Mattes inside nests
A matte track works inside a nest the same way it does on the timeline. This page covers what happens where the two meet: a clip inside a nest, nesting and un-nesting matted tracks, and transitions across them.
- Menu
- Clip ▸ NestClip ▸ Un-nest
- Keys
- ⌘G⇧⌘G
- Agent tools
nestunnest
Inside a nest
Section titled “Inside a nest”With a nest open, Track ▸ Matte works on the nest’s own tracks, and a matte cuts the track directly behind it among them.
A nest clip, the one clip that stands for a nest on the timeline, can also sit on a matte track or on a track a matte cuts:
| Where the nest clip sits | What happens |
|---|---|
| On a matte track | Its whole picture is the matte, including any matte inside it. |
| On a track cut by a matte | Every layer it draws is cut. At a soft edge, overlapping layers inside the nest show through each other. |
A clip inside a nest can come under more than one matte. Frame Job starts at the clip’s own track and works outward through each nest around it, out to the timeline:
- A matte that cuts a track on the way cuts the clip. With several, the clip shows only where all of them let it through, and at soft edges their strengths multiply.
- The first matte track it reaches, whether the clip sits on it or a nest clip around it does, makes the clip part of that matte. Nothing further out applies to it.
Two clips showing the same nest at the same moment each have their own matte.
Mattes inside nests work with shadows and reflections, at every Preview Quality and in every export.
Clip ▸ Nest keeps a track’s matte only when the track it cuts is nested with it. Select clips on both tracks and the pair carries into the nest, so the picture stays the same.
A matte nested without its target becomes an ordinary track inside the nest. Its clips draw there, so the picture changes unless the nest clip itself lands on a matte track. Undo restores it.
The nest clip goes on the front-most of the nested clips’ tracks that isn’t a matte track, which is where a matte pair’s picture was drawn. If every nested clip came from a matte track, it goes on the front-most of them, and the whole nest becomes a matte.
Un-nest
Section titled “Un-nest”Clip ▸ Un-nest lines the nest’s front-most non-matte track up with the nest clip’s track, so the picture comes back as it was. Matte tracks carried in the nest land on the tracks in front of it.
Un-nest never makes a track a matte. A carried matte clip is a matte again only if the track it lands on is one, as it is when you un-nest straight after nesting. With no track in front, or no room on it, the clip goes on a new ordinary track in front and draws as an ordinary clip.
Transitions
Section titled “Transitions”Mattes work through transitions. A dissolve between two clips on a track a matte cuts stays correct under a soft matte, because the same matte cuts both clips.
A Cross Dissolve or Zoom works differently when one of its two clips is a nest clip, or when both clips are inside a nest. Frame Job draws each side whole, with its shadows, reflections and mattes, and then mixes the two pictures, matte or not. That means:
- Layers inside one side don’t show through each other part-way through.
- A matte inside a nest clip is drawn whole, and fades once with its side.
- A Zoom treats a nest clip as one picture, zooming about the nest clip’s centre.
- Clips inside the transition draw without motion blur.
Push, slide, wipe and fade transitions aren’t mixed this way. They apply to each layer on its own.