Pen Tool & Paths in After Effects

Pen Tool (G)

Selection Tool (V)
● Double click on a stroke to see the bounding box
● Click once on a stroke to see the vertex points(anchor
points)
● Double click on the canvas to deselect

Before Using the Pen tool:

● Check the color and size of stroke and fill
● Check Rotobezier off

Remember to deselect from the current stroke/layer before

creating a new one: Double click on the timeline panel

Convert Vertex Tool (in Pen Tool): Pulls out handles to

create curves to the stroke

Modifying Shapes with Pen Tool

● adding/removing path or vertex points
● To edit the space it must be first be converted to a
bezier path
1. While the shape is selected, go to the layer
2. Click the drop down settings of the layer
3. Go to the path setting and right click
4. Select Convert to Bezier Path
5. Then go to the pen tool and choose either the
Add Vertex Tool or Delete Vertex Tool
6. Then click on the shape to modify

Remember: If you created the shape with a pen tool, you do

not need to convert it to a bezier path to modify

Fill & Stroke Effects in After Effects

Modifying Stroke of a Shape from Illustrator:
1. While the shape is selected, go to the layer
2. Click the drop down settings of the layer
3. Click the Add button at the Content setting of the layer
4. Select Stroke.
You can now adjust stroke in the usual way

To apply a dash line in a shape

1. Click the drop down settings of the layer
2. Go to the Stroke setting and open the drop down
3. Go to the Dashes setting and click the plus button to
add dashes
Reminder:
● Dash - sizes of the dashes
● Offset - changes the orientation of the dashes
*Only shows up after clicking the plus button again*
● Gap - toggles the spaces of the dashes

Adding more than one dash lines: Just click the plus
button in the Dashes setting 3x

To Change the Color of Specific Letter in Type Layer:

1. Click the drop down settings of the layer
2. Individual letter setting will appear
3. Adjust for each letter

Adding Gradients to Shapes:

1. Click the word Fill for the Fill setting to appear
(Transparent option is also found here)
2. Click on the word fill again to go to the gradient editor
3. Choose the preferred colors
4. Adjust the gradient positions with the handles on the
shape
To add more color in the gradient:
1. Go back to the Fill setting (will be gradient editor now)
2. Go to the color bar at the top of gradient editor
3. When the mouse turns into a hand, click on the color
bar
*Drag the color marker to remove*
Animating Along a Path in After Effects

Keep in mind where the anchor point of the object is before

animating.

Anchor Point Tool (Y): Click on anchor point + drag

Animating Along a Path:

1. Create the path
2. Go to the path’s layer in the timeline panel
3. Toggle the drop down Contents’ properties
4. Toggle Shape properties
5. Select the Path & Path 1
6. Copy (Ctrl + C) the properties
7. Then select the layer of the object to be animated
8. Press P
9. Select the Position property setting
10. Paste (Ctrl+V) *path should appear*
11. Adjust the keyframes to encompass the whole time
frame of the project - Select keyframes and drag

Toggle Keyframe Sequence Time: Alt + Click & Drag

Rove Keyframes: adds automatically when the curve path

value was added

Rotation Keyframes:
1. Select the layer
2. Press R to add the Rotation property
3. Click on the stopwatch then adjust the rotation value
4. Drag the time indicator to desired position in timeline
5. Click on the diamond shape on the far left of the
timeline panel at the Rotation property
6. Adjust rotation value again
7. Then add the keyframe ease settings

Animating Along a Shape Path:

*Before animating, make sure about the shape path before it
is set since it will not work properly if modified later*
1. While the shape is selected, go to the layer
2. Click the drop down settings of the layer
3. Go to the path/shape setting and right click
4. Select Convert to Bezier Path
5. Then follow the instructions on: Animating Along a
Path
 Precomposing a Shape Layer
(to edit the layer after setting it in animation)

1. Select the shape/path & object layer that was

animated
2. Right click & select Precompose
3. Precompose box will appear and check the following:
○ Move all attributes…
○ Adjust composition duration
○ Open new composition
Composition will appear in the project panel and be
opened in the timeline panel
4. Select OK. The composition layer can now be edited

To edit the object in the precomposed composition:

● Double click on the composition layer to open it

Animating on a path/shape file from Illustrator

1. Double click on the blank area of the project’s panel to
open window
2. Select the Illustrator file
*Before animating, make sure about the shape path
before it is set for animation since it will not work
properly if modified later*
3. Convert it into a shape by Right Clicking on the file
layer
4. Select Create
5. Click on the Create Shape from the Vector Layer (This
will create a new layer)
6. Go to the new shape layer
7. To further animate, Follow the steps on Animating
Along a Path
8. Edit positioning if needed:
a. While keyframes are selected
b. Move in Larger Increments: Hold Shift while
pressing arrow keys

