How To Create Animated Arrows In After Effects

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In this video we're going to be learning how to create custom animated arrow paths inside of After Effects! The end result will be using After Effects to create an arrowed line that looks like it's being drawn as it moves forwards. It sounds complex, but it's really simple once you know what tools to use in After Effects. We're also going to be learning a few helpful tips and tricks to use inside of After Effects for future projects as well. So let's jump into it with this After Effects Tutorial!
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[@smartdrivetest]

Hey Owen - you made that look easy my friend. Just getting started with AE. Thank you for the information. Learning this isn't as tough if you've already had experience with video editing and photoshop. A lot of the options and menu items are similar. Thanks again. All the best, Cheers Rick

[@giladwasheretravel3553]

Finally! After learning Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere from KZbin, and totally struggling with learning After Effects, this is the first tutorial I was able to follow A to Z. Thanks man!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

So glad to hear! We’re honoured to be the ones to help you out!

[@jamalawale6329]

There is nothing hard in this world, we are in 21 century, You can change ur career like the chameleon. Go head. and add Illustrator and Indesign. If u want help contact me. I like The strugglers

[@solventstudios]

I refer back to this tutorial so often it's unreal. I should be able to remember all the steps by now, but still find my self just putting it on and following along because it's so handy. Thank you for this one!

[@mediocreman6715]

you explain so much a lot better than most people do! making connections, showing a bit more detail :)

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Thanks so much for taking the time to say that

[@NickFlandry]

Fantastic, and one of the clearest presentations about After Effects I've encountered online! You covered an amazing number of topics, clearly and concisely, in just a few minutes. Thanx!!

[@mohjim4502]

You are one of the best that explains slowly and clearly. I have literally followed you from start to finish without pausing the video. keep up the good work.

[@pratikbabhulkar2295]

Your chilled out explanation is gold ! Please keep making videos like these.

[@BadBoyz7WC06]

Incredible tutorial! Also answered a few other things I've been trying to figure out. Thanks so much!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Cheers! This makes us really happy to hear!

[@desmanage]

Added to the extending list of 'things I did n't know I did n't know but wished I had...''' - it's a very long list. Thank you very much for your time on this. More useful than I realised once i knew I could do this. Brilliant delivery as well KP

[@LogLab]

This is an awesome tutorial, somehow showed every detail while also being concise and easy to listen to.

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Wow! Thanks so much Log Lab! That's really encouraging to hear! Glad it was helpful

[@damianstreet4907]

This is such an excellent tutorial, no fluff just gets to it in a friendly and easy to follow manner. Thank you Owen, this was really helpfull.

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

You're very welcome! So happy I could help!

[@OlegOsovitskiy]

Thank you! Very clear, detailed and easy-to-follow tutorial. You not only explain how but also why it is done this way. Extremely helpful!

[@ailunshi9121]

This was so unbelievably helpful and easy to follow; thank you so much!!

[@sarulaplays6861]

Im so impressed with this tutorial, everything was so clearly explained!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

I'm so happy to hear! Glad it was helpful! 🙏

[@Director414]

amazing tutorial! so much simpler and well explained then most. Keep up the good work. Adobe should hire you!!

[@seansiegler]

Thanks! I had no idea that "Create Nulls From Path" option had been added. Damn, that is a time saver!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Indeed Sean! Glad the video could help!

[@Zedmondo1]

Excellent tutorial. Others were so difficult to follow. Very much appreciated. Cheers man!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share! It means a lot to us! Cheers!

[@drnz]

Clear, concise, and helpful. Great tute!

[@aliasbrunch]

Brilliant! All other ones were so hard to follow, thank you!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Thanks so much!

[@Skillet45]

What a great video! Start to finish, nothing extraneous, everything clear. Thanks!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

So glad to hear!

[@ChristianMcKeown]

I come back to this video all the time. Such a useful thing to know how to do! Thanks a lot!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Happy to hear that! You're so welcome Christian! Cheers!

[@irusli9]

Wow, this really helped me a lot! Thank you so much!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

So glad to hear!

[@braintatoo]

I loved your tutorial, very clear, well paced, I was able to follow. Nice voice too :) Thank you!

[@rheingoldlounge]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Owen!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Any time!

[@x3lldanierallsanllx3]

Thank you man! I'm mostly self-taught in these, but i was struggling until i found your vid, thank you! saved me back there!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

We're so glad to hear! Thanks so much for letting us know!

[@pieohpie]

Amazing tutorial! Thank you so much even after all these years 🙏🏼

[@equiz]

Simple, effective, perfect tutorial. Thank you a lot for it!!!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Cheers! Glad you liked it!

[@LinKaaxMu]

Great and very helpful tutorial! Thank you for sharing and for having the patience to teach!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

You are so welcome! So happy to hear you found it helpful! 😄

[@CanalFicaaDica]

Thanks man! Very nice

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

My pleasure Canal!

[@KuizinStudio]

Great work and well explained! Thanks!

[@equiz]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial, straight to the point!

[@georginapreston4171]

Thank you this was lovely clear tutorial, one of my monitors is a TV and had cut of my menu so never realised there was a script specifically for this, thank you!

[@jamessteidl5260]

One of the best tutorials I've ever seen.

[@winemouth4742]

great tutorial, thanks so much!

[@willytylee]

Thanks it works!

[@alan112223]

Short, clean and clear, no boolshit. Thanks!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Cheers! We're so happy to hear!

[@robertnewton9548]

Great tutorial. Thanks.

[@StephieV1]

Great tutorial! I just saved myself a BUNCH of time! :)

[@playkushgaming]

Helps Me a lot , Thanks buddy

[@Yeshua_Will_Arrive_Soon]

Perfect, thanks!

[@kusacubari1867]

such a clean tutorial, thank you also for not wasting my time by stretching it out to 10mins to catch an ad buck. Excellent thanks again.

[@V8LC100]

My arrow head did not follow the path even though I held shift and linked the arrow head parent pick whip to the trace path :-?

[@cortneyandchristian3973]

Thanks. This was very helpful and easy to follow.

[@PraketCG]

Thank you so much for this tutorial!

[@MarkEricksonArtist]

SO helpful. Thank you very much!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Any time! Glad it could help!

[@CHEMA007]

Awesome, thanks a lot

[@willallendupraw]

This helped me. I had an error saying that no path was selected but eventually sorted it out (not sure how) and was then able to complete the tutorial. Thanks!

[@relaxsoul9117]

hey, did you figure what the problem was? i'm currently experiencing the same thing.

[@FeelgoodFootage]

that was a great tutorial, thanks. i did not know about 'create nulls from path' panel. very useful!

[@brandonh552]

Awesome thanks!

[@peterbaker7216]

Awesome! Thanks so much. You're a good source, sir!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Cheers! So glad you liked it!

[@marcuspun3822]

Nice tutorial. Very clear and easy to follow Thanks!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Cheers!

[@erictko85]

Great tutorial, thank you! Subscribed!

[@thhm]

Thanks just what I needed. :)

[@NektariosK]

Damn! I'm using After Effects 15 years now and I didn't know the Shift+Parent shortcut existed! Thanks for that!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Happy to help! Even 25 years later there's always more to learn! 😄

[@NealRosenblat]

Changed everything - thank you so much

[@geek_linux2265]

Working and effective! Thank you very much!!!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

So glad to hear!

[@o0oMemorieso0o]

this video is so helpful!! thank you so much you saved me a ton of time

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

So happy to hear!

[@stasz4375]

I learned so much from this! Thanks

[@GDM223SR]

Simple, clear, well-organized tutorial, and I've been using AE since 1996. Subscribing!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Wow! Thanks so much Steve! That's incredibly kind of you to say! Thank you! 😄🙏

[@goobydntfear]

very cool thanks mate

[@EXPstreams]

great tut, thank you, you speak really well.

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Awesome! I appreciate that!

[@nadimintisarvani1944]

Thanks a lot! Worked Perfectly.

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Cheers!

[@NilabhUmredkar]

Thank you. Really helpful

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

So glad to hear!

