Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 - Saving and Reusing Masks; To Delete Masks; To Lock or Unlock Masks; To Save a Mask

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0
User Guide
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3 Do any of the following:
• To select one mask, click its name.
• To select a contiguous range of masks, Shift-click the names of the first and last masks in the range.
• To select discontiguous masks together, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the names of any
masks you want to include.
Note: You can select only whole masks in the Timeline panel. To select individual vertices on a mask, use the Compo-
sition or Layer panel.
To lock or unlock masks
Locking a mask prevents you from selecting it in the Timeline, Composition, and Layer panels or setting it as a target
in the Layer panel. Use this feature to avoid unwanted changes to the mask.
1 In the Timeline panel, expand the Mask property.
2 In the A/V Features column, click the box underneath the lock icon next to the mask you want to lock or
unlock. A mask is locked and cannot be selected when the lock icon appears in the box.
Note: To unlock multiple masks at one time, select one or more layers and choose Layer > Mask > Unlock All Masks.
Saving and reusing masks
You can reuse masks in other layers and compositions. It is particularly useful to store Bezier masks you’ve spent a
long time perfecting. You can even create a project with compositions that exist just to store complex layer masks.
Mask shapes are stored inside a composition in a project file. When you want to use a mask from another project,
import that project into your current project.
To save a mask
1
In the Timeline panel for the composition containing the layer and mask you want to save, expand the layer and
its mask properties.
2 Do one of the following:
• To save an animated mask, select the mask keyframes you want to save.
• To save a nonanimated mask, select the mask.
3 Copythemaskorkeyframes,andpastethemaskorkeyframestoanewlayer.Thenewlayercanbeasimplesolid.
To reuse a mask
1
Open the composition containing the mask you want to reuse. If you saved the mask in another project, import
the project and then open the mask’s composition.
2 In the Timeline panel, expand the saved mask’s layer and mask properties.
3 Select the mask or keyframes.
4 Copy the mask or keyframes, and paste the mask or keyframes to the layer to which you want to apply the mask.
To delete masks
❖ Do one of the following:
• To delete one mask, select the mask in the Timeline panel and press Delete.