A Beginner's Guide to Alpha & Luma Mattes | After Effects Tutorial

A Beginner's Guide to Alpha & Luma Mattes | After Effects Tutorial

December 23, 2021
David Lugo

Using mattes is part of the groundwork for compositing. We will go over the basics of Alpha & Luma Mattes to cover best practices.

In this After Effects tutorial, we will go over the basics of mattes in After Effects; specifically Alpha & Luma Mattes.


This Beginner’s AE Tutorial Includes:

  • Introduction to channels in After Effects (RGB and Alpha)
  • The basics of the Alpha, Luma, Alpha Inverted, and Luma Inverted Matte and their application.
  • Demonstrations of uses for Alpha Matte and Luma Matte using Forest Fires and Free Portal Collections.


ActionVFX elements used:



Want to do a little refresher and work on your matte skills? Here are the links for the shots & textures used in this tutorial:


Need some more practice? Check out our other tutorial on how to create mattes in After Effects to learn how to place assets like explosions behind objects in your shot. 


Don’t waste any more time and get what you need to follow along with this tutorial. Check out our library here.

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