--- title: "Masks" source: /gc-surge/admin/masks locale: en updated: 2026-10-08 --- A mask marks part of a camera view so that GC Surge stops watching it. The **Mask Editor** describes its own job as “Draw timed or camera masks on the preview to control which areas are monitored.” Use it when a fixed part of the frame keeps producing alarms you do not care about — a swaying tree, a neighbour’s driveway, a busy public pavement, a flickering light. Covers: Timed Mask and Camera Mask, Opening the Mask Editor, Drawing a Mask, Editing Shortcuts, Saving and Removing a Mask, Finding Masked Events. ## **Timed Mask and Camera Mask** The editor offers two kinds of mask, and turning one on turns the other off — a camera uses one or the other, never both at once. **Camera Mask** is the one enabled when the editor opens. - **Timed Mask** — a temporary mask for a situation that will pass, such as contractors working in view for the afternoon. Turning it on reveals a **Select Timer** dropdown listing three durations, in this order: **1 Hour**, **2 Hours**, **30 Minutes**. The mask lifts by itself when the timer runs out, so nobody has to remember to undo it. - **Camera Mask** — a permanent mask for something that will always be in shot, such as a road at the edge of the frame. It stays until somebody clears it. ![Screenshot 2026-07-20 104811-20260720-074812.png](/api/media/file/Screenshot-2026-07-20-104811-20260720-074812.png) ## **Opening the Mask Editor** 1. Open **Video Search** from the sidebar. 2. Open any event from the camera you want to mask. 3. Click **Mask** below the clips (represented by the globe/grid icon). The editor opens on a still from that event, so you are drawing against the exact scene that raised the alarm. ![image-20260722-085333.png](/api/media/file/image-20260722-085333.png) ## **Drawing a Mask** The editor has two drawing modes, and the button at the top left switches between them — it is labelled with the mode you will move to, so it reads **Pixel View** while you are drawing polygons and **Polygon View** once you are in the grid. - **Polygon view** — draw free-form shapes that follow the thing you are covering. Each polygon appears in blue with a handle on every corner, so you can reshape it afterwards. Two extra tools appear in this mode: **Undo** steps back through your changes, and **Smooth** tidies a rough outline. - **Pixel view** — a red grid covers the whole frame and you switch individual cells on and off. This is the quicker choice for a broad rectangular area such as a whole upper corner of the view. ![image-20260722-085414.png](/api/media/file/image-20260722-085414.png) **Clear** in the toolbar removes everything you have drawn and starts the mask again. - **Polygon view:** - **Pixel view** ![image-20260722-085454.png](/api/media/file/image-20260722-085454.png) ## **Editing Shortcuts** The information icon in the toolbar opens a **Shortcuts** panel listing every action available while editing: | Action | Shortcut | | --- | --- | | Undo last change | Ctrl + Z | | Delete selected polygons | Delete | | Select all polygons | Ctrl + A | | Invert selection | Ctrl + I | | Add a new polygon | Click | | Add a vertex on an edge | Double-click edge | | Remove a vertex | Double-click vertex | | Move polygons or vertices | Drag | | Box-select polygons | Drag empty area | | Add or remove from selection | Shift + click | ## **Saving and Removing a Mask** Click **Save** to apply the mask to the camera. The button beside it depends on what is already there: it reads **Cancel** when the camera has no mask yet and closes the editor without changing anything, and **Clear** when a mask already exists, which removes it. > Mask a region only when you are sure nothing worth an alarm can happen there. A mask that covers a doorway or a boundary line will silence real intrusions as well as nuisance movement. ## **Finding Masked Events** In [Video Search](/admin/video-search), the **Overlay** filter in the **Additional filters** panel narrows the list to alarms carrying a particular visual analysis overlay — **Heatmap**, **Mask**, or **History Mask**. The **Mask** button in the event detail panel turns the overlay on and off while you review a clip, so you can see what the camera was ignoring at the time. ![image-20260722-085848.png](/api/media/file/image-20260722-085848.png)