After Effects Editing Mask Path (moving individual points)

Alright, this was frustrating the hell out of me - especially considering most posts and forum responses had the right idea but were missing one key element.

The issue is in Adobe After Effects and Masks.

Here's the setup

• You have some layer (shape, picture, footage, whatever)
• You add a layer Mask
• You edit the Mask over time by setting keyframes on the Mask Path property

The issue

• Anytime you try to move a single point on the Mask Path - the entire mask path moves - regardless of if you have the Pen Tool or Selection Tool selected

So yes - most posts ands forum responses I've seen talk about - "Make sure you have the Pen Tool" selected - so that way you're in path editing mode and then you should be able to move the individual points. I tried ad nausea and I couldn't get this to work.

Solution

• It all had to do with what was selected in the timeline. I had the Mask selected (that is, the Mask property that shows up when you twirl down the layer itself) - which is wrong. This was the issue.
• Once I selected the layer itself and NOT the mask, I could then select the Pen Tool and edit the points individually.

Kind of strange - but yeah - select the Layer and not its mask if you want to edit the Mask points individually. And yes - use the Pen Tool.

(note this is in Adobe After Effects CS6 - not sure about other versions).

Hope this helps out some peeps.