Two simple masking questions

[Jkoseattle]

I am gradually revealing a static pen & ink doodle (imported image) as if it were being drawn. I am doing this by creating shapes I use as masks and moving them over the doodle. This seems to be working so far, though I wonder if there is a better way. I'm trying out with a relatively simple doodle, and it's a lot of work. I know that soon I will need to do much more complex doodles, and it seems like I'm going to be creating dozens of little mask shapes and moving them over little bits of it - painstaking! Is there a better way to create the effect of doodles being drawn?

EDIT: I just learned about the stroke exposure tool, which is yet another Pro-only option. I've been working with Moho for just a few days, and already have learned of four features thus far that I don't have that I wanted. I understand the need for SM to make money, but I'm really really disappointed by this. I have been working with Photoshop Elements for years and it took a very long time before I ran into anything I wanted to do but couldn't because I didn't have the full version. Here I am a week in, haven't really animated anything at all yet, and I'm getting blocked by "Pro only" features over and over. Sadly, I may ask for a refund.

Also, while I am building the animation, I am continually having to turn masking on and off. On so I can see the result, then off again so that I can actually see the shapes I'm working with! I assume there's some option somewhere such as "Mask during playback only" or "Don't mask while editing" so that I can work efficiently but then have the masking work when I playback. Is there?

[synthsin75]

It's not that you can't do what you want, it's that you can't do it as EASILY as with Pro. Like you said, you can animate masks manually. Just depends on if your animating time is worth more than the cost to upgrade.