AfterEffects

Select masks, segments, and vertices

Unlike layers, masks can have more than one level of selection. You can select a mask as a whole path, which is appropriate when you want to move or resize a mask. However, if you want to change the path of a mask, select one or more points on it. Selected points appear solid, and unselected points appear hollow.

Select or deselect masks in the Layer or Composition panel

  • To select a vertex on a mask, click the vertex with the Selection tool . To add vertices to the selection, Shift-click them.
  • To select a mask segment, click the segment with the Selection tool. To add segments to the selection, Shift-click them.
  • To select an entire mask, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a segment, vertex, or handle of a mask with the Selection tool, or select any portion of the mask and choose Edit > Select All or press Crl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS). To add masks to the selection, Alt+Shift-click (Windows) or Option+Shift-click (Mac OS) them.
  • To select masks by dragging, select a mask or portion of a mask to enter mask editing mode and then drag with the Selection tool to draw a marquee-selection box completely around the vertices or masks that you want to select. To add masks or vertices to the selection, hold down the Shift key as you draw additional marquee-selection boxes.
  • To select all masks on a layer, select a mask on the layer, and choose Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS).
  • To deselect all masks, press Ctrl+Shift+A (Windows) or Command+Shift+A (Mac OS).
  • To select an adjacent mask on a layer, press Alt+tilde (~) (Windows) or Option+tilde (~) (Mac OS) to select the next mask, or Shift+Alt+tilde (~) (Windows) or Shift+Option+tilde (~) (Mac OS) to select the previous mask.
  • To deselect a mask, click anywhere other than on the mask.
  • To remove a vertex or segment from a selection, Shift-click the vertex or segment.
To use the Selection tool when the Pen tool is selected, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS).

Select masks in the Timeline panel

  1. Click the right arrow next to a layer name to expand it.
  2. Click the right arrow next to the Masks heading to expand it, revealing all masks on that layer.
  3. Do any of the following:

    • To select one mask, click its name.

    • To select a contiguous range of masks, Shift-click the names of the first and last masks in the range.

    • To select discontiguous masks together, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the names of any masks you want to include.

Note: You can select only whole masks in the Timeline panel. To select individual vertices on a mask, use the Composition or Layer panel.