AE Masking By:

Level: Beginner
Requirements: After Effects (any version should work)

If you have used Macomedia Flash and have used masks then After Effects will be easy for you.
Pretty much all applications the basics of masking are very much the same (maybe a bit different)

Step 1: When launching AE you should already have a new project in place, if not go to File>New> New Project

Step 2: Next step is to create a new composition (Composition>New Composition or CTRL +N)
You may use whatever size you want, and for frame rate you can use the tv standard of 29.97, and duration could be anything.

Step 3: Now you can import a graphic to be used but to keep it simple we will simply used text in AE.

Step 4: Now activate the horizontal type tool by clicking the "T" in the tools palette, or CTRL+T is faster.
Now type in your text, i have just typed the "The Mask". You can change the size, font and color by highlighting
your text and then making the changes from the character palette.



Step 5: Next we will create the mask. Go to Layer>New> Solid. Size does not matter as we will be resizing it.
However make sure it it a different color then the composition background.

Step 6:We want to make the "solid" just a bit bigger then the text. You can easilly do this by changing the blend mode
of this layer to "Soft Light". Then simply make it a bit bigger then the text.




Step 7: Next (still on the solid layer you just created) hit "p" on your keyboard. This brings the position in place.
Depending where your text is you may have to use high values, but it will be negative. We want the box just to be beside to the
left of your text, so click on the little stopwatch icon, and the first value will be "360", slide it to the left until the box is to the left
of your text. Then hit the "end" key on your keyboard. Now move the same slider except move it to the right (a positive value) and
stop when the box is in the center of the text. * If you move it to the right of your text, the text will dissapear.

Step 8: Now activate (click) on your text layer, and just beside the blending modes pulldown for this layer exists
the masking options. Any of them will work, but the first one is the one you want to use. (It's an Alpha Matte)
And that is it create a ram preview or scrub throgh the timeline and you will see the mask work.
Of course you can get fancy and masking can work for many other things, but this was just a basic way to mask.