Thread: mask tool for AE

I wasn't around for that long when I first discovered this place (over a year ago perhaps) before becoming a real busy guy. Now that things have slowed down (a little) once more, I look forward to seeing what's going on on the board again.

I'm hoping someone can help me with some info.

I've got pretty heavily into rotoscoping on after effects and don't want to have to change tools unless neccessary. I can think of some ways to make my life easier that I can't seem to do in After Effects, so hopefully someone can help me out that knows how I can do it or of a 3rd party plug in that can.

The first is in feathering masks. When creating roto masks on a subject with depth of field it seems neccessary to build up muliple masks with different levels of feather. If the subject holds the same (or similar) shape through out the video section then these masks must be animated seperately, which seems to be an uneccessary pain.

The ideal that I am looking for here is a mask tool that allows graduated feathering. Does anyone knows if this exists (preferably for after effects).

The second solution here would possibly be to link the masks before animating, does anyone know if this is possible, or how it can be made possible.

I was hoping to be able to do it through expresions but my programing knowlege is bad and my expresion work is pretty much almost only related to the pickwhip tool. Expressions don't seem to work on mask shapes anyway.

The ability to control masks via other masks is a nice thought, as is the ability to link or parent masks.

Hopefully,

David.

I think I've found the answer in "silhouette roto". It seems well spoken of and seems to do what I need.

I'll give it a shot.

David.