User Manual

Connecting a Mask to a MediaIn or Loader Node’s Input
This method is a bit simpler but requires you to know that you can view one node while
adjusting another node, even if that other node is disconnected. If you add an unattached Mask
node such as a Polygon or B-Spline node, and then place a MediaIn or Loader node directly
into the viewer while selecting the Mask node, you can draw a spline to rotoscope the image.
Rotoscoping a MediaIn node using
a disconnected Polygon node.
When you’re finished rotoscoping, you simply connect the Polygon node’s output to the Loader
node’s input, and an alpha channel is automatically added to that node.
Connecting a Polygon node to a MediaIn node to use a spline as an alpha channel.
TIP: If you connect a Mask node to a MediaIn or Loader node’s effect input without any
shapes drawn, that mask outputs full transparency, so the immediate result is that the
image output by the MediaIn or Loader node becomes completely blank. This is why
when you want to rotoscope by connecting a mask to the input of a MediaIn or Loader
node, you need to work within a disconnected Mask node first. Once the shape you’re
drawing has been closed, connect the Mask node to the MediaIn or Loader’s input,
and you’re good to go.
Combining Multiple Masks
Masks are designed to be added one after the other, with each Mask node acting as an
additional layer of masking.
Combining multiple Polygon nodes one
after the other in the node tree.
Chapter – 71 Rotoscoping with Masks 1439