Glorious masks upon masks

Hello all,
I'm currently putting a little promo clip together and had an idea for the format. I know how I could accomplish this utilizing repetition and manual tweaking, but I'm sure there must be a nice elegant way of accomplishing this.
The overall video runs in a 4:3 window. I would like most of the content inside to be letterboxed. I could just do this using a mask. However, the top and bottom black bars are essentially a video layer underneath. So, for example, while a video is playing in the middle, alternate angles, crops, or zooms of the same content might be playing underneath and visible in the black bar area. Does this make any sense at all?
Essentially, I would like my primary video track to have a letterbox mask, and the black bars formed by the letterboxing are peekaboos into the tracks below. Is there some way to apply a crop, perhaps, to an entire track?
Additionally, if I want to apply a letterbox mask to an image that I move across the screen, how do I make the mask stay put and just act as a window on the moving image? Right now the mask moves with the layer.
So many questions!
Ben

content might be playing underneath and visible in the black bar area. Does this make any sense at all?< </div>
Believe it or not, it's been done.
peekaboos into the tracks below. Is there some way to apply a crop, perhaps, to an entire track? < </div>
Nesting. See the manual for Nest. You will nest the main sequence, bring it back into your new letterbox sequence and crop the nest so you reveal the underlying track.
Additionally, letterbox mask an image move screen, how mask stay put on image? < </div>
That would be a nest, too.
It's a bit confusing the first few times through the nest grist mill. Practice with short clips.
bogiesan

Similar Messages

Masking a masked image

Hello!
I've created a masking layer within Photoshop an an image by
drawing a
vector path and imported it into FW. The masking path comes
out
properly. Now I want to mask this masked image with a
rectangle (or any
other vector path), but all FW does is to mask the image with
the
rectangle and forgets the initial masking path. What should I
do? I want
to preserve the original masking path and don't want to make
path
operations to get the final masking shape.
THX
Niklas

Niklas Kanthak wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I've created a masking layer within Photoshop an an
image by drawing a
> vector path and imported it into FW. The masking path
comes out
> properly. Now I want to mask this masked image with a
rectangle (or any
> other vector path), but all FW does is to mask the image
with the
> rectangle and forgets the initial masking path. What
should I do?
Group (Modify > Group) the original mask group first.
Linda Rathgeber [PVII] **Adobe Community Expert-Fireworks**
http://www.projectseven.com
Fireworks Newsgroup:
news://forums.projectseven.com/fireworks/
CSS Newsgroup: news://forums.projectseven.com/css/
Design Aid Kits:
http://www.webdevbiz.com/pwf/index.cfm

Animate image behind mask, without mask moving

Hey guys this is probably really easy but this is my first run at doing a video project and cant get this to work for the life of me!
OK, I have 3 images which I imported from PS CC ( AE is CC as well for reference ) a company logo, a spacer line then the company name stylized so I want to use this and not just a text tool...
Now I have the logo and spacer fade in then I want the text to slide in from behind the logo and spacer making it look like its coming out of the vertical bar, I know I need to mask from the bar all the way to the left of the logo and offscreen to pull this off but I cannot get the mask to not slide when I try to animate the text layer! please help me figure this out!

I ended up just making another comp of the animation I wanted, brought that into comp1 and positioned it where I wanted it and bam, bobs your uncle! So easy but as I said my first time doing something in AE so I had to stumble through it

Masks not Masking in CS3

I tried a simple test of a mask - I created a block of text
on the top layer and a rectangle with a gradient fill on the bottom
layer. Made the file 30 frames long then created a motion tween on
the gradient layer to 'move' the gradient behind the text. Set the
text layer to being a mask. In the development environment, I can
press ENTER and the 'glint' moves the way I designed it. However,
when I press CTRL-ENTER to preview the published version, the text
layer is nowhere to be seen. I suppose that sounds funny because
you aren't supposed to see the mask, only what is 'under' the mask,
but all I see is the unmasked, gradient-filled rectangle - in its
entirety.
I've never had this problem before. I've tried it in several
documents now and I get the same result, regardless of whether I
create a new document or add a mask to an existing document. To see
a replica of the test I performed, view this tutorial:
http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Making-Text-Glint/3107

r_critchlow,
> when I press CTRL-ENTER to preview the published
version,
> the text layer is nowhere to be seen. [...] all I see is
the unmasked,
> gradient-filled rectangle - in its entirety.
Is your text field a dynamic text field? If so, you'll have
to embed
your font outlines in order for the mask to work. You can do
that by
selecting your dynamic text field and clicking on the Embed
button in the
Property inspector. In previous versions of Flash, I believe
the button was
called "Character" but I'd have to check for sure. In any
case, without the
font outlines, Flash doesn't have the vector data it needs to
render the
letters' shapes correctly.
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."

