Don't require track mattes to be above the layer it modifies (and also allow re-use)
Requiring a track matte to be right above the layer it modifies seems like an archaic convention at best. Get rid of that requirement and make them like parent layers which can be anywhere and used by many layers.
Micah
shared this idea
22 comments
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Anonymouse
commented
Or, give the "Set Matte" effect some love. Generally, some filters feel like they were completely abandoned. Example: Ramp.
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Stoph Demetriou commented
Agreed. Or they could improve the functionality of the set matte, which is absolutely useless if you ever have to precomp. AE really, really should introduce some kind of node-based workflow option. AE is great (for now!) but working exclusively with layers is so old-fashioned for compositing/animation.
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Antoine (Autokroma.com)
commented
Agreed. AE compositions organization should get closer to nodes / graphs
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Nimble Media Solutions
commented
I would love this feature to work how it does in Photoshop. Can make folders (not pre-comps) - and - apply a mask(s) to that folder/group.
For now, we need to create some sort of Master Control Layer that other layers can reference. Could be done with pre-comps or Pick Whipping the properties of your Master Layer.
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Steve Adam
commented
i have just completed a project where it would really have helped to be able to let multiple layers refer to the same track matte. OK it's easy enough to duplicate them during the build but if you ever need to come back and re-edit something for a client, or worse still need to give that job to someone else to do, you really need total recall of what you duplicated and where/why in order to be able to do this... I'm only human!
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Josh Leckrone
commented
This would be so useful!
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Anonymous
commented
It would be cool to use one matte for multiple layers, I'm not fussed whether they have to stay above as I find that easy to locate them.
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Siamak P
commented
would be great to be able to link layers to track mattes, as they are usually the layer above, so when linked you won't move them separately by mistake and would be a lot easier to manage them.
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Rafael
commented
Or make Set Matte work like just like Track Mattes
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Andreas Urra
commented
Track mattes should work for all layer types, all dimensions and also when they are animated by their transform properties or by parenting. Without the need to precomp. This would speed up work, feel way more fluid and less complicated.
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Nathan
commented
Use Set Matte effect and Transform effect or just precomp the track matte layer.
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David Henderson
commented
@ Darren Place : Same over here. Agreed!
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Darren Place
commented
This would be game changing!! I often find myself with dozens of duplicates of the same matte precomp in the timeline. To have my mattes sitting on the bottom layers and pickwhip would be huge.
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Matthias Stoll
commented
It could also be an idea to improve the set matte effect to ignore resolutions and basically to the same thing.
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Ryan O'Connell
commented
Agreed, a pick whip, with the option to select 'Source' - 'Masks' - 'Effects & Masks '
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David Henderson
commented
@ Justin - BAMB! that would be RAD
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Justin Hemsley
commented
It could work like the parenting pickwhip. That'd be awesome.
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David Henderson
commented
Some sort of a node-based approach would be great here, even as I know full well that AE is a layer based compositing system. It would be nice for stuff like matts.
I end up duping the Matt layer, and setting up expression links from the 'Master' mask keyframes to all the dupes in dupe layers, effectively 'cloning' the matt layer, so if changes are made, they roll out to the dupes. -
Micah
commented
Set matte is great for shape layers. It's not a workable solution for image layers though.
Size differences tend to put the matte where I don't expect or want it, and transformations are ignored. Only track mattes do what I need for image layers, but at the expense of needing to layer them in the expected order and often making a bunch of duplicates.
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Zenzuke
commented
We don't need set matte if the trackmatte did what Micah said, it was the way Combustion did it and I was always mistified about why AE couldn't do it like that.