Masking Multiple Layers?

[Matoran]

Hi there. I was wondering if there was a way I could apply masking over multiple layers in a group? For example, a cloak that's made up of several pieces, and having a texture over the entire thing, giving it the illusion that the cloak is one piece. So far, I haven't been able to find anything on the subject.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[slowtiger]

Anything you put into the same group can be masked by the same mask.

[Hoptoad]

Hi there. I was wondering if there was a way I could apply masking over multiple layers in a group? For example, a cloak that's made up of several pieces, and having a texture over the entire thing, giving it the illusion that the cloak is one piece. So far, I haven't been able to find anything on the subject.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yes.

The group layer for cloak mask should be assigned HIDE ALL.

Make sure all the vector layers for the cloak are in the group layer.

The bottom layer is the actual mask. Assign this layer Add to Mask But Keep Invisible. This is the entire cloak. None of its color will appear, so it doesn't matter what color it is. I usually make my masks a bright ugly color so I know it's a mask.

The 5 (or however many) layers above this bottom layer are vector layers. Every one needs to be assigned MASK THIS LAYER. Put your stripes, polka dots, or whatever on these layers.

Use FILE > PREVIEW to see the result.

[Hoptoad]

Hi there. I was wondering if there was a way I could apply masking over multiple layers in a group? For example, a cloak that's made up of several pieces, and having a texture over the entire thing, giving it the illusion that the cloak is one piece. So far, I haven't been able to find anything on the subject.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yes.

EDIT: slowtiger already posted the answer, but here is my post anyway.

The group layer for cloak mask should be assigned HIDE ALL.

Make sure all the vector layers for the cloak are in the group layer.

The bottom layer is the actual mask. Assign this layer Add to Mask But Keep Invisible. This layer holds the entire cloak shape. None of its color will appear, so it doesn't matter what color it is. I usually make my masks a bright ugly color so I know it's a mask.

The 5 (or however many) layers above this bottom layer are vector layers. Every one needs to be assigned MASK THIS LAYER. Put your stripes, polka dots, or whatever on these layers.

Use FILE > PREVIEW to see the result.

[Matoran]

Hi there. I was wondering if there was a way I could apply masking over multiple layers in a group? For example, a cloak that's made up of several pieces, and having a texture over the entire thing, giving it the illusion that the cloak is one piece. So far, I haven't been able to find anything on the subject.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yes.

The group layer for cloak mask should be assigned HIDE ALL.

Make sure all the vector layers for the cloak are in the group layer.

The bottom layer is the actual mask. Assign this layer Add to Mask But Keep Invisible. This is the entire cloak. None of its color will appear, so it doesn't matter what color it is. I usually make my masks a bright ugly color so I know it's a mask.

The 5 (or however many) layers above this bottom layer are vector layers. Every one needs to be assigned MASK THIS LAYER. Put your stripes, polka dots, or whatever on these layers.

Use FILE > PREVIEW to see the result.

Thank you for the reply! There must have been a bug, because my previous process is now working fine. The mask was only working on select layers within the group.

As for your explanation, that's a really neat way of getting textured shapes that I hadn't thought of doing before! But I was needing all the coloured layers to have the one texture over them all. In this case, I would need the mask to be the topmost layer ("Mask this layer") and then apply "Add to mask" on the lower ones.

Anyway, thank you again!

[Matoran]

Anything you put into the same group can be masked by the same mask.

Yeah, it must have been a bug or something, as it was only being applied to certain layers within the mask, even though, as far as I could tell, all the lower layers were set to "Add to Mask". But it's working fine now.

Thanks!

[slowtiger]

One quirk with more complex masks is that they may not display correctly in project view. If you find something wrong, always do a quick render cmd-R to check.