Effects & Presets in After Effects

Creating a Solid Color Layer
1. Right-click on the gray area of the layers
2. Click on New and then select Solid
3. Click on the color box and select color
 When Placing an Effect Preset:
1. Take note of placemat of the time indicator
2. Drag preset to the selected layer

Remember:
● Project tab is next to the Effect Control Tab (adjust
projects panel if can’t be seen)
● Each preset is made up of different effects to create
the preset
● Use composition layers to preserve your original media
when using presets

Text Animation Presets in After Effects

Text animation presets are found in the presets panel
● Animation folder - Text folder

To set up type in the composition, either:

● Click once for one line of text
● Drag to create a confined area for the text

To Deselect
● Click on Selection tool
● Click off the layer in the layer panel

To Edit Type
● Double-click on the type layer
● With Selection tool: Click once to move; Double-click to
edit

Selection Tool (V)

To apply text animation preset

● Set time indicator in timeline
● Drag the preset into layer

U: To show layer details/information

Animating Type Manually

1. While the layer is selected
2. Click the stopwatch
3. Move time indicator
4. Click on the diamond next to stopwatch
5. Do the changes and animation

P: Show Position settings in layer

T: Show Opacity settings in layer
Transition Presets in After Effects
Animation presets:
● Transitions-Dissolves
● Transition-Movement
● Transition-Wipes

Keep an eye on the Effect Control Panel if you want to adjust

/reverse the transition

Sample:
Wipe master control: Go to transition completion to adjust
the transition

Invert Alpha: To switch the order of objects/media

To show Effect Control Panel:

● Select layer and Press F3
● Right-click layer. Click Effect and select Effects Controls

Color Effects in After Effects

In presets tab, go to Color Correction

Toggle or adjust the color presets at the Effect Control Panel

Adjustment Layers in After Effects

Adjustment layers - Layers in your timeline that hold effects
information that is applied to any layer below them and has
no visual appearance in the video sequence
*Keep in mind where it is placed in the layer panel*

To add adjustment layer:

1. Right-click on free space on the timeline panel
2. Click in the New
3. Select Adjustment layer
4. Then drag presets to the adjustment layer

Blending Modes in After Effects

Blending modes:
● The ability to visually blend layers together
● Located in the timeline panel
● The middle button in the bottom left of the window
should be highlighted

The Mode dropdown in the layer panel contains all the

possible blending modes

S: Shows scale property in layers

R: Shows rotate property in layers

To adjust a video/image exactly into a space

1. Go to presets panel
2. Type and search ‘corner’
3. Drag ‘Corner Pin’ to the layer
4. Adjust
Masking in After Effects

Masking
● Removing parts of a layer without destruction and
keeping the original source intact.
● Masks are applied in the media(image or video) layer
● Toggle or adjust the mask in the layer settings

Creating Mask with Shape

1. Select media layer
2. Create shape in the composition panel

To Move/Reposition Mask Layer

1. Open the layer properties
2. Then open mask properties
3. Select the mask layer
4. Move with arrow keys ( Faster: Shift + arrow keys)

To Change Size or Shape

With mask layer selected
Double-click on the path with the selection tool
Adjust

Duplicate (Ctrl + D)

How to Mask with the Pen Tool

1. Deselect from any layers
2. With the pen tool(G) draw the shape you want
○ Make sure the fill is has no color
○ Use Conver Vertex Tool(in the pen tool panel) to
curve any lines
3. Precompose the video
○ Right-click on the video layer
○ Select Precompose (Check Move All… and
uncheck open new composition)
○ Click OK
 4. While the video is selected, adjust until satisfactory
(use all needed property options
5. Then Selection tool(V)
If the media was adjusted after drawing the shape.
Precompose again the media layer. (Check Move all… &
Adjust Composition, Uncheck open new comp…)
6. Go to shape layer & copy path property
7. Go to and select the video layer
8. With pen tool(G), Click on the video in the composition
panel
9. Paste
10. Toggle down video composition layer and go to the
mask property
11. Go to the dropdown & select Add

How to make mask with paths from Illustrator

1. Open Illustrator file
2. Select the path
3. Paste on the media layer in AE

Animate a Shape Layer Mask In After Effects

How to mask shape layer:

1. Go to Layer tab above
2. Select Mask (Ctrl+Shift+N)
3. Find the new bounding box on the layer element in the
Composition Panel
4. Double-click on the box and adjust size
5. Go to the Mask property in the Layer
6. Change to Subtract from the dropdown menu next to
the name of the mask property

To Duplicate Mask: Select mask property and Ctrl+D

Toggle Guides: Ctrl + ;

Setting end of the composition: N
 Masking Text Layers
1. Select text layer
2. Go to Shape Tool & select Shape
3. Drag & create shape over the type
4. Go to mask property
5. Change to Subtract from the dropdown menu next to
the name of the mask property

Track Mattes in After Effects