After Effects Radio Waves FX Initial Size

Question

My business partner and I are working on our company's portfolio, we decided to add some animations in order to make it more fun. We are really new to After Effects but we both learn quickly and we have a big Flash background knowledge from the good old days.

As we started with our first element to animate we already encountered an obstacle, when adding the radio wave effect we cant make it start from a desired size, we've seen many videos using masks to achieve it but we failed to make them work. Have in mind that the mouse shape has no background at all, just a border, and we'd like to keep it transparent if possible.

Is there a simple way of achieving it?

Answer 1

Generate radio waves on a solid, adjust settings so they're looking appropriate.

Drag the time cursor forward until the waves have expanded to the point where you want them to start.

Cut your layer using the alt + left square bracket ( alt + [ ) Drag your layer left until it is at the beginning of your comp.

Make a solid layer that goes between your radio waves layer and your mouse image. Mask the solid to the same size as your mouse image. Set the Track Matte on your radio waves layer to "Alpha Inverted"