Mixing Advanced Gradient and Pickers

Effects > Garbage Masks > Refining the Mask >

When the subject has a mixture of fine, wispy edges and hard, clean edges, use a mix of localized keys and advanced gradients. Pickers are better for the fine edge areas and advanced gradient is sometimes better for the hard edge areas. You can set the state of each vertex to advanced gradient (pickers off) or localized key (pickers on) mode.

To convert a section of a mask from advanced gradient to pickers, select one or more vertices with no pickers and enable the Picker button. Adjust the pickers as needed.
To convert a section of a mask from pickers to advanced gradient, select one or more vertices with pickers and disable the Picker button.
To toggle selected vertices between the two modes, use the 0 (zero) hot key.

To completely remove gradient (for hard edges):

Select the mask vertices in the area of the mask border where you want to remove the gradient.
Click any one softness vertex corresponding to one of the selected mask vertices (either an inner or outer vertex).
All the corresponding inner or outer softness vertices are selected.
From the Edit Mode box, select Scale.
Click any one of the selected softness vertices and drag until the softness border is lined up with the mask border.
Repeat for the second softness border (inner or outer).

To separate the softness border from the mask border:

Click a mask vertex, and then drag to the right to move the softness vertex out.