Blackmagic Forum

Hello there!

I need to create light rays that come out of a light house.

I use a white background node with a bow tie shaped polygon mask to create the rays. My problem is, that I want the cones to have a very smooth fade out on the right and left side while the top and bottom egdes are supposed to stay sharp. So I can not just use "soft edge".

Is there a way to soften single sides of polygon masks?

Yes. For varying degrees of softness you can use the double polyline/spline feature.
When you've got your mask selected, look for a "D" in the toolbar on that mask. The viewer should now display a dashed line on top of the normal spline path.
Hit Tab until you see diamond shaped icons on the polyline. Moving these will soften your mask as far as you move the outer line.

That worked perfect for me, thank you very much!