Refining and combining masks

Object masks and vector masks have the same refinement controls.

It softens the edge of the mask. You can adjust this from the Effect Controls panel or, in the case of vector masks, from the UI in the Program Monitor. Drag the handle away from the feathering guide to increase the feathering or toward the feathering guide to decrease it.

It controls the transparency of the mask. This is useful to dial in the strength of the mask. The slider controls the mask opacity. At a value of 100, the mask is opaque and blocks out any underlying area of the layer. As you lower the opacity, more of the area under the mask becomes visible.

It can grow or shrink the mask. This is especially useful on Object Masks to help clean up the edge. Shrinking by a few pixels can often remove an unwanted fringe. Positive values move the borders outward, and negative values move them inward.

You can protect areas that you want to leave as-is by masking them and select the Inverted checkbox to apply effects to the unmasked areas.

It combines the masks together. Any number of Object Masks and Vector Masks can be combined to create complex masks. The Blend Mode of a mask operates on the full result of all the masks that came above it in the stack.