Making Masking even more complicated (for me!)

[Telemacus]

If masking itself wasn't complicated enough as it is (for me anyway!) I'm trying to do something a little unusual with it and I'm, well... stuck!

Ok, so I've created the standard mask:

Group.
- image layer (an image which moves horizontally)
- Vector layer (I drew a circle in it)

All pretty normal so far. The mask works just fine. When I expand the circle, the moving image is displayed as it should.
At one point the circle grows so much that only the moving image is displayed as background. It works fine.
All good so far.

Now, what I want to do is display a new expanding circle on top of the moving background. The expanding circle will display a different background (also another image which is moving vertically) but the original background is till moving untill the new one takes over. I guess you can say it's a mask within a mask?
I'm stuck. I've tried adding new layers to the mask group or create a new grouip, but it doesn't work.

Any ideas?

[synthsin75]

You should be able to do this in one of two ways.

The simplest (for the masking impaired) is to create a new group, outside of the first, and place it above the first. Exact same setup as your first group. Both masks are completely independent, and the new one only covers the first one because it is above it in the layer hierarchy.

I would probably use a single group layer for both, using this setup:

• Group Layer (hide all)
  • Image layer (mask this layer)
    Vector layer (clear the mask, then add this layer)
    Image layer (mask this layer)
    Vector layer (add to mask)

It's up to you whether the add to mask layers need to be invisible or not.

[hayasidist]

maybe simpler (i.e. only one mask to worry about) if you want a transition such as this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um_bFU9lv3A?

just three layers in a "hide all" group:

the "to be" image
the mask
the "as was" image

>> the mask starts out small / visibility off
>> at the transition start enable the mask visibility - you might also choose to fade this in using opacity from 0 to 100% over (say) 5 frames before motion starts
>> animate the mask to cover the whole screen

if the "to be" image covers the whole screen (i.e. no transparency) you won't see the mask whether or not you used the "add to mask / keep invisible".


if the "to be" does not cover the whole screen (i.e. has transparency) then you have two options:
>> have the mask visible (i.e. just use add to mask) as it will become the background;
>> or put the "to be" image and a background vector in a group and use that gropup as the "to be" image in the above masking structure

[Telemacus]

Thanks a lot, synthsin75, your preferred option seems like a nice and clean way to go about it (first couple of testst were successful).
Much appreciated!

Thanks hayasidist, I'll have to experiment with that also, thanks very much for the suggestion! (the effect shown in your video is the one that I'm trying to get with moving images, yes, thanks).

[synthsin75]

Glad I could help.