• Adobe After Effects

  Stupid Question

  Posted by Kevin Dennis on June 16, 2006 at 4:15 pm

  How do I make simple vector shapes like triangles and squares etc?
  I know i can make a new solid and then create a mask but that seems overly complicated for a simple task.
  Why are there no drawing tools as in Illustrator?

  Please I need to make alot of shapes – there must be an easier way.

  Kevin

  Tim Kurkoski replied 19 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Steve Roberts

  June 16, 2006 at 4:26 pm

  For squares, rectangles, circles and ovals, you need to make new solid(s) and use the appropriate masking tool for each shape. (there are two – check the help). For all others, use the pen tool.

  Or make a solid and apply Radio Waves, if I recall. Change the number of sides in the polygon there.

  Or draw them in illustrator and import into AE.

  That’s it. Remember AE is a compositing and animation tool, whose original purpose was to composite and animate things that were created in other apps. As a result, it’s more limited than Photoshop or Illustrator when it comes to actually generating objects.
• 

  Kevin Dennis

  June 16, 2006 at 4:46 pm

  Thanks Steve – you confirmed what I thought was true
  It just seems with the ever expanding capabilities of AE that basic drawing tools would be included.
  Doesn’t seem like too far of a stretch for ADOBE.

  Thanks again
  Kevin
• 

  Mylenium

  June 16, 2006 at 5:37 pm

  [Kevin] “Doesn’t seem like too far of a stretch for ADOBE.”

  Actually it is. Even though nobody believes it, only now applications are beginning to share functions and code. Otherwise we would have had full support for Photoshop layer styles, blend modes and whatnot already back in AE 4.1 or something like that. As for your problem: Look into using dingbat fonts. There are tons of free fonts around containing almost all the shapes one can desire and if that fails, you can even easily built a font with some freeware/ shareware tools or e.g. Corel Draw. The beauty of this approach is that you will have a lot of control over your setup either directly with animators or some expressions.

  Mylenium

  [Pour Myl
• 

  Tim Kurkoski

  June 16, 2006 at 5:51 pm

  You can also look into the Animation Presets in After Effects 7.0. In the Shape category there are presets for about a dozen vector shapes. And, of course, you can always create your own Animation Presets for custom shapes that you use frequently.

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