How to add outline to a mask in AE?

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How to add outline to a mask in AE?

Postby rook2pawn » Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:39 am

I want to add an outline to my mask in AE, a strong border that visually represents my mask. How do i do this?

my book (trish and chris meyers) says something about Stroke, but im not sure which submenu has it, and when i type stroke in the effects search box, it comes up with over 20 different selections of stroke.
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Postby leahzero » Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:30 am

Use Generate > Stroke and drop it on your mask. Under Paint Style you have several options for how the stroke effect will matte with other layers and the mask itself.
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Postby rook2pawn » Sun Jul 06, 2008 3:14 am

Yeah, that works, mostly, but if the mask has any parts that are outside of the layer, those parts aren't hit by stroke, since stroke is applied only to the layer, not the mask itself?
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Postby JaddziaDax » Sun Jul 06, 2008 9:23 am

then add it to the layer your mask is on as well?
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Postby -GfN- » Sun Jul 06, 2008 9:28 am

in ae, your layer limits the area in which you can draw a mask on thus the area of the outline as well, simple as that.
no work-arounds avaliable and none neccessary as far as my opinion goes.

if there really is a problem you cannot solve using obvious methods, specify.
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Postby Chez » Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:47 am

you could use the stroke effect or duplicate the layer and change the Hue and Saturation to the color your looking for sometimes that comes with a cleaner outline
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Re: How to add outline to a mask in AE?

Postby Zarxrax » Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:51 am

rook2pawn wrote:when i type stroke in the effects search box, it comes up with over 20 different selections of stroke.


I want to point out that you are probably seeing the stroke effects that are used in presets. After Effects comes with a lot of effects presets (and you can make your own), which are essentially just groups of effects with specific settings, linked together. When you search for something in the search box, it will also pull up all of the presets that contain the effect you are looking for. If you are in a hurry it doesn't hurt to just drag one of the effects straight out of the preset, you can just hit the reset button on the effect to reset all the settings to default.
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Postby Ashyukun » Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:21 am

My usual way (though perhaps not the best) to add a border/outline around a mask (usually done when I'm not happy with the strength of the black outline on the masked object) is to create a new Solid layer behind the masked image/video and copy the mask onto that layer. I usually use black for the solid since, as I said, I'm usually enhancing the existing outline, but you can use whatever color for the solid that you want the border to be. I then adjust the feather/expansion settings to achieve the desired border under the masked object.
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