Photoshop masks in After Effects

Photoshop has five different ways of masking a layer, and they do not all behave the same when a design moves into After Effects. This page shows what each one becomes, using the real output of a transfer rather than an illustration of one.

Every image below is the layer exactly as it landed in the composition, transferred with Prism from the Photoshop document shown underneath.

The source document

One Photoshop file carrying all five cases at once: a painted mask, a pen path, both together on one layer, a mask on a folder, and a shape layer. Each was pushed to After Effects in a single transfer.

Raster (pixel) layer mask Luma track matte

Raster (pixel) layer mask

The everyday Photoshop mask: painted with a brush, soft-edged, sitting in the black-and-white thumbnail next to the layer.

The layer arrives uncut, with its mask beside it as a separate grayscale layer wired up as a luma track matte. Every grey value survives, so a feathered edge stays feathered instead of turning into a hard cut. Both layers stay independent: move, scale or animate the matte and the reveal follows.

Vector mask Native AE mask (Bezier path)

Vector mask

A path drawn with the Pen or a shape tool, used to crop a layer with a clean, resolution-independent edge.

The path itself is traced and rebuilt as a real mask on the After Effects layer, editable in the Masks panel like one you drew yourself. The pixels behind it are sent whole, not pre-cut, so widening the mask in After Effects genuinely reveals more of the image rather than emptiness.

Both masks on one layer AE mask + luma matte together

Both masks on one layer

Photoshop lets a single layer carry a vector mask and a raster mask at the same time, and the two compose: the shape defines the outline, the painted mask softens or removes parts of it.

Both come across and keep composing the same way: the vector mask becomes an editable AE mask on the layer, and the raster mask rides along as its luma matte. Neither is flattened into the other, so each can still be adjusted on its own.

Mask on a group (folder) Pre-comp with the matte inside

Mask on a group (folder)

A mask attached to a folder rather than to one layer, cropping everything inside it at once. Common for framing a whole composed element.

The folder becomes a pre-composition holding the same child layers in the same order, and the group mask becomes a matte applied to that pre-comp. The nesting is preserved, so the children stay individually animatable inside it.

Shape layer Layer cut to its own shape

Shape layer

An Ellipse, Rectangle or Custom Shape. Its vector mask is not a crop laid over content, it IS the content: turn the mask off and the layer is empty.

Handled as the special case it is: the shape arrives already cut to itself, gradients, strokes and all, and no second mask is laid on top. Cutting the same outline twice is harmless while the two agree exactly, and empties the layer the moment they do not.