Brian Maffitt, Chief Creative Officer
Total Training, Inc.
Let's say we want to jazz up a text element by filling it with an Artbeats video layer. An easy way to accomplish this is with a track matte, also called a traveling matte, and it's really easy to do inside Adobe After Effects.
We have a project that looks like this: an Artbeats bubble layer beneath some green text:
Figure 1
This project also has a background color, red, which we'll see in a moment. To have the bubble layer "borrow" the transparency of the "Mad Science" text, just select "Alpha Matte-Mad Science" from the TrkMat popup, here:
Figure 2
This works great for filling the text with bubbles, and by default, AE turns off the visibility of the Track Matte layer:
Figure 3
...and most people leave it at that. But you don't HAVE to leave the Track Matte layer turned off. We can turn it back on, which of course obscures our bubble layer with green text:
Figure 4
...but now we can take advantage of Adobe After Effects' powerful blend modes for a cool effect. Change the blend mode for the text layer to "color" instead of "normal", and now the text layer both determines the transparency AND the tint of the underlying layer:
Figure 5
A quick, efficient way to design a cool, colorized element using Adobe After Effects and Artbeats Stock Footage!
