# Masking an exact shape

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masking-an-exact-shape/47884>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [April 7, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masking-an-exact-shape/47884 "2004-04-07T23:51:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rysolag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba8739/32.png) [@rysolag](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/rysolag)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masking-an-exact-shape/47884/1 "2004-04-07T23:51:27Z")

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hi

i feel like a noob…id like to mask an exact shape so i can do some cool animations that are only seen over that shape.

example:

lets say i have a big letter ‘P’ that i made in photoshop and import it into flash. i made the background transparent and saved it as a .png file. so then i place a ‘P’ on stage that i want to be visible and i place another one directly on top of it to act as the mask. when i use set mask in this situation it doesnt use the shape of a ‘P’ is uses a box of some weird dimension.

anyone know a good way to do this?  
should this work?

thanks