Mask not masking in the correct shape

I have a mask that is a borderles circle that expands that
I'd like to use for a ripple effect. The way the mask showes up
though is a filled circle that expands. Can someone take a look at
my .fla and tell me what I'm doing wrong?
http://www.goatsgotohell.com/gnux/mask.fla

Nice bug indeed.
You're doing anything wrong (except you should use a movement
interpolation
and not a shape interpolation, but this doesn't change the
bug).
Anyway, by "playing" with the masking shape (cutting it,
separating the
parts, and moving them together again), I finally got to make
it work.
You should try to do the same.
Hope this helps
Henri
www.kitmap.fr
"wildegnux" <[email protected]> a écrit
dans le message de news:
fi17k5$fui$[email protected]..
>I have a mask that is a borderles circle that expands
that I'd like to use
>for
> a ripple effect. The way the mask showes up though is a
filled circle that
> expands. Can someone take a look at my .fla and tell me
what I'm doing
> wrong?
>
http://www.goatsgotohell.com/gnux/mask.fla
>

Masks - "Dynamic Masks" are a must have!

I tried to the app and created some animations to run them on iPad. This works pretty well already!
When I created one with a moving mask -being a very common feature when doing time line animations - the app unfortunately reports the error:
Unsupported feature: Dynamic Masks are not supported
I really do hope Adobe is going to add the support of dynamic masks since this is essential when creating animations.
I would really appreciate a comment about this, is it planned?
Other than that, thanks for this awesome app!

At this point the current HTML5 and CSS3 features we use for clip masking won't work with moving mask layer content. To move forward with supporting dynamic content in masks we are likely to have to do significant work and likely to run into performance issues (especially on mobile devices).
We realize that the current masking limitations are problematic and will continue to investigate the best way to move this technology forward.

Object mask/layer mask

hi...
i am new to using masks in motion. when i create a mask for a single object, nothing happens.....only if i apply the mask to the whole layer does it then take effect. is there a piece of information i'm missing about masking individual objects within a layer? thanks for any suggestions.
i mac g5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) motion 1, final cut pro 4.5

how are you creating a mask?
With the object selected, are you drawing a mask with the masking tools (not the Shape tools) in the toolbar, or are you using the Add Image Mask, which requires another object to be plugged into it before you'll see anything happen?
FYI,
Motion's User Manual has quite a lot of information on masking.
Pg 851 on deals with Masking tools and how to use them
Pg 865 on deals with Image Masks and how to use them

ArcGIS 10.0 to Illustrator (CS5).... Edit, Save, Reopen, Clipping masks are all gone....

I am working from ArcGIS 10.0 to Illustrator CS5.
I make my map in ArcGIS. The layers are in four groups (VECTORS: top, middle, bottom + RASTER). I export the map from layout view to an .ai file. I open the .ai file in illustrator. Edit a couple things. Save the document. Seems simple enough... when I open it it should look just like it did when I just saved it two seconds ago, right?
Nope.
After saving, closing, and reopening all my clipping masks are gone. They have disappeared/ automatically released. I have tried this same process on my personal computer (this issue is happening on a work computer) and I am not having an issue (GIS layers are in groups, I export, open, edit, save, close, reopen... still all clipped and the way I want it). I'm not sure if it is the settings on the work computer that are causing the clipping masks to automatically release on their own or what. When I look through the layers in my .ai file (post save, reopened file) the former clipping masks are now just 'paths.' but if I reclip them they mess up my layers and it seems like a tedious and unnecessary process (especially if the whole thing is working out correctly on my personal computer).
Does anyone have any idea why illustrator is automatically releasing my clipping masks upon saving?
Is it a GIS issue? Or an Illustrator issue? Are my settings wrong? Help!

