# Creating Clipping Mask Effects

With Toon Boom Studio, you can create masks that allow part of an image to appear through a shape. To create this clipping mask effect, you must create a vector shape and attach it to the effect’s mask parameter. Then, you attach the images you want to see through the mask to the clipping element.

Centerline strokes cannot be masks; only Brush strokes and painted areas can be masks.

When displaying the clipping mask, the composite elements are rendered into one layer. The top element inside the clip establishes the layering order with other elements in the scene and the mask layer establishes the foreground/background property of the entire rendered effect. To change the depth of the clipping effect, you must move the top element in the clip.

You can mask drawing or image element types. You can also resize, rotate or move your masks dynamically with pegs, like you do other element types.

To create a clipping mask effect:

1. Create a drawing element and draw the shape you want to use for the mask, and fill the regions you want to use to show the layers below the mask. This is the opposite of the concept of the party mask because it is actually the areas that are filled with paint that will show through the bottom layers.

2. Select Element > Add > Clipping Effect. Two element layers appear in the Timeline, the Clipping Effect layer and the Mask layer. The Mask layer is a parameter of the Clipping Effect layer and as a result you cannot move, rename or delete it.

3. Drag the drawing element you created to be the mask on top of the Mask layer. When it is attached, the drawing element is indented below the Mask layer.

You can add multiple elements to the Mask layer. However, only the top visible drawing element will be used as the mask. Other drawing elements will be ignored in the calculation of the mask.

If you only want the mask to hide a part of the clip for a segment of the clip’s duration, you must create a large drawing that will reveal the full clip for the duration of its exposure. If there is no drawing in the mask layer, then Toon Boom Studio assumes that all of the holes in the mask are filled, and that there is nothing that you want to see beneath it.

4. Drag the elements you want to mask on top of the Clipping Effect layer. The masked elements are indented below the Clipping Effect layer.

| You can disable the display of mask effects in the Camera View windows. Select View > Disable All Effects. Effects will export regardless if you have this option selected. In the Timeline window, you can also hide the mask layers beneath a Clipping Effect element to make it easier to work with elements. To hide the mask layers in all Clipping Effect elements, select View > Effects > Hide All Effects Parameters. To show the mask layers in the selected Clipping Effect element, View > Effects > Effect Parameters. To show the mask layers in all Clipping Effect elements, select View > Effects > Show All Effects Parameters.

See Also
Animating Elements with Pegs
Previewing a Scene Interactively
Additive and Multiplicative Color Changes
Modifying Masks