If you aren’t familiar with masks, click the link above to view the first lesson on masking. If you are, let’s move on with the lesson. Create a layer that you intend to mask, with a visible drawing or imported image. On a layer above that, draw your mask shape. For this one, have a little fun with it; make it irregular, strange, just so you can watch how it changes.
Shape Tweening a Mask
By Adrien-Luc Sanders, About.com
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Once you create a mask layer, you aren’t forced to keep the shape in that mask layer the same over the course of your animation. You can change the masked area using a shape tween so that the viewable cutout fluxes in both shape and position.
Explore Animation
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