# Masks behaving badly **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [September 17, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masks-behaving-badly/239002 "2007-09-17T22:02:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gamemaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gamemaker](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/gamemaker)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/masks-behaving-badly/239002/1 "2007-09-17T22:02:22Z")
I have encountered a perplexing problem trying to mask some dynamically loaded content. Basically I have a MC called list\_area. To list\_area I add a bunch of list\_items which are custom classes containing some textfields with content determined by XML. This works just fine. But I want to mask this list and I cannot figure out how to do it for the life of me. No matter how I try 1. adding a mask on the main scene, masking the list\_area MC 2. adding a mask within list\_area and adding the list\_items into a MC beneath it 3. using code to mask the list\_area or 4. using code to mask each individual list\_item I encounter the same problem which is that nothing shows up beneath the mask. Yet if I manually write text inside list\_area or add a drawing object or anything else, the mask will reveal them properly… or if I add a sprite or textfield within the code and add them to list\_area they display just fine. Anything else I add is revealed by the mask…it is only these custom classes (the list\_items) I am adding that do not appear. It’s infuriating. Does anyone have any idea why the content from these custom classes does not appear beneath the mask? It’s just 3 textFields (with fonts properly embedded) I arranged in a certain way, made into a movieclip, and then made accessible through code by selecting “Export for Actionscript” in the linkage window… If you can figure this out for me without any code to work with you are a genius and my savior! Either that or I am just an idiot… Thanks Alex