This tutorial will teach you how to use masks in Flash. Mask is an object that, as its name suggests, masks another object. It's an extremely useful tool for everyone using Flash, which you will see for yourself soon. Let's first have look at how to make a mask:
TIP: If masks are no novelty for you, what you might find interesting are some cool examples of mask uses. Scroll down the text a bit since they are below!
So, let's get started with creating a simple mask
i. Open your Flash and create a new Flash document.
ii. Draw a circle with the Oval Tool ( press O). Make sure that the circle is on the first layer.
[ A circle like this should be on your stage. You can make it whatever color you like :-) ]
iii. Next, create another layer, beneath the first one, and draw a square with the Rectangle Tool (press "r" on the keyboard). Drag the square with your cursor so that it's overlapping the circle.
iv. Finally, right-click on the first layer and choose Mask in the dropdown menu that will appear.
[ click on Mask in the dropdown menu ]
v. To see the effect, either play the animation (Ctrl + Enter) or lock both layers by clicking on the small lock symbol.
[ click on the lock symbol to see the result of your mask ]
It's ready! It wasn't too difficult to make a mask, was it? But wait! That's not the end of the tutorial! As I've already said, below you will find some cool mask examples. I think it good idea to have a look at them.
Examples
(1)
[ the gleam that runs along the letters is only visible on the letters]
How to create that?
i. Create a new Flash document, set the background to any color but white, the framerate to some 20 fps, and write something with your Text Tool, for example LashF.com.
ii. Select the text and press Ctrl + B to break it apart. If you roll your mouse over the text, you will see that it can now be changed more freely. For example, we can select some part of it and delete or replace it. We say that it is now fill.
iii. Make another layer, copy the text (Ctrl + C) and Paste it in Place (Ctrl + Shift + V). Make sure that this layer is above the first one.
iv. Make yet another layer ( this one should be in the middle of the other two layers). Take Rectangle Tool (R) and draw a white rectangle (make the alpha 80) like the one you can see below. Select the rectangle and press F8 to convert it to a Movieclip. This rectangle is going to be the gleam that runs along the letters.
v. Right-click on the top layer and find Mask in the dropdown menu.
We now only need to make the rectangle (gleam) slide along the letters.
vi. To create such an effect, click on the 10-th frame of the layer in the middle and press F6 to create a keyframe. Do the same operation with the other two layers. Then, click on the layer in the middle and shift the white rectangle to the other end of the text, preferably not touching the text.
[ this is how your timeline should look at this point ]
vii. Right-click anywhere between 1-st and 10-th frame on the layer in the middle, and make it a tween (using tweens).
viii. Press Ctrl + Enter to play the movie.
(2)
[ the pupil is not visible behind the eyes lids ]
(3)
[ find a picture on the internet and put it on the maskee layer to receive a cool text effect ]
I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and learned something too. Also, I encourage you to have a look at other interesting tutorials at lashf.com!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers
