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Fastest way to create multiple masks?

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AndreasOberg

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Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostSun Jan 22, 2023 12:41 pm

Hi,
I always found it a bit fiddly to create multiple masks for objects, but I'm probably just doing it the wrong way.
What I do
Create 2 bezier masks
Create a merge node set it to In
Invert one of the masks.
If I need more masks I use more merge nodes.

Another thing that is a bit annoying is I rarely want to animate the masks, but it automatically keeps adding keyframes if I move back and forward in time and change it. Is that possible to disable?

Also is it possible to create several different splines in one Bspline? Like to create 3 separate shapes that are not connected.
I'm sure there is a smarter way :)
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Bryan Ray

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Re: Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostSun Jan 22, 2023 5:22 pm

You can chain masks together. Just plug one mask into the blue input arrow on another, and they'll be combined. Set the Paint Mode to determine exactly how they are combined.

To remove animation from a bspline or polygon, right-click at the bottom where it says "Right-click here for shape animation" and choose "Remove <toolname>_<splinename>". If you want the splines to only animate when you choose to add animation, you can save a new default. Make a new tool (so it doesn't have any spline or other changes yet), remove the animation, then right-click the node and chose Settings > Save Default. Any tool of that kind you make in the future will have those settings.

Finally, only one spline per Bspline or Polygon tool, sorry.
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GalinMcMahon

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Re: Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostMon Jan 23, 2023 5:57 pm

It would be nice if the default when changing a poly line would NOT be to animate that. Nowhere else in this or any other program ever have I seen software make the choice to animate when there is literally a button to animate. I run into this all the time and it regularly destroys my comps. I'll get down to the far end of it and viola! Resolve had decided to animate my whole comp for me even though I never told it to. This is just one of those weird inconsistencies that Blackmagic puts into their software and will never listen to their users about.
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Bryan Ray

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Re: Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostMon Jan 23, 2023 8:43 pm

The default assumption is that a Polygon or a Bspline is being used for rotoscoping. For most compositors, the vast majority of the time we put down a spline, we want it to be animated by default and don't want to make two more clicks to enable it.

Of course, BMD's gone to great pains to make sure that people using the software for VFX now have to click a lot more than we used to, so maybe you've got a point. :D
Bryan Ray
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AndreasOberg

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Re: Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostTue Jan 24, 2023 9:12 am

Bryan Ray wrote:You can chain masks together. Just plug one mask into the blue input arrow on another, and they'll be combined. Set the Paint Mode to determine exactly how they are combined.

To remove animation from a bspline or polygon, right-click at the bottom where it says "Right-click here for shape animation" and choose "Remove <toolname>_<splinename>". If you want the splines to only animate when you choose to add animation, you can save a new default. Make a new tool (so it doesn't have any spline or other changes yet), remove the animation, then right-click the node and chose Settings > Save Default. Any tool of that kind you make in the future will have those settings.

Finally, only one spline per Bspline or Polygon tool, sorry.


Thanks I did not know they could be chained.
Also great tip about saving the node so you get the default settings in a certain way.
Many thanks!
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AndreasOberg

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Re: Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostTue Jan 24, 2023 10:07 am

I have another basic question. Let me say that I have an exr sequence coming in with RGB and also A and I want to mask away the alpha in the image.
The way I currently do is I create a Merge and then I create a Background node that has 0 alpha and then I apply the mask to the Merge node.

This is a bit fiddly since I always have to make sure the background node has the same dimension as the original source.
Is there a better way?
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Jacob Danell

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Re: Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostTue Jan 24, 2023 10:28 am

AndreasOberg wrote:I have another basic question. Let me say that I have an exr sequence coming in with RGB and also A and I want to mask away the alpha in the image.
The way I currently do is I create a Merge and then I create a Background node that has 0 alpha and then I apply the mask to the Merge node.

This is a bit fiddly since I always have to make sure the background node has the same dimension as the original source.
Is there a better way?


I would add a Boolean node, set RGB to Do Nothing and the Alpha to White/Black/Clear/Subtract or what operation you might want and mask the effect instead :)

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AndreasOberg

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Re: Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostWed Jan 25, 2023 9:44 am

Thanks Jacob. The boolean node is very useful but I find it confusing. For example to get the result you mention I set
Copy
Red FG
Green FG
Blue FG
Black

But then I attached the source image to the Background input in the ChannelBoolean node. I would expect it to be connected to Foreground. It always seems to be inverted for me. sometimes I have to reconnect a few times before anything happens as well. Also to get the channelboolean I had to connect to both the Foreground and Background, but if I disconnect one it still seems to be alive until I disconnect and connects again then it seems both are needed.
Works, but not super easy to remember
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Jacob Danell

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Re: Fastest way to create multiple masks?

PostWed Jan 25, 2023 1:11 pm

AndreasOberg wrote:Thanks Jacob. The boolean node is very useful but I find it confusing. For example to get the result you mention I set
Copy
Red FG
Green FG
Blue FG
Black

But then I attached the source image to the Background input in the ChannelBoolean node. I would expect it to be connected to Foreground. It always seems to be inverted for me. sometimes I have to reconnect a few times before anything happens as well. Also to get the channelboolean I had to connect to both the Foreground and Background, but if I disconnect one it still seems to be alive until I disconnect and connects again then it seems both are needed.
Works, but not super easy to remember


That sounds weird. Sounds like some caching problems or something.
For me, if I only connect one image to the bool node it acts as both FG and BG.

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