The first thing you must do when opening an Arc AI file is to do a Save As and overwrite the original file with a new copy of the file in whatever the version of AI you have. If you just do a Save of the Arc file, it will revert to an AI3 file. Everything will be placed on a single layer.

Problems with creating a mask in AE 4.1

Hi all,
Yes, I'm using After Effects 4.1... not CS4... that's version 4.1 from 13 years ago.
I'm having a problem creating a simple mask and I can see from a more current AECS5 tutorial that creating a mask on a layer is similar to creating one in AE4 based on a comparison to an old AE4 tutorial. I've read instructional material and it seems simple enough, but for some reason its not working for me... I know I'm doing something wrong. I'm an advanced Photoshop user and I know the concept of layer masks and how to create them.
I create the mask on a layer and I can see and adjust the bezier points to adjust the shape of the mask... adjusting the shape of the mask by the bezier points is a little tricky since it stretches in both directions when you grab a single point, but that's okay,
But no matter which mask mode I try, Add, Subtract, Intersect, Lighten, Darken or Difference, it is not masking the layer that it is attached to even when I preview the timeline.
I don't want to just create a color layer on top of the layer I want masked to simulate a mask (which I can otherwise do) because I want to stack layers with masks and have the unmasked parts showing through (like in Photoshop), without rendering separate layers and re-importing them with blue screening or black screening... I should just be able to mask the parts that I don't want to show up on each layer and only have the unmasked parts of each layer show through each other for my final render.
Thanks for any input,
digi

Thanks for writing back Dave and Rick,
I think there is something in what Dave said about opening a new layer window, but it still isn't working right. Please see the screenshot of two full project windows below.
One thing that could be giving me problems is my layer content... it is a numbers layer attached to a solid layer, as you can see.
In the comp window at the top of each screenshot below, you can see the bezier points from my original mask that I created by clicking on 'Shape' next to 'Mask' on the left in the timeline window after selecting 'Layer>Mask>New Mask'... but I can see that this isn't the right way to do it because (1) it isn't masking, it only shows bezier points. (2) When I try to adjust those bezier points in the comp window it only stretches the numbers. And (3) when I'm in the comp window, I don't have access to the layer shape square and oval tools... they are grayed-out.
So in the layer window after double-clicking on my numbers layer, in screen #2 below, you can see that it isn't showing anything... just black, but you can see the bezier points from my original masking attempt that also show up in the comp window. But in that layer window I do have the square and oval tools available to me and you can see that I tried creating a new experiment with a triangle mask, but that only shows bezier points and no masking effect. When I close that window, as Dave said, after making the new triangle mask, it only broadens out my original mask besizer points in the comp window to encompass both masks now, but does not reflect either masks actual shape, nor is it actually masking anything.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks again,
digi

