2
Table Of Contents
- Motion User Manual
- Contents
- Motion 2 Documentation and Resources
- Getting To Know Motion
- Creating and Managing Projects
- Creating New Projects
- Managing Projects
- Editing Project Properties
- Browsing Media Files in Motion
- File Types Supported by Motion
- Adding Media to Your Project
- Managing Objects in Your Project
- Deleting Objects From a Project
- Exchanging Media in a Project
- Object Media Tab Parameters
- Using Media in the Library
- Organizing Layers and Objects in Motion
- The Background of Your Project
- Selecting Objects and Layers in the Layers Tab
- Reorganizing Objects in the Layers Tab
- Nesting Layers Inside Other Layers
- Grouping and Ungrouping Objects
- Showing and Hiding Layers and Objects
- Fixing the Size of a Layer
- Locking Layers and Objects
- Collapsing and Uncollapsing Layer Hierarchies
- Renaming Layers
- Searching for Layers and Objects
- Sorting Layers and Objects in the Media Tab
- Customizing and Creating New Templates
- Basic Compositing
- Using the Timeline
- Using Behaviors
- Keyframes and Curves
- Using Text
- Working With Particles
- The Anatomy of a Particle System
- Using Particle Systems
- Creating Graphics and Animations for Particle Systems
- Advanced Particle System Controls
- Animating Objects in Particle Systems
- Using Behaviors With Particle Systems
- Applying Filters to Particle Systems
- Particle System Examples
- Saving Custom Particle Effects to the Library
- Using the Replicator
- The Difference Between the Replicator and a Particle System
- The Anatomy of the Replicator
- Using the Replicator
- Advanced Replicator Controls
- Animating Replicator Parameters
- Using the Sequence Replicator Behavior
- Using Behaviors With Replicators
- Applying Filters to Replicators
- Saving Custom Replicators to the Library
- Using Filters
- About Filters
- Working With Filters
- An Introduction to Filters
- Working With Filters
- Enabling, Renaming, and Locking Filters
- Copying, Pasting, and Moving Filters
- Reordering Filters
- Changing Filter Timing
- Blur Filters
- A Fun Effect That Can Be Used With All the Blur Filters
- Border Filters
- Color Correction Filters
- Distortion Filters
- Glow Filters
- Keying Filters
- Matte Filters
- Sharpen Filters
- Stylize Filters
- Tiling Filters
- Working With Third-Party Filters
- Working With Generators
- Using Shapes and Masks
- Working With Audio
- Exporting Motion Projects
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Video and File Formats
- Supported File Formats
- Standard Definition vs. High Definition Video Formats
- Popular Video Codecs for File Exchange
- What Is Field Order?
- Using Square or Nonsquare Pixels When Creating Graphics
- Differences in Color Between Computer and Video Graphics
- Using Fonts and Creating Line Art for Video
- Scaling Imported High-Resolution Graphics
- Creating Graphics for HD Projects
- Integration With Final Cut Pro
- Using Gestures
- Index
Chapter 12 Using Shapes and Masks 851
Masking Objects to Create Transparency
When you create a mask to define transparency within an object, you’re drawing a
shape to use as that object’s alpha channel. Since an object’s alpha channel is a
grayscale channel, masks are grayscale objects, where white defines solid areas,
progressively darker levels of gray define decreasingly opaque areas, and black defines
areas of complete transparency. If you choose View > Channels > Alpha to set the
Canvas to display the alpha channel only, you can see the grayscale alpha channel
directly.
Masks can be used with objects that already have an alpha channel, and can add to,
subtract from, intersect, or replace the object’s original alpha channel.
Masking an Object
Use the mask tools to create different shapes with which to mask an object. There are
four mask tools available that are analogous to the four shape drawing tools covered
earlier in this chapter.
• Rectangle Mask
• Circle Mask
• Bezier Mask
• B-Spline Mask
Object alpha channelMasked object
01112.book Page 851 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM