This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creating custom shapes
You can use the five shape tools to create a wide variety of shapes. However, the real power in using shape layers is that you can draw any shape and manipulate it in a myriad of ways.
Drawing a shape with the Pen tool
You’ll use the Pen tool to draw a shape that resembles the bottom of a flowerpot. You’ll also animate its color so that the flowerpot is dark at the beginning of the scene, but it gets lighter as the sky lightens.
Make sure no layers are selected in the Timeline panel, and then go to 1:10.
Select the Pen tool (
) in the Tools panel.In the Composition panel, click an initial vertex, and add three more to draw a shape that resembles the bottom of a flowerpot, as in the illustration. Click again in the initial vertex to close the shape.
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When you create the first vertex, After Effects automatically adds a shape layer to the Timeline panel.
Select Shape Layer 1, press Enter or Return, and change the layer’s name to Base of Flowerpot. Press Enter or Return to accept the new name.
With the Base of Flowerpot layer selected, click the Fill Color box in the Tools panel, and select a dark brown color (we used R=62, G=40, B=22).
Click the word Stroke in the Tools panel to open the Stroke Options dialog box. Select the None option, and then click OK.
Expand the Base of Flowerpot layer, and then expand the Contents, Shape 1, and Fill 1 properties.
Click the stopwatch (
) next to the Color property to create an initial keyframe.Go to 4:01, click the Fill Color box, and change the fill color to a lighter brown. (We used R=153, G=102, B=59.) Then click OK.
Hide all layer properties. Press F2 or click an empty area in the Timeline panel to deselect all layers.
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