After Effects On the Spot[c] Time-Saving Tips and Shortcuts from the Pros

Rotoscoping with Masks

Not handy with a brush? Not crazy about rotoscoping with the Paint Effects? You can do great rotoscoping with masks (although it's tedious .)

• For complex areas, split up the job into a few masks rather than trying to animate one intricate mask.

• If you're going to be adding or deleting vertices you should go to Preferences>General>Persevere Constant Vertex Count When Editing Masks and turn it off. If you delete a point, you will only be affecting that mask shape keyframe, whereas if you leave Preserve Count it on, After Effects will delete that point throughout your layer.

• You should try to maintain your vertex count though. Deleting or adding points to a mask can cause unpredictable interpolation, and can adversely affect motion blur for the mask.