Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 5.5 Help Manual page 153

Adobe After Effects Help
Using Help | Contents
Position the pen tool over the control point you want to change and click the control
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point when the pen tool icon becomes the corner point tool icon ( ).
In the toolbox, select the corner point tool. If the corner point tool is not visible, click
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and hold one of the visible pen tool icons ( ) and choose the corner point tool from the
menu.
Selecting masks and control points
Before you can modify or animate masks, you must know how to select them, especially
when you've created more than one mask on a layer. Also, 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 shape
of a mask, select one or more points on a mask. Selected points appear solid, and
unselected points appear hollow.
To select all or part of one or more masks in the Layer or Composition window:
1 Click the selection tool ( ).
2 Do one of the following:
To select a point on a mask, click it.
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To select an entire mask by clicking, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you click
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a mask. To select more masks, hold down Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS)
as you click other masks.
To select masks by dragging, hold down Shift, click inside the mask, and draw a
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marquee completely around the points or masks you want to select.
To use the selection tool when the pen tool is selected, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or
Command (Mac OS).
To select masks in the Timeline window:
1 Click the right-facing arrow next to a layer name to expand it.
2 Click the right-facing arrow next to the Masks heading to expand it, revealing all masks
on that layer.
3 Do any of the following:
To select one mask, click its name.
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To select a contiguous range of masks, hold down Shift as you click the names of the
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first and last masks in the range.
To select several discontiguous masks together, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or
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Command (Mac OS) as you click the names of any masks you want to include.
Note: You can select only whole masks in the Timeline window. To select individual points
on a mask, use the Composition or Layer window.
To add or remove masks or control points to or from the selection:
Do one of the following:
In the Composition window, use the selection tool ( ) to drag a marquee to enclose all
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points on all desired masks.
Using Help | Contents
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| Index
Working with Masks and Transparency
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