Exercise 6 · Through the Type

Project 3 · Composite Shot · Week 8 · Track Mattes · ~45 min

Practice goal: Reveal a fill through alpha and luma track mattes, then put footage inside type, animate it, stack mattes, and compare Set Matte.

Set up: New project. A footage/photo “fill”, bold text, and a shape/gradient you make in AE.

Steps

  1. New composition, 1920×1080, 30 fps, 5 s; name it Main; add a footage/photo “fill” layer.
  2. Above it, draw a shape layer (ellipse) — the matte; enable the Track Matte column and set the fill's TrkMat to “Alpha Matte” of the shape.
  3. Switch to “Alpha Inverted Matte” to flip it; compare.
  4. Make a grayscale gradient layer as a matte and set a fill to “Luma Matte” — brightness drives transparency; try “Luma Inverted” to compare.
  5. Now put footage inside type: create bold, large text (one word) above a footage clip and set the footage's TrkMat to “Alpha Matte” of the text — footage plays inside the letters.
  6. Add a contrasting background layer below.
  7. Animate the text (Scale up or a Position drift); the footage-in-type follows; Easy Ease.
  8. Stack a second matte: pre-compose footage + text, then add a wipe-shape track matte over the pre-comp for a reveal.
  9. Compare Set Matte: on a separate fill, apply Effect ▸ Channel ▸ Set Matte and pick the text as the source — it needn't be directly above.
  10. Note when each is better (track matte = adjacency/simple; Set Matte = reuse one matte on many layers).
  11. Press U to check keyframes; add a readable hold, then save & render.

Free tutorials & references

Done when

A fill is revealed through alpha and luma mattes, footage plays inside animated type, and you've stacked a matte and compared Set Matte.

Files

Pittman_Ex06_ThroughTheType.aep → render Pittman_Ex06_ThroughTheType.mov · versions Pittman_Ex06_ThroughTheType_001.aep

This drill is your in-class activity for the week; it ladders directly into the project. Naming: see the course's file-naming convention.