From the course: After Effects CC 2022 Essential Training
Unlock the full course today
Join today to access over 23,400 courses taught by industry experts.
Using track mattes - After Effects Tutorial
From the course: After Effects CC 2022 Essential Training
Using track mattes
- [Instructor] As we saw in the previous movie, masks are drawn onto layers, which means if the layer moves, so does the mask. Sometimes you want to move a layer independently of the masks. To do that, we use a feature called track mattes. Track mattes are separate layers that provide transparency to the layer immediately below it. Let's take a look. In this 02_city_letters comp, I've got several pre comps, and each of them has use of a track matte in order to reveal each letter as they pop up. Let's come over to the 03 A start comp. Here, I've got my one layer, that's the artwork. It has its own transparency, and it has the shadows built into it. We need to separate out the shadows from the building, for one, and then we need to create a track matte in order to animate the building separately. So first things first. How do track mattes work? Track mattes can use the alpha channel or the brightness of a layer and…
Practice while you learn with exercise files
Download the files the instructor uses to teach the course. Follow along and learn by watching, listening and practicing.