Let Me See Your Mask

[ LiB ]

Previewing your nested mask effects can be time-consuming if you have to make tiny adjustments without the advantage of a real time preview. You end up going back and forth each time you make a change. That's why Flash allows you to preview your mask effect in the authoring environment. To do so, set up a mask as normal and then simply lock all the layers included in your mask. You must lock the mask layer as well as all masked layers for the preview to work correctly. After the layers are locked, you can preview the effect by playing or scrubbing through your Timeline as usual. The only difference is that now you can see your mask and how it looks without using Test Movie or Publish. Even though this function should work quite well, remember that there is no substitute for actually testing or publishing your movie. For instance, using the authoring preview will not properly show masking for embedded fonts and therefore should be used only as a time-saving guide.

[ LiB ]