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Selecting masks and control points


    Before you can modify or animate masks, you must know how to select them, especially when you've created more than one mask on a layer. Also, 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 shape of a mask, select one or more points on a mask. Selected points appear solid, and unselected points appear hollow.

To select all or part of one or more masks in the Layer or Composition window:

  1. Click the selection tool (the selection tool).
  2. Do one of the following:
    • To select a point on a mask, click it.
    • To select an entire mask by clicking, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you click a mask. To select more masks, hold down Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS) as you click other masks.
    • To select masks by dragging, hold down Shift, click inside the mask, and draw a marquee completely around the points or masks you want to select.

    Tip iconTo use the selection tool when the pen tool is selected, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS).

To select masks in the Timeline window:

  1. Click the right-facing arrow next to a layer name to expand it.
  2. Click the right-facing 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, hold down Shift as you click the names of the first and last masks in the range.
    • To select several discontiguous masks together, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you click the names of any masks you want to include.

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

To add or remove masks or control points to or from the selection:

    Do one of the following:

    • In the Composition window, use the selection tool (the selection tool) to drag a marquee to enclose all points on all desired masks.
    • In the Layer window, press Shift as you drag a marquee over other unselected control points.
    • In either the Layer or Composition window, select a mask and press Shift as you click other unselected masks with the selection tool.

To select all masks on a layer:

    Choose Edit > Select All.