Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 264

Select masks, segments, and vertices
Unlike layers, masks can have more than one level of selection. You can select a mask as a whole path, which is appro-
priate when you want to move or resize a mask. However, if you want to change the path of a mask, select one or
more points on it. Selected points appear solid, and unselected points appear hollow.
Select or deselect masks in the Layer or Composition panel
• To select a vertex on a mask, click the vertex with the Selection tool
• To select a mask segment, click the segment with the Selection tool. To add segments to the selection, Shift-click them.
• To select an entire mask, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a segment, vertex, or handle of a mask
with the Selection tool, or select any portion of the mask and choose Edit > Select All or press Crl+A (Windows)
or Command+A (Mac OS). To add masks to the selection, Alt+Shift-click (Windows) or Option+Shift-click
(Mac OS) them.
• To select masks by dragging, select a mask or portion of a mask to enter mask editing mode and then drag with
the Selection tool to draw a marquee-selection box completely around the vertices or masks that you want to
select. To add masks or vertices to the selection, hold down the Shift key as you draw additional marquee-selection
boxes.
• To select all masks on a layer, select a mask on the layer, and choose Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A (Windows)
or Command+A (Mac OS).
• To deselect all masks, press Ctrl+Shift+A (Windows) or Command+Shift+A (Mac OS).
• To select an adjacent mask on a layer, press Alt+tilde (~) (Windows) or Option+tilde (~) (Mac OS) to select the
next mask, or Shift+Alt+tilde (~) (Windows) or Shift+Option+tilde (~) (Mac OS) to select the previous mask.
• To deselect a mask, click anywhere other than on the mask.
• To remove a vertex or segment from a selection, Shift-click the vertex or segment.
To use the Selection tool when the Pen tool is selected, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS).
Select masks in the Timeline panel
Click the right arrow next to a layer name to expand it.
1
Click the right arrow next to the Masks heading to expand it, revealing all masks on that layer.
2
3 Do any of the following:
• To select one mask, click its name.
• To select a contiguous range of masks, Shift-click the names of the first and last masks in the range.
• To select discontiguous masks together, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the names of any
masks you want to include.
Note: You can select only whole masks in the Timeline panel. To select individual vertices on a mask, use the Compo-
sition or Layer panel.
Change a mask path numerically
1 Select the mask.
In the Timeline panel, expand the Mask properties.
2
Next to the Mask Path property, click the underlined word, and specify the changes in the Mask Path dialog box.
3
. To add vertices to the selection, Shift-click them.
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 258
User Guide