From the course: Creating Cinemagraphs and Plotagraphs

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Creating and refining masks in After Effects

Creating and refining masks in After Effects

From the course: Creating Cinemagraphs and Plotagraphs

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Creating and refining masks in After Effects

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- Aftereffects has several different masking tools, but let me show you a few. First up, one of the easiest things you can do is use the pen tool. I'll turn these layers off for a second, so I can see just the top layer. And I'll zoom out a little bit, so I can better see the edges. Now, with my pen tool, I'll click to make a loose selection. In this case, click and hold to add a curve. There we go. And close the loop. That adds a basic selection. Next, under the pen tool, you'll find the mask feather tool. Let's zoom in here a little bit to see this. Now you can click on that line and start to pull, and you see it creates feathering. If you click to add another point, you can localize that feathering. For example, I can set it so there's no feathering along the outside, but lots of feathering here. And with each click, you can add another control point on that line, and decide which direction the feathering is going to move. Notice, this can be moved around or in or out to create a…

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