Adobe After Effects Basics Tutorial 5/8 - Track Mattes

Learn how to use Mattes in Adobe After Effects to create more advanced VFX for your video projects :D

You can find a detailed written version of this tutorial with step by step instructions on my website:

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Video & Music - Copyright © 2012 SurfacedStudio

[juantapia]

Hello Tobias, just wanted to tell you that I'm so glad I found your tutorials. I started AE from scratch just a week ago, and I've been following your tutorials, making videos of my own, struggling but definitely learning. I appreciate every detail you explain and I plan on learning much more with your tutorials.
You're awesome! keep it up man, great tutorials

[SurfacedStudio]

:) Thank you very much! Glad to hear that you enjoy my tutorials!

[SurfacedStudio]

Thank you very much!! I feel honoured that people seem to enjoy my tutorials. And no worries, I'll keep working on new ones, I'm just a bit slow cause a) i work and b) I'm very, very picky :D But more coming soon!

[SurfacedStudio]

No problem at all :) Hope you enjoyed the video!

[SurfacedStudio]

Glad you enjoyed it :) Once I isolated the colour and have a nice greyscale image I can use it as a luma inverted matte for my adjustment layer - that just means that the adjustment layer will be opaque where my matte is black and transparent where it's white. And if I apply the desaturation effect to it, it will desaturate everything except the areas where the matte is white - which is just the rose :)

[OnTheRoadwiththeWolf]

I like the fact that you use the same material but show different ways of getting the same results with less or more difficulty, this can come down to an artists preference. Thanks for all the hard work.

[SurfacedStudio]

Hey Mocha57! Glad to hear you enjoyed the tutorials and more advanced stuff is coming out frequently too :) Currently going through my 3D integration series, but once I've closed that off and 3 more basics tuts (to complete the series), there'll be plenty of more advanced stuff coming :)

[SurfacedStudio]

Thank you :D I have no intention of stopping so hopefully lots and lots more of tutorials (and vfx short films) will be out this year. Just have to get my day job under control hehe!

[SurfacedStudio]

Thank you :) Hopefully it'll pick up this year, lots and lots more tutorials planned :)

[SurfacedStudio]

Sure can, you will still have to either mask out the rose or use the same matte to keep its colour and not desaturate together it with everything else

[SurfacedStudio]

Thank you very much :) really happy to hear you find the tutorials helpful!

[SurfacedStudio]

If you have the screen separated and on a separate plate, then you could either use that plate as a matte to an adjustment layer with glow or use the screen footage itself, change the blend mode ('add' would work) and blur it out to create the glow :)

[SurfacedStudio]

Really happy that you enjoyed the video :D I've never been to film school so I can't comment on whether it's good or not - I reckon it will really depend on your teachers and the other people you interact with there. I've mainly been learning from online resources and from other people - and I'm always happy if someone finds something I do wrong or that I could do better or more efficient. I only swear when I think it's justified and I don't need to swear to get information across in my vids :)

[SurfacedStudio]

I hope you enjoyed the basics series - I am still working on a few more, but there's so many things on my plate now I gotta wrap them up when I get around to it. I have 3 more basics tutorials on the schedule though :)

[SurfacedStudio]

Thank you for the feedback - I have it on my request list :) Can't really say when I will get around to it though as I have a long list of tutorials I want to get through :)

[SurfacedStudio]

Hehe, I've made exactly that transition a few years back :) There's so much fun you can have with videos and it's a nice and creative hobby. Glad to hear you're enjoying my videos!

[SurfacedStudio]

Glad you enjoyed it (and that there was no math!). Thanks for watching!

[iviaverick]

I've been in music and pro audio for years and I'm just starting to delve into video. It's a totally different world lol. Think I'm just going to watch all of your videos straight through someday, tons of great info.

[MGBfilmTV]

Very good. I paid a lot of money for film school, but one of the editing teachers had to always go back to the book to explain something and i remember 1 embarrassing day when a student had to correct him. I don't regret going to film school but i dont think it is necessary for many. What is also attractive about your vids is that, i don't hear you insult (swear) like many others do. Trying to be like everyone else is not cool.

[SidRandom]

I keep coming back for refreshers =) Hope you're doing well.