Text and masking

lemmy · Post by **lemmy** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:37 pm

I've been using ASP for a week and struggling but learning!

I want to open a cartoon with with a text page. The text will be about 8 lines long, maybe 40 words. I want the underlying layers to be hidden, and I will gradually build up the text line by line (fade it in line by line, maybe, or unmask it line by line.

When it is all there, I want the text layer(s) to fade out to the opening scene.

Can anyone give me pointers as how best to achieve this? I think it may teach me much about masking, which seems to be rather obscure and undocumented in ASP. I'm familiar with masking in image manipulation but ASP seems to be more complex.

Micah Jank · Post by **Micah Jank** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:44 pm

Well, im definitely no expert, not even by a long shot, but....
Maybe another program such as a video editor be able to help?

Most video editors have a fade out transition i think.

Micah Jank · Post by **Micah Jank** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:45 pm

On another note, here is a link to a very helpful Masking Tutorial if your interested.

viewtopic.php?t=11430

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:50 pm

No soo complicated.
You need a setup like this:

- group or bones layer, set to "Hide all"
- - your text layer - could be image or verctor. Set to "Mask this layer".
- - the mask layer, in this case a simple rectangle (don't forget to fill it!), set to "Add to mask, but keep invisible".

The only thing you have to animate is the rectangle, making it bigger for every line to be revealed, either with step or normal interpolation.

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 4:04 pm

And a soft edge on that rectangle Slowtiger mentioned would give you a bit of a fade effect.

lemmy · Post by **lemmy** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 6:49 pm

That's much appreciated, thanks.

lemmy · Post by **lemmy** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 10:04 am

Having done this, I lose the ability to fill or do anything to the sub-layers, whether they are nested in the group layer or not.
If I attempt to draw a rectangle or select anything or fill the layer, everything is out of action, as if the group layer at the top kills everything.

I thought Photoshop was difficult when i started using it 15 years ago but this animation is something else:-)

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 3:25 pm

I can't even guess at what you mean. I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but if you could share an example file we'd be able to help you out easier and faster. (To do this, upload the AS file to a site like Mediafire.com and paste the link in your post here.)

lemmy · Post by **lemmy** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 5:43 pm

I'm not sure what I meant either because I was getting very odd behaviour which I couldn't exactly pin down.

So as ever, before trying to solve a problem, re-boot. That's done the trick and your layer/ mask instructions work perfectly.

I've been running various graphics programs and it seems to have upset AS somewhere along the line. I'd been hibernating my machine for the week I've been working with AS so as not to lose my thread. I'll remember to re-boot now and again now.