# Gradiant Mask
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720
**Category:** flash
**Created:** [October 22, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720 "2003-10-22T21:03:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sintax321](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/sintax321)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/1 "2003-10-22T21:03:17Z")
I want to have a Gradiant Mask animate over an image. So i made a square and filled it with white. I added a liner gradiant and Alpha faded on of the colors to 0. SO i have my nice faded square which to make a mask out of.
Problem when i make the gradiant square layer a mask it just makes a big square the size of the whole gradiant square. It doesn’t apear faded at all. Does anyone know how i can do this effect?
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/2 "2003-10-22T21:08:07Z")
you can’t make a mask a gradient. it uses vectors… and it doesn’t work…
in real fancy ultra high tech speak…
😃
ya’ll can’t have a gradient mask… (now watch that snot-nosed Ahmed come in here and make me look silly)…
Rev 
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/3 "2003-10-22T21:13:21Z")
I hope he does.
Not to make u look bad but i Just want to see what the mind of his comes up with.
Well maybe to make you look bad too:beam:
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/4 "2003-10-22T21:51:27Z")
it’s okay to revel in the upstaging of others…
😃
Rev 
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/5 "2003-10-22T21:54:15Z")
You can’t. Masks go by shape and shape only, so alpha settings don’t count for anything. Your best bet is to (as you did in the first place) make a fading gradient that is the same color as your background color, of course however, this won’t work well with non-solid bg colors.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/6 "2003-10-22T22:04:18Z")
Nobody ahs any good news for me today huh. I guess i should get on learing affter effects.
Thanks a lot guys…thanks for nothing lol:D
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/7 "2003-10-22T22:05:16Z")
Hey, thank Macromedia for their picky masks 😛
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/8 "2003-10-22T22:05:56Z")
What about if you made a gradient mask from vectors, what I mean is start with a solid block then ‘recreate’ the pixels in vector line by drawing tiny square boxes line by line and removing some the ‘pixels’ as you go, like a chessboard. Which is essentially what a gradiend mask in Photoshop is.
It would be crude and make your eyes hurt but might work depending on what kind of effect you want.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/9 "2003-10-22T22:11:23Z")
I see someone here has never done pixel art in Flash :trout:
Besides, I don’t really think that will portray an accurate fade.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/10 "2003-10-22T22:18:55Z")
Yay!!!
You can’t do it… I mean I was right!
that’s twice this year…
😃
Rev 
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 10:25pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/11 "2003-10-22T22:25:28Z")
the only way to do it is how lsot says and have your background the same color as the fade starting color otherwise your f@c\
### Author:  [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2003, 11:23pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/gradiant-mask/33720/12 "2003-10-22T23:23:51Z")
I have seen work arounds for this, something along the lines of creating multiple instances of the mask, what you end up with is a huge file, for something that doesn’t look that great.
But there isn’t a way to do it in one click.
I will see if I can find that file on how this is done.