Creating mattes in Adobe Illustrator

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by Mark Simpson, JAM Digital, Redondo Beach, California, USA ©2001 by Mark Simpson. All rights are reserved.Used at CreativeCow.net by kind permission of the author.

ARTICLE FOCUS: Mark Simpson shows users how to create mattes in Adobe Illustrator for use in Adobe After Effects. If you're trying to do Mark's tutorial 'Animating Skies and Writing Text With Light!' but don't know how to use Illustrator, then this little 'sub-tutorial' is for you. Even if you're not doing Mark's tutorial, this is a handy tip to know.

This is pretty short...

.

Step One: First make a rectangle 720x480 and fill it solid black, next make a duplicate of this and fill it solid white. Place them side by side (use coordinates in the transform tab to get it exact). Save the whole thing as your half matte file.


White half is shown as stroked with black for illustration
purposes only. Your matte shouldn't be stroked.



Step Two: For the bar, create a rectangle 1440x480 and fill it solid black. Then create a second rectangle 10x480 and fill it solid white. Use the bring to front command to mae sure it is in front of the black rectangle (if not already). Then select both rectangles (control>A), and use the align tools too center them to each other. Save the whole thing as your bar file.

Now return to 'Animating Skies and Writing Text With Light!' tutorial.

---Mark Simpson is a leader in the Adobe After Effects COW. Would you like to know more about Mark and see other articles written by him? Click here.

Visit Creative Cow's website and forums if you got here by direct link to this article...

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