Circles in After Effects

Making circles in After Effects seems like a trivial exercise, but there are a ton of approaches to their various forms in design.

Circles come in movement and repetition, from expressions & scripts, as Shapes, masks, particle effects like Particle World, Bubbles, Ball Action, from the Circle effect, CC Sphere, Polar Coordinates, Wave World, Radio Waves, halftone effects (Card Dance, Particular, effects), and so on.

A few of the many circle-related tutorials and resources for After Effects are sampled in Circles in After Effects on PVC.

CopyMask2Layer: a new AE script

CopyMask2Layer is a new After Effects script at AE Scripts:

When you copy a mask from one layer to another it often changes its position. With CopyMask2Layer you can copy masks while keeping them perfectly in place - even if the layers are moving and if the mask path is keyframed.

The demo video will immediately answer the questions you have in mind!

CMG Hidden Gems: Masks, Stencils, Track Mattes

Chris & Trish Meyer’s series of tips, tricks, gotchas, factoids, and shortcuts continue with tips on Masking, Track Mattes, and Stencils in CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 10 – All About Masking, CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 11 – All About Track Mattes, and CMG Hidden Gems: Chapter 12 – Stencils and the “T” (the Transparency switch).

For additional handy info and tutorials, see Track mattes and traveling mattes, Stencil modes, and Preserve underlying transparency in After Effects Help and The return of the Set Matte filter at AE Portal.

If you don't know already, check out the tip on hitting the Arrow keys while drawing Rounded Rect mask or Polygon/Star shapes. For some handy info, see the sections on creating and working with masks in After Effects Help, and posts tagged mask at AE Portal.