Luma Mattes in Photoshop + After Effects

Description

**This tutorial will show you how to create Luma Mattes in Photoshop and then import and animate in Adobe After Effects CC 2025.

After Effects User Guide Course:
https://aeuserguide.com

Effects Used:
Turbulent Displace
Noise

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Gear I Use:

https://mikemurphy.co/resources


To try or buy Adobe After Effects CC 2025:
https://mikemurphy.co/adobe (affiliate link)

Terrapin Textures:
https://terrapintextures.com

⭕️ Check out my Domestika Course on Adobe Audition:
https://mikemurphy.co/domestika

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro: About The Tutorial
00:20 Sample Animation
00:40 What Are Luma Mattes?
00:53 White vs. Black Values
01:29 Set Track Matte
02:01 Invert Luma Matte
02:24 Black & White Luma Matte
02:56 Black Hides Layer Visibility
03:27 Time Reverse Keyframes
03:50 How To Create Luma Matte in Photoshop
04:15 Set Frame Rate (Photoshop)
04:33 Trim Clips
04:49 Set Black & White Color (D)
05:12 Brush + Opacity Trick
05:50 Review of Photoshop Process
06:21 New Video Group Trick
07:05 File…Export…Render Video
07:42 Import Luma Matte to After Effects
08:02 Enable Time Remapping
08:39 Set Luma Matte
09:08 Time Reverse Keyframes
09:25 Turbulent Displace
09”45 Add Noise

**Software Used:
**Adobe After Effects CC 2025 (Click To Try or Buy)
Adobe Photoshop CC 2025 (Click To Try or Buy)

How To Create Luma Mattes in Adobe Photoshop CC 2025:

1. Create New Document (1920 x 1080)
2. Go to ‘Windows’ menu and click on ‘Timeline’
3. Click ‘Create Video Timeline’
4. Click on Hamburger Menu (3 Horizontal Lines) to the top right of Timeline
5. Click on ‘Set Timeline Frame Rate’ to 24 fps
6. Set Clip to 4 frames
7. Duplicate Frame to have a total of 7 layers
8. Set Color swatches to Black & White using keyboard shortcut D
9. Choose a brush
10. Leave bottom layer all white
11. Go to next layer and brush on a little
12. Go to next layer above and brush on more
13. Repeat on all layers adding more brush strokes on each layer
14. The last layer should be all black

How To Export Video from Photoshop:

1. Go to File Menu
2. Click on ‘Export’
3. Click on ‘Render Video’
4. Enter Title
5. Choose Destination
6. Select ‘Adobe Media Encoder’ or ‘PNG Sequence’
7. Select H.264
8. 1920 x 1080
9. Click on Render

How To Import Luma Matte from Photoshop to After Effects:

1. Open After Effects
2. Drag Photoshop Luma Video to Project Panel of After Effects
3. Create New Composition (1920 x 1080, 24fps, 10 secs)
4. Drag Luma Matte Video on Timeline
5. Right Click and select ‘Time…Enable Time Remapping’
6. Adjust keyframes to change speed
7. Add footage Layers

How To Set Luma Matte in After Effects:

1. Right-click on header and select Columns…Modes
2. Select Footage Layer
3. Click on pickwhip next to Track Mattes
4. Drag to Luma Matte layer and release to hide visibility of Luma layer
5. Tick the box to select ‘Luma Matte’
6. Tick the box to Invert ‘Luma Matte’
7. Tap Spacebar to Preview