Working with Shape Layers
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Lesson overview
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:
Create custom shapes.
Customize a shape’s fill and stroke.
Use path operations to transform shapes.
Animate shapes.
Snap layers into alignment.
Use the Create Nulls From Paths panel.
This lesson will take approximately an hour to complete. Download the project files for this lesson, following the instructions in the Getting Started section under “Accessing the lesson files and Web Edition,” if you haven’t already done so. As you work on this lesson, you’ll preserve the start files. If you need to restore the start files, download them from your Account page.
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PROJECT: ANIMATED ILLUSTRATION
Shape layers make it easy to create expressive backgrounds and intriguing results. You can animate shapes, apply animation presets, and connect them to other shapes to intensify their impact.
Getting started
Shape layers are created automatically when you draw a shape with any of the drawing tools. You can customize and transform an individual shape or its entire layer to create interesting results. In this lesson, you will use shape layers to create a whimsical animation.
First, you’ll preview the final movie and set up the project.
Make sure the following files are in the Lessons/Lesson04 folder on your hard disk, or download them from your Account page at www.peachpit.com now:
In the Assets folder: Background.mov
In the Sample_Movies folder: Lesson04.avi, Lesson04.mov
Open and play the Lesson04.avi sample movie in Windows Media Player or the Lesson04.mov sample movie in QuickTime Player to see what you will create in this lesson. When you are done, close Windows Media Player or QuickTime Player. You may delete the sample movies from your hard disk if you have limited storage space.
As you start After Effects, restore the default application settings. See “Restoring default preferences” on page 3.
Start After Effects, and then immediately hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (macOS) to restore default preferences settings. When prompted, click OK to delete your preferences.
Close the Start window.
After Effects opens to display a blank, untitled project.
Choose File > Save As > Save As, and then navigate to the Lessons/Lesson04/Finished_Project folder.
Name the project Lesson04_Finished.aep, and then click Save.