PS CC (since JAN 2014 update) Layer-mask editing causes hangs/crashes

ONLY since JAN 2014 update, PS CC has been hanging/crashing when I paint/edit a layer mask. All may be well at first (or not), but suddenly the display of the mask (or mask overlay on the layer itself, as shown when hitting backslash key) is not shown in full but renders in s-l-o-w-l-y in rectilinear pieces <snapshot below was taken before video card upgraded but is still typical of what I mean>. When I view Windows' Task Manager for PS, I see my CPUs are each working at their upper limits (up to 80+-90+%), varying only by a few points, over a VERY long time... which could be MANY minutes. OR the System has decided PS is Not Responding.
In any case, whenever this happens, it means in all practicality PS CC is not working, so I either kill it or it's crashed.
Now, here's the thing: that VERY file, can immediately be opened in PS CS6 (which I have fortunately kept installed on my computer), and the mask will be as I thought it should be, and I can edit it as I always could, just fine! So it's obviously a PS CC thing, and I do NOT recall this happening prior to the JAN update. It is still a problem after the two subsequent updates.
I have not been able to determine the specific instances when this happens, as it seems to happen whenever I am editing a mask, no matter what size/softness/color brush, what magnification, what view mode, many or few layers, big or small file, etc.
I did upgrade my NVIDIA card (from GeForce GTX 260 [with current driver] to GTX660), just in case it was a factor (maybe kept it from crashing as fast? hard to tell... but it's still an unworkable problem). You can see from my Sys Info shown here from the PS CC Help menu that it should be more than sufficient for any PS CC task, and it's running the latest driver:
Adobe Photoshop Version: 14.2.1 (14.2.1 20140207.r.570 2014/02/07:23:00:00) x64
Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit
Version: 6.1 Service Pack 1
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:14, Stepping:5 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2
Physical processor count: 4
Processor speed: 2664 MHz
Built-in memory: 16379 MB
Free memory: 12453 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 14697 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 60 %
Image tile size: 1024K
Image cache levels: 4
Font Preview: Medium
TextComposer: Latin
Display: 1
Display Bounds: top=0, left=0, bottom=1200, right=1920
OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.
OpenGL Allow Old GPUs: Not Detected.
OpenGL Drawing Mode: Advanced
OpenGL Allow Normal Mode: True.
OpenGL Allow Advanced Mode: True.
AIFCoreInitialized=1
AIFOGLInitialized=1
OGLContextCreated=1
NumGPUs=1
gpu[0].OGLVersion="3.0"
gpu[0].MemoryMB=2048
gpu[0].RectTextureSize=16384
gpu[0].Renderer="GeForce GTX 660/PCIe/SSE2"
gpu[0].RendererID=4544
gpu[0].Vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
gpu[0].VendorID=4318
gpu[0].HasNPOTSupport=1
gpu[0].DriverVersion="9.18.13.3221"
gpu[0].Driver="nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um"
gpu[0].DriverDate="20131219000000.000000-000"
gpu[0].CompileProgramGLSL=1
gpu[0].TestFrameBuffer=1
gpu[0].OCLPresent=1
gpu[0].OCLVersion="1.1"
gpu[0].CUDASupported=1
gpu[0].CUDAVersion="6.0.1"
gpu[0].OCLBandwidth=1.16816e+011
gpu[0].glGetString[GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION]="4.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler"
gpu[0].glGetProgramivARB[GL_FRAGMENT_PROGRAM_ARB][GL_MAX_PROGRAM_INSTRUCTIONS_ARB]=[16384]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS]=[4]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_COMBINED_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS]=[192]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VERTEX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS]=[32]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS]=[32]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_DRAW_BUFFERS]=[8]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VERTEX_UNIFORM_COMPONENTS]=[4096]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_FRAGMENT_UNIFORM_COMPONENTS]=[2048]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VARYING_FLOATS]=[124]
gpu[0].glGetIntegerv[GL_MAX_VERTEX_ATTRIBS]=[16]
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_VERTEX_PROGRAM]=1
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_FRAGMENT_PROGRAM]=1
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_VERTEX_SHADER]=1
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_FRAGMENT_SHADER]=1
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_EXT_FRAMEBUFFER_OBJECT]=1
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_TEXTURE_RECTANGLE]=1
gpu[0].extension[AIF::OGL::GL_ARB_TEXTURE_FLOAT]
I work on digital-photography files, and use a layer mask in almost every file, so this relatively-recent bug is a big PITA, having to switch back and forth between CS6 and CC!
Until there's a fix... is there a way to roll-back my PS CC version to BEFORE the JAN 15, 2014 update?

I am not qualified to comment on technical issues; I'm just a user whose son in IT is my 'technical support department.' (But he's not much of a PS user.)
I'm pretty sure, however, that all my Prefs were set to the same things BEFORE the Jan 16, 2014 PS CC update as after (unless the update itself changed something I was unaware of... the settings APPEARED to be the same but I can't easily locate my notes of what my Prefs were from long ago).
And they were the same as the PS CS6 I have had installed on this same system for a very long time, with older video card with older driver, with newer driver; newer video card with newest driver, etc. Yet after that CC update, CC has not (until this workaround) worked re 'the masking bug' for me, yet CS6 has always worked just the same.
So I conclude that the only variable (other than the video card upgrade I did in an attempt to solve this and of course those Windows auto-updates) in this scenario IS something to do with PS *CC*, and after Jan 16, 2014.
As for restarting the machine vs. restarting PS, well, PS is the major player of my system, so when I shut that (and LR) down, I might as well 'clean things up' by Restarting. BTW, I am in the habit of closing and reopening PS (CC or CS6) whenever I finish with a file and load another, in order to get back some of that memory which PS never seems to want to let go. (This is not new to the latest versions, I think. My son says it's a 'memory hog'? ;-) ) I track its memory use in Windows' Task Manager and find that seems to let it 'refresh' itself. (See, I told you I'm not a technical person. ;-) ) But I do not think this has anything to do with the bug. Just a quirk of PS. Like when a tool goes all wonky (for example, its little icon becomes just a 'plus' sign even though the tool is still performing correctly, it's telling me, I think, that it would like to be restarted. And that makes it feel all better... I mean, tool icon reappears.)
Anyway... it's up to Adobe to figure out IF and what may be wrong with PS CC -- it still doesn't work for me as I had it configured at first, and I think it should, right? -- and to fix that... PLEASE. SOON.

