How to mask out objects seamlessly in After Effects

Today’s post is about masking out objects seamlessly in Adobe After Effects. Note: Remember to watch the video tutorial Jeff, our Adobe certified instructor, has prepared for you.

Join The After Effects Academy And Get Acces To This Full Lesson + Weekly Live Classes And After Effects Templates Now let’s start our blog post! Drag it down to the new comp. Now I want to get rid of that image there.   So I want to cover it with this area down here and that will then get rid of it. I happen to have something that I can use to replace that. Someone send me an email a week or so ago saying, “How do I get rid of this ugly thing in the background?” Basically I showed him how to use masks to do that and this is a way to do it. With him, it was three masks. It was kind of complicated. But here we need only one. I’m going to make a mask here right below that and then I’ll take it and drag it up to it. Again I’m going to go to the layer panels. It’s easier to work in there, double-click on the layer panel. I want to put a mask right here so I get my pen tool.

After Effects Academy Member Extra

Access your ‘Using Masks and Mattes*’ Course in the After Effects Academy.* Jeff Sengstack will show you how to use masks and mattes in After Effects. Not an AE Academy member? Click here to learn more about the After Effects Academy

I want to have it be let’s say wider than this thing as a little bit because the wall here will replace something up there. It’s a little bit wider, click on that, down here. I want to get above this outlet there, just a little bit out of focus if this is what it should be. Turns on how we shot this. Over here, over there. Now it turns out that RotoBezier is turned on, but I don’t want that so I’m going to get rid of that.   I want it to be straight now. Now I’m going to protect this area. I want to save this area.  I want to use this and put it up there. Now if I go back to the account panel, you see that I have now got this thing. I want to put that over that same layer so I’m going to get that layer again – interview 2. Drag it below like this.                     If I click on this, you’ll see the path. I don’t want to move the path.

I want to move the layer it’s applied to.

So if I just move the path then this is going to reveal a different area of the clip. So I’ll take this and

press “P” for position.

Now I want to slide it up the screen so that’s the “y” value here. Now we’ve covered it up the image, right? But it doesn’t look that good anyways. Here’s what to do: So we go to this

press “M” for mask twice

so you can see all the characteristics so just make it press more than twice, there you go. I’m going to turn off the Toggle Masks and Shape Path Visibility. Now I want to try to make that thing blend in. I start off by using the Mask Feather. Now I’m going to make the whole layer bigger. I won’t say this works. I’m just trying to expand the layer, not the mask. I don’t want to expand the mask out. I want to expand the layer out. To do that, I go to the layer (interview-2.mov) and

press Shift Scale – “S” for Scale

so I have the Scale showing now. Now I’m going to unlink it so I’ll work only with the “y” value at the point here, expand up like so. The edges are still – if you’re really watching this thing, the edges are little bit visible. So I can expand a little bit little maybe on the edges to a little bit like that. Now we have got rid of that painting on the background. Nobody watching this, whatever suspected there was a painting back there, which is a cool use I think for a mask.