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Character reaching into clothing (Masking?)

Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2021 9:52 pm
by Leon13DM
For an animation I've been working on, there is a sequence where a character reaches into their onesie (it's a toddler) and pulls out an object (nothing phallic, don't worry). I've been struggling to try and find a way to do this. I attempted to use a mask, but it would require me to create a circular shape for the mask itself, and then I need to somehow cut an opening in the middle of it for the onesie and I have yet to find a way to edit masks in this way. I tried using the eraser tool, but it is very stubborn and only works for certain shapes (It doesn't effect the shape unless you go through like the entire thing).

I recall someone else saying that you could animate a character reaching into a pocket by putting a layer above the hand, but I'm not sure if this will work since I only need it for one scene and if I just left it on, the character's hand would keep vanishing everytime it went over the onesie. If there is some way to toggle masks on and off, that would work. Image

Re: Character reaching into clothing (Masking?)

Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2021 12:27 am
by synthsin75
Depends a bit on how you have the character structured, but generally you do it like this.

Bone layer - masking set to reveal all
- arm/hand layer to reach into pocket - masking set to mask this layer
- pocket vector - masking set to subtract from mask
- onesie (and all other layers) - masking set to do not mask

Re: Character reaching into clothing (Masking?)

Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2021 6:38 pm
by Leon13DM
synthsin75 wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 12:27 am Depends a bit on how you have the character structured, but generally you do it like this.

Bone layer - masking set to reveal all
- arm/hand layer to reach into pocket - masking set to mask this layer
- pocket vector - masking set to subtract from mask
- onesie (and all other layers) - masking set to do not mask
Ah yes, this does the trick. I was even able to use a switch layer so I can turn it off when not needed. Doing this causes the mask to change into a box shape, but the render still shows it in the correct shape, so it should work fine. Thank you!

Re: Character reaching into clothing (Masking?)

Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2021 6:44 pm
by synthsin75
Glad I could help.
Leon13DM wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 6:38 pm Doing this causes the mask to change into a box shape...
Probably because you have GPU acceleration enabled.