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i need some help from an ae guru
what i want to do is have a layer which is invisible but still blocks a specific part of another layer, which is like a mask but the whole layer is transparent, i guess it would look like a mask that moves without its layer content moving as well, if that makes sense.
a similar effect was used in the intro credits of "Hide and Seek" if anyones seen it.
any help or ideas would be appreciated, cheers.
Well, it sound to me like you want to keep a layes contents still/original, but you want them to be revealed/hidden using an animated mask?
Use keyframes to animate the mask shape properties.
i dont really know what u mean but try inverting the mask or something
What is it that you want to mask Mers? Cause I'm wondering if it's a small moving object. In which case, you could use a tracker and clone brush.
Ok.. You wanna do just what I thought you do. What I'm gonna write may read weird cause I'm gonna explain from memory (as I rarely use AE).
What you want to do is duplicate the footage layer and creat a mask on the top layer. I'll leave it up to you to decide what kind of mask to use (combustion has spline and bezier curves for masks)
Now you need to go frame by frame through the footage and animate the mask splines to match the shape and movement of the object (trees) that you want to show in front of the text. WARNING! This is fukn time consuming!
When you have finished with that you may want to do a couple of things. First test the mask by placing your text in the comp and see if it is behind the tree. You may need to invert the mask if the text is in front of the tree and hidden everywhere else.
The other thing that you may want to do is add a little feathering to the mask so the edges where the text is hidden looks a little more natural (no jaggies in industry speak).
If you're low on ram because of the two layers, you could try cropping the front masked layer to only use the area where the text hides behind the trees. Remember, CROP the layer, not scale.
Something interesting (but I think I saw it done already) would be to track the text to the skater so it follows his movement, but have it pass behind objects as the skater passes them. This would involve using the tracker and many animated masks.
I hope all that helped mate. Post a clip when your done. I'd like to see how it turns out for you.
Oh yeah.. Rather than spending your initial time perfecting the mask, do a test first with a simple shaped mask to see if you're getting the effect you want. Good luck, and have fun!
One more thing. When creating the mask, it's easier if you have two views of your comp. One that shows the Output, so you can see how it's progressing.
And another that you work on the mask in. Set this view to show the mask as transparent red. This way you can see the borders of the tree and background and edit the mask splines exactly.
I guess that you caould also have a third view that shows the mask as black and revealed area. Or just switcvh the output view to this.
oh man i hate the prospect of frame by frame editing since i tried those skate infront (of text) things off of perception, but thanks heaps anyway mick your help is always much appreciated. ill give it a go and show ya how it comes out.
hey mick works a charm, now that i have it going i cant believe i didnt even think of it, and because the layer i want to hide is a ps text layer its pretty damn basic.
thanks aswell fetus, your advice was spot on to start with, i didnt even know you could keyframe mask size and position. cheers!
Sweet. I was hoping that you wouldn't give up on it. How did the masking ordeal go? Would you mind posting a pic of the black and white mask output? I just want to see what you were dealing with.
Michael, what do you plan to do once you mask yourself??? You are doing it damn precise!!! Btw howcome your ear looks red?
You should check out our video "Now!" when it comes out, I have used some masking effects in Bazza's part, where rainbow trails follow him and the pool (Bondi) changes colour separate from the background...
Mers if Michael's technique looks daunting, you can usually animate the mask every 3 or so frames, depending on the movement of the object. This cuts down heaps of time and is usually seemless.
yeah the project i was working on was as basic as it gets so i only keyframed 4 values over 4 seconds
Yeah Fetus, I can't help it. I'm a bloody perfectionist. Damn! You stole my idea. hahaha.. I guess that I can't keep my secrets then.
I did do the rainbow effect on a static shot when I was in China, which was pretty easy, but the camera moves a lot in this shot (which you can see from the grouped control points anim curve)
How did you do the effect with the clip of Barry? haha.. I'm just looking for an easy way to do it. I always do shit the hard way and learn from my mistakes. I realised this exact problem with this clip. because the camera has a lot of movement, my copied trails will be out of position with the previous frame. Arghh... I did use an effect in AE to do this once, but it does the whole frame. I want the trails just coming from the skater.
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AE help plz
Mers 03:34 03/Jul/05
i need some help from an ae guru
what i want to do is have a layer which is invisible but still blocks a specific part of another layer, which is like a mask but the whole layer is transparent, i guess it would look like a mask that moves without its layer content moving as well, if that makes sense.
a similar effect was used in the intro credits of "Hide and Seek" if anyones seen it.
any help or ideas would be appreciated, cheers.
