Blackmagic Forum

Newbie question here. I want to just mask something, without merging it over anything. That is, I want to "merge" it over blank alpha. I can achieve this using Matte Control and using the Garbage Matte input.

Is there a better way?

Not necessarily better. You could mask the loader itself, but that does have its downsides from time to time. You could also use a boolean with a mask and probably a BC with a mask, but you'll always need a node and a mask, so I have no idea what you'd consider better. FWIW in cases like you describe I personally always use the Matte Control as well, since the coding of my mind will automatically associate it with Matting, so even if other tools might be more efficient, I always use the Matte Control.