Probably a really easy question about masks

D

DoubleIt

Well-known member
Ok,

I filmed footage in color of a guy lighting a ciggeratte. I made two avi clips - the raw one with him in color doing it and then i made another as black and white. I brought those into after effects. What i want is to have everything in black and white except for the lighter flame, and then the burning cig. So i put the b&w clip on top, color on bottom, then used the pen tool to select the flame. But i cant get it. First, im having trouble setting the keyframe. Why wont it work? I have to use the pen tool and click in order to 'ungray' the 'add keyframe' option. So I add it and select the area around the flame. I go through all of that and it is over the entire clip instead of starting where i added the keyframe.

My next issue is that the spark of the flame moves so much that its harder to move the masked around to fit the second frame of the spark. It would be easier to make a new keyframe and remask it. But that same keyframe issue applies.

Anyone have any clue what i'm trying to do here and/or what it is not working. I thought this was going to be really easy to do. Any help would be great, its driving me nuts-o.
 
so more or less i want it to look like this

test.jpg


I did that in photoshop with a frame from the footage btw
 
Well, first you don't need two video clips you can just use two instances of the same clip in AE, but anyway.. I'm not entirely sure where your problem is but, you park your play head at the beginning of the clip, make your mask, adjust all the mask points where you want them (you can add points with the Pen+ tool), select the stop watches, probably just for mask shape, move to the end of the clip re adjust your mask points, and then do all the inbetween keyframes until it looks right adding extra masks if you have sparks fly away from the orginal mask...
 
Note im not that great in AE so please be really clear about things. I know the basics but im pretty sure im missing something easy/doing a stupid mistake
 
if you click the little triangles next to "mask" (or any of the items) you will then get a list of property controls i.e. "mask shape" "feather" or other items in your timeline will have "position" "scale", and next to those are stop watches which you need to click on so you can set keyframes, that is basic after effects, you need to read the manual/help file/buy a book!
 
also how are you drawing the mask? I think the easiest way is to select your layer and Ctrl + Shift + N, then move the little yellow points and/or add points with the pen+ tool,
 
Ok i clicked on all the watches, i selected the color layer, cntrl shift n then added the first point, then added the keyframe, then put in the rest of the points... It seems like i shouldnt be adding the first mask point THEN adding the keyframe but its the only way it will work..
 
You are right. You should not have to do it that way. You need only create the mask on the B&W layer, and then when it is finished, keyframe its position.

sink made it as easy as it can get. Do what he wrote and you should be fine. Of course, you could also simply select the color range of the flame and end with Hue and Saturation and drop everything else to B&W. Or, you could key out the same colors and reveal the color layer underneath if you want. As long as you actor is not similar in hue to either the flame or the tip, you could key it.
 
cool deal, I was about to do some tests and try to do this type of thing. Thanks for the info guys.
 
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