How do you feather edges of video

Not sure if there is a better way, but you could add a mask to the clip (cmd-shft-m) and put a soft edged shape into it...

Patrick

I do this all the time. Add a mask and then apply a feather to the mask. Literally will take you 10 seconds to do.

Take the shape you put into the Matte well and soften it's edges. Or use Matte Magic. (apply to the matte layer). Or put a blur filter on the matte layer. There are many ways...

Patrick

Tangier, you must create the shape that you place in the Matte well. Create a rectangle as big as you need, feather the edges, and throw it in the matte well. It really is quite simple.

Patrick

Simply make a square mask of the footage. Using the mask tool, draw a box for the size of the mask you want, then under the Mask tab in the inspector, adjust the mask feather properties. That will create a simple feathered edge to your work, or am I missing something and are looking for something more then that?

Hey All,

Tangier, you're confusing the regular shape-drawing tools with the shape-MASK drawing tools. You can draw an arbitrary mask directly onto any object in Motion, including video.

Patrick pointed out that you could draw a shape and then use it as the source for an Image Mask (different from a shape-mask), but in your case, just draw yourself a shape-mask using the rectangle mask tool in the toolbar. Like any other shape-type object, you can feather the mask as much as you'd like.

It's really amazing what a particular **** it is to try to explain to someone in written words that Motion has shapes, shape masks, AND image masks that can use shapes as the mask input. It's one of those things that takes only a moment in person, but paragraphs when written.

That being said, the second page of the huge masks chapter in the manual explains it beautifully (HINT, HINT).