The Power of Masking

There are a number of ways in which a layer can be masked:

1) From the footage file's pre-existing Alpha Channel.

2) By adding a masking shape or drawing a path on the layer in the Layer window.

3) By cutting and pasting a Path from either Illustrator or Photoshop.

4) Choose an Alpha Channel from another layer in the comp to create a Track Matte.

5) Use the Luma grayscale data of another layer in the comp to map a Track Matte.

6) Apply a Matte Effect filter to achieve a similar result of either method 4 or method 5.

7) Apply a transfer mode- such as Stencil Alpha- to the layer above.