After Effects Tutorial - Shape Tool Basics
Shapes! They're some of the cornerstones of motion graphics, and an important part of learning After Effects! Get started with the Shape Tool in this tutorial from Noble Desktop!
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Shape Layers
1. Go up to Layer - New - Shape Layer.
2. Go up to the Shape icon on the top toolbar or press Q on the keyboard to activate the Shape Tool.
3. A dropdown list of all the Shapes will appear by holding and clicking. Click on the Rectangle shape to start.
Basic Shapes
1. Click and drag on the Composition window to draw out a Rectangle. Holding down Shift will automatically constrain the shape to be a perfect square.
2. In the layer stack, toggle open Rectangle 1 and locate the Roundness property.
3. Change the value of the Roundness property to round the edges of the Rectangle.
The Rounded Rectangle option is the same as the Rectangle, but with the Roundness already turned up.
4. Delete the Rectangle.
5. Activate the Ellipse tool
6. Click and drag out an Ellipse in the Composition window. Holding down Shift will constrain the shape into a perfect circle.
7. Delete the Ellipse.
Polygon and Star
1. Select the Polygon option.
2. Click and drag out a Polygon shape in the Composition window, but do not release.
3. Pressing the left and right arrows will alter the Outer Radius of the Polygon.
4. Pressing up and down arrows will change how many sides or corners the Polygon has.
5. Toggling open the Polystar 1 options will display the Corners and Outer Radius options.
6. Delete the Polygon.
7. Activate the Polystar tool.
8. Draw out a star shape in the Composition window. Repeating steps 9 and 10 will also work for the Polystar tool.
9. Toggle open Polystar 1 options.
10. Locate the Inner Radius property.
11. Change the value to alter how “thin” the arms of the star are.
12. Alter the Points value to change how many rays the star has.
00:00 - Intro
00:30 - Shape Layer
01:12 - Rectangle
02:43 - Ellipse
03:10 - Polygon
04:37 - Star
05:41 - Fill and Stroke
06:54 - Multiple Shapes, One Layer