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View Full Version : Combining masks from multiple compositions

rightclick
03 March 2007, 08:55 AM
Hello

Im working on some greenscreen footage with some friends of mine that requires a bit of rotoscoping. On one of the heavier shots, I thought, "Ok - you can work on the bottom and Ill work on the top - and then we will combine our masks and the shot will be done... right?"

Hah! Foolish me... Some hours later when I attempted to copy these masks from one comp to another I quickly realized that After Effects was having none of it. The masks do not play nice together. Not only do they lose their individual layer modes, they also do not all carry over correctly. Grrrr

This all seems silly - Cant masks be combined from multiple comps??

(btw - I thought about rendering out the masks as an alpha channel, but the current greenscreen/roto workflow doesnt seem to make that an option sofar as I can tell...)
Mylenium
03 March 2007, 10:50 AM
This all seems silly - Cant masks be combined from multiple comps??


Sure they can and it works without problems most of the time. I'd say you are doing something wrong.

a) Check your comp and project settings. If you use different pixel aspects, field settings and whatnot, your masks will never match.

b) Name your masks properly. AE will only re-arrange them, if the names don't make sense. Best define a range that each one of you useslike your buddy using Mask a-z and you sticking with the numbers.

c) For the live of it: Intersection behaviors and feathering are a property of the mask, not the mask itself. If you want to correctly carry them over, you need to select them and copy them. Hit UU to reveal all changed properties and select the feathering and intersection modes together with your mask.

Mylenium
rightclick
03 March 2007, 03:46 PM
c) For the live of it: Intersection behaviors and feathering are a property of the mask, not the mask itself. If you want to correctly carry them over, you need to select them and copy them. Hit UU to reveal all changed properties and select the feathering and intersection modes together with your mask.
Mylenium
Thanks Mylenium - That was it. Funny - I had the right idea but wrong approach I guess... I was selecting all of the masks and then opening up their layer flags simultaniously -and then selecting all of the associated keyframes in the timeline (which only seemed to be selecting the properties...).

b) Name your masks properly. AE will only re-arrange them, if the names don't make sense. Best define a range that each one of you useslike your buddy using Mask a-z and you sticking with the numbers.
Mylenium
Oh ok - I was wondering what the heck AE was doing when it was renaming my numbered layers (I was really confused before I realized it was changing the colors too...).

Thanks for the help!
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03 March 2007, 03:46 PM
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