Distribute Layers in After Effects EVENLY along ANY Shape Layer Path | Tutorial

How can you distribute layers evenly along any shape layer path? It's done in a click! Well, not quite. But almost.
In this After Effects 2020 tutorial I'm gonna show you how to place objects evenly along a shape layer path. You can even animate the shape layer paths and the layers stay distributed.
At every time you can add more objects. And the layers distribute themselves automatically.
You just need a little after effects expressions code.
Enjoy watching!
#aftereffects #animation #motiondesign

[@EvgeniyShmukler]

This one is my long-awaited decision - thank you very much.

[@chetanrokade4653]

You are a true genius man!! i am in love with your work!!

[@retro_manni]

Just brilliant! Such a time saver. Thank you

[@NnWnN]

Just wanted to hop in and say your tutorials are insanely helpful, Michael! Only discovered your channel about a week ago but keep them coming!

[@MichaelPonch]

Thanks, Nick 😎. That’s encouraging

[@hoho3t]

thank you very much for your unique skill and effort to make such an awesome tutorial for us all!

[@JoseWolff]

amazing, thank you! - and just want to add in case it helps anyone: at some point I was having problems with the distribution and solved it by deleting other layers that were present in the comp, probably has to do with the numbering of the layers with the expression. Then once this arrangement of objects was done as intended I used this comp as a precomp to use with the other layers.

[@ulyssesoliveira1106]

Great tutorial, pal. Thank you

[@gaston.]

excellent info! thanks !

[@BooneLovesVideo]

Man, such a cool technique. Thank you so much for sharing!

[@MichaelPonch]

Thanks, man 😎. Pleasure to share it with you!

[@glitterandmotion]

Exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks!

[@MichaelPonch]

Welcome 😊

[@gopoo]

Thank you Michael! Unique tutorials. Great explanation as well!

[@MichaelPonch]

Thanks man 😎. Appreciate it.

[@AmigoSecret0]

100/(thisComp.numLayers-2) (index-1)*(100/(thisComp.numLayers-2)) Thank you, Michael! Very helpful!

[@texmex9306]

AWESOME !!!

[@user-ht9do7yv6q]

Thank you for sharing.pretty idea.

[@majidirani4663]

Your teaching is GREAT! Thank YOU so much!

[@MichaelPonch]

Thanks, man 😎

[@donebydoris]

Love it and will definitely try it out and animating myself dancing, zipping off my jacket and illuminated by millions of little fireflies dancing in a well proportional line around me 😁

[@MichaelPonch]

I want to see it animated 😉

[@catsanddogs939]

sir just love

[@ghoulvfx7040]

Yo i wanted this thanks

[@chathurangarajakaruna1207]

Thanks a lot 🙏

[@Guitartomguitar]

so helpful! thanks

[@MichaelPonch]

Welcome 😎

[@SvetoslavAtanasov]

brilliant!

[@unbekannterkampfer2425]

I love you and your Videos pls dont stop uploading

[@MichaelPonch]

Thank you 😎. Are you German ? 🇩🇪

[@khubaibqazi2297]

Thank you it was really helpful but I needed some help as I want to move the layer along the path too like arrows like a lot maybe 50 with a loop can you help me with that.

[@Aafanyu]

wow, so so sick, man i love this, very cool, learning new stuff every day. where do you get your bg music man???

[@BryanSchultzitis]

So stinking helpful!

[@BryanSchultzitis]

I added a little bit to the expression so that if there is just one object, it puts it at 50% (this is completely unnecessary, but I just wanted to see if I could do it) if(thisComp.numLayers==2){ 50 }else{ ((index-1)*(100/(thisComp.numLayers-2))); }

[@kmiuk]

Thanks so much!!

[@MichaelPonch]

Welcome 😊

[@yanayuiko4281]

wow, really unique content. thank you. you got a new subscriber

[@MichaelPonch]

Thank you very much and thanks for subbing 😊

[@BobShurunkle]

probably a dumb question, but is there a way to prevent object 1 and object 5 from sitting on top on one another when placed on a circular path? it's fine if i turn off object 1, but i was just curious what the math is to show all 5 objects evenly distributed without having to turn one off. thanks (i know, i'm years late. sorry. hope you're settled in the new space)

[@alideep9656]

Modern day alchemy ♥️♥️

[@zlainerDK]

I have 1 question. How do you drag your movie / picture onto the path layer? Every time I try it just puts my image above the path layer. Can you help ?

[@MichaelPonch]

Can you please give me the time stamp of the video you are referring to? Ican’t remember anymore 😂Do you mean replacing the path layer with the movie? If so you have to hold the alt-key while dragging the footage onto the layer.

[@maxmiles4338]

This is beautiful, your technique videos are always so useful. Is there a way to do this with multiple objects with varying widths? Like a gallery of different-size paintings? If that was possible, I think I would be thrilled beyond belief.

[@MichaelPonch]

Thank you very much 😊. You could evenly distribute null layers and then parent different-sized objects to them. However, my method doesn’t consider the different widths. Meaning that “gaps” between them are not equal.

[@luzid.vision]

Is there a way to keep it looping along the path?

[@syafiq.larrieshoes933]

thanks Sir, after follow your tutorial how can I animate its moving along the path? ,I delete the expression on the position and the object place at random outside the path

[@MichaelPonch]

Sorry for the late reply. If you are familiar with expressions you could add another Control slider and add that value to the values of each layer. Hope it doesn’t sound too cryptic 😂

[@LS-er6mk]

Hey Michael, awesome video, very helpful! I'm trying to animate a zipper just like you did in the intro of this video. Unfortunately, I don't know how to keep the path at a constant length while bending it. How did you do that?

