Masking in Director

[weezel]

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to create an effect similar to using a mask channel in Flash (ie having a channel with solid colour areas which define visibility)? I know you can either delete areas of the image or use masking inks, but this is very time and labour intensive. Is there any way to do this in director.

cheers

 

[fugigoose]

I think there is a way to do it, look under the lingo dictionary on BITMAPS or GRAPHIC SPRITES. However the whole idea of masking is backwards. Masking is what you do in languages like C++ and BASIC. It really isn't that hard to hold down ctrl and click "background transparent". This built-in function is designed to replace masking. The only reason to use masking is if you're putting pixels into a bitmap itself. But using masks with sprites is pointless. Just try to make use of the "cheats" director offers and have fun!

 

[fugigoose]

OK. Fine, masking can be OK, but its trickier than Built-in inks. TO Mask in director, make a sprite in all its colors. Next copy it and make another sprite. Using the copy as a guide, make it a black and white "mask". All the areas in white show, black don't. You can use shades of gray to make an area semi-visible. If you set the sprite to a MASK ink, it uses the cast member directly after the sprite's as a mask. Look under the mask ink in the lingo dictionary for more help. I've tried the mask thing and it frustrates me, but 50% of the time it works. LOL!