I want to hide an area of a layer that has animation using layer effects scrolling. Is this possible?
I’m used to doing it the way its done in photoshop where you select a layer, add a layer mask and draw on the mask. All pixels in the black area of the mask are hidden.
Hi @0xNoodles,
I can’t think of a way that can do the thing currently. I just wonder if it would be possible to add that type of masking as a layer effect.
The rough idea would be to have a new effect “Mask” and then use the transparency of the pixels of that layer and combine it with the layer below. Of course this is not as smart as having a mask directly aligned with the layer. Instead the layer with the mask always has to be seen as a pair with the layer that is below and where the mask is applied to.
Would that make sense?
-Jan
Doesn’t work the way I wanted to do.
The transparency must be applied in the moment when the layer that should get the mask applied is rendered.
During rendering the layers are processed from bottom to top. So the layer that the mask effect would like to target is already processed.
New approach: You can define a mask layer in the settings of a layer. That’s even better because then you could place the mask layers where you want and can even use it for multiple layers.
That would be so good.
Define the layer mask from a drop down list on layer settings mondal, hit ‘done’ and all non transport pixels define the mask.
Unfortunately this raises another problem:
Since the layer you use as a mask for another layer is rendered like any other layer it will be visible on the canvas just as pixels. You need to make it invisible to have the mask effect otherwise you see just the pixels of the mask layer instead of the pixels of the layer you want it to be a mask for.
Hard to describe… hope it makes sense 
Maybe this example helps:
You have a layer “my image” and you create another layer on top of it “my image mask”.
You fill the left half of “image mask” with pure black to have the left half fully opaque, the right half is transparent.
Now you select “My image mask” as a mask layer for the layer “my image”.
What do you see? The full black layer of “my image mask” on the left half and nothing on the right half.
When you make the layer “my image mask” invisible then you see the contents of “my image” in the left half which is now the result of the masking.
Also, when you make the mask layer invisible, you can’t edit it. So it will always override the image visually that you want to mask.
So, it does the job, but is a bit strange. Do you think it will be useful or does this side effect ruin everything?
Mask layer non transparent pixels = the mask, mask layer transparent pixels = shows the image from layers below.
Could the mask layer could be anywhere in the layer stack? This way you could put the mask layer below the layer you are masking and the black pixels with always be hidden as the masked layer above would hide them perfectly.
Hard to describe!
Yes, you could move the mask layer below the image layer you want to mask. This will work.