[@smzhamburg6245]

Hi LS i have the same problem - did u find a solution?

[@LS-er6mk]

@@smzhamburg6245 ich erkläre es mal auf deutsch.. also eine Pfad auf einer Länge zu halten, habe ich so direkt nicht gefunden. Ich habe es zunächst mit der Methode aus diesem Video + der 'bend it cc'd animation versucht, die sind aber scheinbar nicht kompatibel (der Pfad biegt sich, aber die Elemente auf dem Pfad bleiben stationär. Also hab ich den Reißverschluss in eine eigene comp gemacht (nur eine Nietenseite) und die dann in meiner Szene doppelt eingefügt und jeweils mit Bend it gebogen, das hat funktioniert. Falls du eine Lösung findest mit einer fixen Pfadlänge würde mich das allerdings auch noch interessieren. Es ist noch zu beachten, dass man für die komplette Ansicht des biegens die Grenzen erweitern muss, aber das liest man auch in jedem vernünftigen 'bend it cc Tutorial

[@MichaelPonch]

@@LS-er6mk Sorry für die späte Rückmeldung. Ist grad Land unter bei mir ;). in meinem einfachen Beispiel habe ich es tatsächlich per Augenmaß gemacht (Nulls mittels Bezierpfad animiert). Ohne es ausprobiert zu haben könnte ich mir diesen Lösungsansatz vorstellen: Pfad aus mehreren Nulls unterteilt (vielleicht mind. 7?). Die Rotation jedes Null-Objekts jeweils mit der Rotation der nächsten Null verbunden (via Expression Pick-Whip). Also Null 1 mit Null 2, Null 2 mit Null 3 etc. Wenn man die letzte Null rotiert müsste sich der Pfad so biegen, dass die Gesamtlänge (hoffentlich) gleich bleibt. Den Pfad würde ich nicht mit Roto-Bezier, sondern mit "Round Corners" abrunden. Vielleicht funktioniert's ja so :)

[@smzhamburg6245]

@@LS-er6mk Hi LS vielen Dank für deine schnelle Antwort! damit könnte es tatsächlich funktionieren!

[@fnfcoverstudio]

I don't know if you still answer the question, is it possible to repeat the shape layer along the path by by using repeater?

[@MichaelPonch]

Hi 👋. I think it’s not possible unfortunately. At least not that know of.

[@MHM4V3R1CK]

How would you do this on a 3D spline with 3D layers?

[@MichaelPonch]

Oh, I think it’s complicated in AE. Here’s my idea: You could create a spline and use “points follow nulls” from the script which create nulls that you could position in 3D space after you checked the 3D layer checkboxes. The shape layer path is still a 2D shape though but it follows the 3D Nulls correctly. From here you can start to use my technique from my tutorial. Just my theory, no guarantee that it works. But i’ll check it out the next time I open After Effects 😊

[@040047296]

hi , if i duplicate the layer , the new layer will grow downward , how can i make it contrary ？ thanks

[@MichaelPonch]

Hi, it’s really strange. I’ve never heard of it. Only when you selected multiple layers from from top to bottom and them copy paste. Did you select 1 layer and then pressand ctrl-/cmd-d ?

[@tsunchoo]

Can I distribute layers in 3D along the Z-axis?

[@MichaelPonch]

I haven’t tried it yet but maybe you can turn on ‘3D Layer’ for each Null Layer and position them into z-space. Merry Xmas by the way 😊

[@marcelaordonezsanchez1677]

how did you replace the null object? i don't get to do this and it's just the first step lol

[@MichaelPonch]

Select the Null object then hold the Alt-key (option key I guess on Mac) then drag the footage onto the null layer :)

[@marcelaordonezsanchez1677]

@@MichaelPonch thank you! it works!

[@designjorge]

Is there a way to distribute the keyframes evenly along the timeline? I've checked many tutorials but none explained if there is a way.

[@MichaelPonch]

Hi! Unfortunately I don’t know a method other than distributing the keyframes manually. But once you’ve done that you can stretch the keyframes (please google it). This way the keyframes stay evenly distributed.

[@designjorge]

@@MichaelPonch yeah, i saw this tutorial to stretch keyframes.. but thanks anyway..

[@hurrypol]

the last one flip when move path?!

[@MichaelPonch]

Sorry for the late reply. I had to figure it out for myself. I don’t know why the flip is happening but a possible fix could be when “progress” ist not set to 100% but 99,9%. Please tell me if this works for you.

[@luzid.vision]

If someone is as blind as me: The expression of the Trace Path Progress is changed, not the Transform Position one...

[@amantv9326]

That's pretty great..but make a no third party tutorial on Marvel studios intro..

[@MichaelPonch]

Thank you 😊. Oh, marvel studios intro Without any plugins. That’s challenging. But let me think about it 😎

[@amantv9326]

@@MichaelPonch u can watch andrew Kramer's fantasy title tutorial and the 3d light rays tutorial and combine both to make a 2 extruded but 3d looking effect...that will be gr8❤️❤️😘😘love from INDIA

[@chillu420]

Please shine some light how you made that happy person glow like hologram

[@MichaelPonch]

Thanks for the inspiration for a possible tutorial 😎. It’s basically simple. It’s a rotoscoped person with an invert effect, tint effect and glow effect applied 😊

[@chillu420]

@@MichaelPonch thanks a lot, I really like taht you reply to everyone's problem. Respect and ❤️❤️

[@vjfabinhodelboni]

And script file? where to download?

[@MichaelPonch]

Usually it’s already built-in. Otherwise just google “Create Nulls from Paths”

[@nouh3053]

You couldn't teach your way out of a paper bag, holy fuck.