# Masking impossible when not set on first frame!?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masking-impossible-when-not-set-on-first-frame/60756>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [August 12, 2004, 8:07am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masking-impossible-when-not-set-on-first-frame/60756 "2004-08-12T08:07:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Algreco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6de8d8/32.png) [@Algreco](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Algreco)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 8:07am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masking-impossible-when-not-set-on-first-frame/60756/1 "2004-08-12T08:07:39Z")

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OK, wierd things happen to me more and more with flash.  
I have a layer with a movie clip on it (“main”) . In this movie clip I load seperate images (JPGs) into different movie clips (“holders”) in seperate levels. I also sometimes move “main” around or fade it and so on…

This is important!: I load the images into "holder"s only ONCE and swap thier depths from time to time.

Now… I wanted to add a mask on top of the “main” and guess what!.. it doesn’t work unless I put this mask on the first frame where “main” loads the pics.

What do I do? Pls help, this is really driving me crazy. ![](http://www.flash-db.com/Board/YaBBImages/cry.gif)

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masking-impossible-when-not-set-on-first-frame/60756/2 "2004-08-12T13:10:32Z")

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How about making it into a movie clip… then you can do the mask on the first frame of the movie clip?

Then just drop the movie where you want it in the main scene…

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**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masking-impossible-when-not-set-on-first-frame/60756/3 "2004-08-12T14:48:27Z")

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I actually solved the problem and you were not far at all from the solution (which is pretty good cause I spent a day thinking about it!).  
I did in fact create one movie with several masks and had to glue it on the first frame and for the entire duration of my other clip. Then I called the effect I wanted with a simple stop(); and gotoAndPlay(i) arguments.  
Thanks for answering though, and good thinking 😉