Next, drag a polygon shape onto your composition. Just click and hold your mouse button over the triangle in the bottom corner of the Rectangle tool. You can modify the path of any shape to change the shape. For example, let's use the Polygon tool. It is located with the Rectangle tool. Now you can set the opacity of the new shape layer, as well as adjust its other properties. Now do the same thing for the black color stop on the right. Then, pick a color in the Color Picker box. Start with the white color stop on the left. You can drag on it to move it.

Since the Shape Fill Color dialogue box is self-explanatory and just like the Color Picker in other Adobe programs, let's talk about the Gradient Editor dialogue box. If you chose radial gradient, you will then see the Gradient Editor.ĭepending on the gradient you chose, you might also see the Shape Fill Color dialogue box. Next, click the colored box beside the word FILL in the Tools panel. You can also choose a solid color if you want. You will then see the Fill Options dialogue box. To apply a gradient fill to your rectangle, go to the Tools panel again. Click the word FILL. NOTE: Make sure all layers are deselected before you use the Rectangle tool. Otherwise, After Effects will draw a mask for the selected layer instead of a shape in a new shape layer. If you look at the Timeline panel, you will see a shape layer has been added. Next, click in your composition in the Composition panel. To draw a rectangle shape, click on the Rectangle tool in the Tools panel. It is circled below.

In addition, you can also apply animation presets to shapes much in the same way we did with text in the last section. There are five shape tools available in After Effects. These tools are the Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Star, Ellipse, and Polygon. Once you draw a shape, you can format the shape by adding stroke and fill colors, as well as linear and radial gradients. This layer is called a shape layer. Once you create a shape layer, you can specify the fill and stroke color, the transparency, and the gradient. You can also animate the shapes.Ĭreate wiggly shapes to create things such as waveforms

Whenever you use a drawing tool to create a shape, a new layer is created. You can use the drawing tools in After Effects to draw different shapes.

After effects text stroke animation