Using a mask on an adjustment layer to affect multiple tracks below it. Possible?

[SundayGladiator]

Hi,

I've reached the end of YouTube support out there,  so asking the panel here...

Possible to put a mask on an adjustment layer in order to mask multiple layers/tracks underneath it?

I want to avoid copy/paste the same mask on multiple clips on a track.

Thanks, CD

[SundayGladiator]

And to clarify this is a Premiere Pro ask, not After Effects. Maybe this is an AE only feature, so just curious if it can be done in Premiere. Sure would be nice if it could. 

[andymees@aje]

Yes... you can mask effects applied to an Ajustment Layer and the masked effect applies to the multiple layers/tracks underneath.

If you want to mask and apply Motion, Scale and/or Opacity properties then add the Video effects > Distort > 'Transform' effect, and add and adjust the mask on the Transform effect as needed.

[SundayGladiator]

Great to know!

However am I doing it the correct way? See attached pic.

I applied the Transform effect on the adjustment layer as you suggested. But it's not applying the mask on the V5 and V4 tracks below the adjustment layer. The V4 clip has the wave warp effect on it that I want to mask onto the figure only.

[SundayGladiator]

while i could use the wave warp effect on the adj layer itself, where the mask should work, the challenge is I have many different variants of the wave warp on that V4 track on many different clips, yet all of them share the same mask.

in my perfect world, i would have just one mask (one instance of it) that i can tweak in the adj layer, which would then control all the clips with the different wave warps in that track. otherwise i would need to copy/paste the same mask, and multiple instances of it, onto twelve+ different clips. ugh.

[SundayGladiator]

Judging by the sound of crickets here...

Maybe this mask on adjustment layer is an AE only feature.

Good news is alot of the stuff I recall using in AE years ago is now in Premiere. Still dig this program, albeit with its limitations.

[defaultcd7vfltqptcr]

Although 2+ years late, you can achieve this using the Track Matte effect (just like in AE):

1. Add an adjustment layer above the layers you want masked. 

2. Add your mask to the adjustment layer.

3. Add "Track Matte" effect to the layers below the adjustment.

4. In the Effects Controls panel, in the "Matte:" dropdown, select the video track that contains your adjustment layer (and subsequently your mask).

This should apply the mask of the adjustment layer to all the tracks below that you added the Track Matte effect to. Hope this helps someone who stumbles across this old thread, like me!

[JessicaCheri]

This worked for me! Thanks! 

[defaultcd7vfltqptcr]

Glad I could help! (That was my response but I wasn't signed in) 

[Tofusandwich]

The easiest way to do the same thing to a lot of clips is to highlight the chosen clips, right click and choose "Nest" which will make a nested sequence that you can treat as one clip. You can even cut and move that clip around. Sometimes I will lay all my footage out that will need to have the same effects into a double nested sequence that I then cut up the first sequence nest. At the end of the edit, I can click past the first nest to the one long nest of everything and adjust all of the effects as one long clip. If there is a better way please tell me, but hopefully, it helps people looking for a solution here.