Fetus 13:44 03/Jul/05
Well, it sound to me like you want to keep a layes contents still/original, but you want them to be revealed/hidden using an animated mask?
Use keyframes to animate the mask shape properties.
chippy the muff 06:12 04/Jul/05
i dont really know what u mean but try inverting the mask or something
Michael Mulhall 00:25 05/Jul/05
What is it that you want to mask Mers? Cause I'm wondering if it's a small moving object. In which case, you could use a tracker and clone brush.
Michael Mulhall 23:58 05/Jul/05
Ok.. You wanna do just what I thought you do. What I'm gonna write may read weird cause I'm gonna explain from memory (as I rarely use AE).
What you want to do is duplicate the footage layer and creat a mask on the top layer. I'll leave it up to you to decide what kind of mask to use (combustion has spline and bezier curves for masks)
Now you need to go frame by frame through the footage and animate the mask splines to match the shape and movement of the object (trees) that you want to show in front of the text. WARNING! This is fukn time consuming!
When you have finished with that you may want to do a couple of things. First test the mask by placing your text in the comp and see if it is behind the tree. You may need to invert the mask if the text is in front of the tree and hidden everywhere else.
The other thing that you may want to do is add a little feathering to the mask so the edges where the text is hidden looks a little more natural (no jaggies in industry speak).
If you're low on ram because of the two layers, you could try cropping the front masked layer to only use the area where the text hides behind the trees. Remember, CROP the layer, not scale.
Something interesting (but I think I saw it done already) would be to track the text to the skater so it follows his movement, but have it pass behind objects as the skater passes them. This would involve using the tracker and many animated masks.
I hope all that helped mate. Post a clip when your done. I'd like to see how it turns out for you.
Oh yeah.. Rather than spending your initial time perfecting the mask, do a test first with a simple shaped mask to see if you're getting the effect you want. Good luck, and have fun!
Michael Mulhall 00:07 06/Jul/05
One more thing. When creating the mask, it's easier if you have two views of your comp. One that shows the Output, so you can see how it's progressing.
And another that you work on the mask in. Set this view to show the mask as transparent red. This way you can see the borders of the tree and background and edit the mask splines exactly.
I guess that you caould also have a third view that shows the mask as black and revealed area. Or just switcvh the output view to this.
Mers 00:35 06/Jul/05
oh man i hate the prospect of frame by frame editing since i tried those skate infront (of text) things off of perception, but thanks heaps anyway mick your help is always much appreciated. ill give it a go and show ya how it comes out.
Mers 00:26 07/Jul/05
hey mick works a charm, now that i have it going i cant believe i didnt even think of it, and because the layer i want to hide is a ps text layer its pretty damn basic.
thanks aswell fetus, your advice was spot on to start with, i didnt even know you could keyframe mask size and position. cheers!
Michael Mulhall 01:09 07/Jul/05
Sweet. I was hoping that you wouldn't give up on it. How did the masking ordeal go? Would you mind posting a pic of the black and white mask output? I just want to see what you were dealing with.
Fetus 04:32 07/Jul/05
Michael, what do you plan to do once you mask yourself??? You are doing it damn precise!!! Btw howcome your ear looks red?
You should check out our video "Now!" when it comes out, I have used some masking effects in Bazza's part, where rainbow trails follow him and the pool (Bondi) changes colour separate from the background...
Mers if Michael's technique looks daunting, you can usually animate the mask every 3 or so frames, depending on the movement of the object. This cuts down heaps of time and is usually seemless.
Mers 05:09 07/Jul/05
yeah the project i was working on was as basic as it gets so i only keyframed 4 values over 4 seconds
Michael Mulhall 05:41 07/Jul/05
Yeah Fetus, I can't help it. I'm a bloody perfectionist. Damn! You stole my idea. hahaha.. I guess that I can't keep my secrets then.
I did do the rainbow effect on a static shot when I was in China, which was pretty easy, but the camera moves a lot in this shot (which you can see from the grouped control points anim curve)
How did you do the effect with the clip of Barry? haha.. I'm just looking for an easy way to do it. I always do shit the hard way and learn from my mistakes. I realised this exact problem with this clip. because the camera has a lot of movement, my copied trails will be out of position with the previous frame. Arghh... I did use an effect in AE to do this once, but it does the whole frame. I want the trails just coming from the skater.
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