[@HistoryHeroes]

nice job, thanks

[@jairusdavid1680]

Super helpful! Thanks for the very detailed tutorial! :-)

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

You're very welcome! So glad you found it helpful!

[@torinmscott]

So good. Thank you!

[@mohamedzaki7308]

Man you're awesome, thank you so much for this.

[@stevenmendelsohn1844]

Extremely Helpful Please make more tutorials!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Thanks Steven! We will, typically 2-3 videos per week! We hope to see you again!

[@stevenmendelsohn1844]

Motion Array Tutorials yeah I’m so trash at after effects just learning

[@vicento]

I'm so grateful! very good tutorial. Now I only need to figure out how to make the arrow go in the exact opposite way

[@krystenindisguise]

Thank you so much! I'm actually a bit stuck. When I parented the arrow head the the null trace path, it flew off my screen and I noticed both objects on the right hand side of the screen. The null isn't even connected to the path and I only just noticed that. I'm not sure if I missed anything. Thank you

[@Dimivim]

The best video ever! Thank you!

[@bonsai5753]

Here it goes...I was afraid to tackle this but here we are. Thank you Motion Array...love you

[@valentinan4163]

Thank you so much!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

You're welcome! So happy to help! 😄

[@flyingfishdesign62]

Awesome!! thank you, saved me so much time!

[@shauryakumar5939]

Thank you so much, it worked perfectly. Awesome tutorial.

[@Novamute]

Thank you 🙏🏻

[@AndrewLouth]

This was an excellent tutorial.

[@realCleanK]

This vid was amazing!! THANK YOU!!

[@realCleanK]

Also...is there a way to freeze this animation halfway through, explain something, and then continue from the freeze point? I tried splitting the animation and I lose the "freeze" option when I tried to do this.

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

So happy to hear! Glad you liked it! As for the problem freezing, another option would be to duplicate the layer and have it above the point where you want the freeze to occur. Then at the point where you select the freeze to occur on the new duplicated layer, at that same place split the clip below and move the second half forward until the point where you want it to continue and shorten the top layer so that it only fills in that exact amount of time of the gap between the bottom layers split

[@pp7800]

5 minutes of pure gold

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Thanks so much!

[@kostia_mu]

thank you!

[@evgenishudra6614]

nice and clear thank you!

[@editheus]

you saved me hours of work, thank you so much! take my subscription

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

We're so happy to hear! Glad it was able to help! We're honoured to have your subscription

[@filmslice5251]

Thank you so much

[@lukebanfield4563]

Amazing, thanks so much. You're a legend!!

[@RapideetFacile]

thank you that was really helpful

[@fhavlik6502]

Great tut, thank you!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

You're very welcome! So glad you liked it!

[@domnikita]

Thanks a lot!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

You're welcome!

[@wildnoob24]

such a great tutorial. saved me so much time messing around with masks!!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

My pleasure Lane! Happy to help!

[@CiscoZero]

Amazing teacher!!!

[@aspxnvii]

Thank you so much! This tutorial was super easy to follow

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

You're welcome! 😄 So happy to hear!

[@imfloob]

This tutorial saved my life. Thank you so much!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

You're welcome! So glad it helped!

[@andriharyadi]

thank for sharing. hopefully you more success. keep sharing please. your explanation and tutorials made beginner like me easier to learn each material

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Thank you so much! 😄🙏 That's so kind of you to say! So glad you liked the video!

[@boritime]

so simple good tutorial Thank you , it's so easy and helpful ,

Thanks very much for the video :)

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

My pleasure! Glad it was helpful Celso!

[@maysque]

I’ve used this video multiple times thanks!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Great to hear! Super happy it's been helpful! 😄

[@LeeJakob]

great tutorial thanks!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Cheers! So glad you liked it!

[@AlissonDepizol]

dude, you are a life saver

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Happy to help!

[@vincentsequeira3723]

Thanks 🙏🏻

[@Trumpumpumpum]

Very helpful!

[@MotionArrayTutorials]

Cheers!

[@CarissaChua]

Thank you! It helped it! Any ideas how to match the colours if my arrow is a gradient fill? Can't get the triangle to match :(