[sifupeter]

Thank you Paul, I will try that.