(9) Double Mask Technique

• effect takes place in front of the text
• for this animation we will use two instances of the same text so prepare the main stage by writing a text on a layer, then duplicate it (copy/paste on the first frame of another layer)

• now you should have 2 identical texts one over the other but on different layers
• select only the second layer (with the first text as we look), select the text, and squeeze it a little bit on the vertical axes (right click on the text and select Free Transform)
• we will speak from now on about the "normal text" layer and the "squeezed text" layer
• put the normal text under a mask; make it appear from left to right during 20 frames, then show it all during 40 frames, then make it disappear from left to right (see the second technique presented in this chapter if you don't know how)
• transform the "squeezed text" layout into a mask and leave it like this during 80 frames (the animation's length) then add a masked layer under; on it draw a small square (about the height of the text or higher and about a character long) and color it by using the linear method from the Color Panel(color defined by 3 blue points but the first and the last with 0 transparency and the middle one with no transparency-100)
• include the square in a Movie Clip and move it from left to right over the text in the first 20 frames (very important: the square has to move in front of or maybe to intersect a bit the big mask, witch shows the normal text)
• in the frames 20-40 move in reverse then for the next 20 frames as in the first frames
• in the last 20 frames the little Movie Clip containing the square will move after the big mask