Invert selection with bezier tool

hi Fenster

well i hate to ask a stoopid question but there are two bezier tools of course. One draws shapes, the other masks. Since you want the background to disappear i guess you want to draw a mask. To invert a mask you can click on the mask object in the timeline or project pane, then hop over to the inspector and clicking on the mask tab, change its property to Add, or to subtract which ever one works.

what you're seeing is odd to me though since my masks always defualt to showing whats in the mask not whats outside it.

hope this helps

adam

hi,

if you look at the far right buttons in the tool bar you wil see two buttons that might be greyed out. They have mask written underneath them. To create a mask for an object, you select the object you want to mask and then click on the mask tool you want. Click and hold on the first button, a selection pops up. you can choose the rectangle mask, or circular mask or the freehand mask. The second button gives you the option of a bezier tool or b-Spline. All work in slightly different ways to achieve slightly different things. After you have drawn a mask, or a shape for that matter, you can always click on the indiviual points and edit them using bezier tools.

pressing theB key gives you the shape tool.

thanks

adam

Lets assume you used the wrong tool and you have a shape that you want to use as a mask. Select the layer that you want to mask (not the shape) Than select Add Image Mask from the Object menu (top menus). In the inspector make sure you have Mask selected and drag the Shape you created earlier from the layers menu into the box labeled Mask Source. That should work.

well thats not strictly true because you could animate the points of the shape that is being used as the source of the image mask, over time and this would give the same result.

However I would in this case still use the mask tool, since it was designed for this and is easier to keyframe in this scenerio than in ainvisible shape layer. And if you're rotoscoping a person you might want to consider breaking the task up into mangable bits, ie do the torso and arms and head and legs all separately.

regards

adam