Create an Arrow or Pointer preset for After Effects

Here’s a really quick way to use Shape Layers to make an arrow preset you can use to point to anything in Adobe After Effects. There are a couple of expressions, but it’s straight-forward and once you’ve built your preset, you’ll always have an arrow / pointer / thing you can use to draw people’s attention.

Preset Download: https://bit.ly/2DBtxOf

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Expressions used:

Put this one in the Path:
Arrow=effect(“Arrow head”)(“Point”);
Width = effect(“Arrowhead width”)(“Slider”);
Length = effect(“Arrowhead height”)(“Slider”);
createPath(points = [Arrow, [Arrow[0]-Length,Arrow[1]+Width], [Arrow[0]-Length,Arrow[1]-Width]], inTangents = [], outTangents = [], isClosed = true)

This one goes in the Path’s transform rotation:
pointA = effect(“Arrow head”)(“Point”);
pointB = effect(“End point”)(“Point”);
a = pointA[0] – pointB[0];
b = pointA[1] – pointB[1];
switcher = 0; if (b < 0) {switcher = -180};
if (b == 0) {
degree = 90
} else {
degree = -radiansToDegrees(Math.atan(a/b))
}
degree + 90 + switcher

Graham Quince
Halifax, UK

I mainly work in compositing, 3D modelling and programming, but nothing at a broadcast level. I’ve used the Adobe suite for 20 years.

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