Creating Mask In Flash CS3

HELP!!!!
I am about to pull my hair out.
I am new to flash and would like to know how to create a
mask. Could someone please send me the step by step instructions on
what to do.
Your help is greatly appreciated.

On the stage, you do it the same as in previous version of
Flash. Right click the layer your mask is on and select the 'mask'
option. It will mask any layers grouped under it.
In ActionScript you would do it like this:
** You need to have imported the Button class into your
library, drag a Button component to the stage and then delete it.
Try the code below in an empty flash file to see how it works.
import fl.controls.Button;
var masked:Shape = new Shape();
var g = masked.graphics;
g.beginFill(0xff0000,1);
g.drawRect(0,0,300,300);
g.endFill();
addChild(masked);
var masker:Shape = new Shape();
g = masker.graphics;
g.beginFill(0x000000,1);
g.drawRect(150,150,50,50);
g.endFill();
addChild(masker);
function applyMask(e:MouseEvent = null):void {
masked.mask = masker;
var myButton:Button = new Button();
myButton.label = "Apply Mask";
myButton.emphasized = true;
myButton.width = 150;
myButton.move(20, 20);
addChild(myButton);
myButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, applyMask);
myButton.y = 325;

Move an image in a mask in Keynote '09

Is it possible to move an image with in a mask using the build in or the action effect? I want the photo to slowly scale up but stay inside the mask.

Unfortunately, masks are considered part of the image for builds and actions. You would have to construct a graphic with an appropriate "hole" (an old-school mask).

How can i create a mask of grays?

Hi
i did learn how create a saturation mask (a mask that contains the colors)
how can i create a mask with the grays ?
can i do it? how can i create it ?
the only way i can thing it's use a color selective adjustament layer and set to +100 black every sliders outside grays
but i don't think it's a mask with all the Grays
thanks

If you start out with, say, this image in Lab:
Then duplicate the layer and set Blend If, in both the a and b channels, to 123 - 133. That layer will then look like this:
You see you have all the neutrals from black to white, but not the saturated colors. You can load transparency here as a selection the normal way - ctrl+alt+2, or ctrl-click the L channel. Save the selection and you have your mask.
How much fuzziness you want in the neutrals is determined by where you set the Blend If sliders. You can also split the sliders with the alt key for a softer transition. Here it includes 5 values either side of strict neutral.

Need help with gradient mask over XML images

I have a file that works great in pulling images via XML
data. I want to create a gradient mask using flash CS3, but i can't
seem to get any sort of mask (solid or gradient) to react with the
XML driven images.
Download my FLA
and other working files
845 kb

granted i can see resizing the mask and now it responds...
however, take a look at this
Sample of alpha gradient mask:
http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/29296#codeitemarea
i'm trying to this type of mask (static mask obviousl)

Advanced masking with flash?

Let´s say I have 3 layers A, B and C. I want A to be the
mask for B which is pretty easy, but at the same time I want B to
be the mask for C. Is that possible?
thanks.

I only know up through CS3, so I can't speak to if this
changed for CS4 or not.
No, you cannot mask a mask in Flash, well, not as a mask.
You can make B a movie clip with a hole in it, which does the
same thing as a mask, or you can add another layer that is a
duplicate of B (lets call it B+), and have B+ mask C.
But, what are you doing that you feel you need to do a
two-level mask as such? Perhaps there is another way to get the
effect you are looking for.

Glorious masks upon masks

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