How to resize without distort

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You might have tried to resize a shape in After Effects, (maybe with rounded corners or a stroke,) just to notice that the corners and the stroke get distorted when resizing.
In this tutorial, I'm going to show you a solution that will not only help you resize your object without distortion but also how you can achieve this when you want to resize a shape in only one direction.
To show you how this works, I have created three identical shapes in three different colors, Red, Yellow, and Green.
If I resize the red shape, by going to "Transform" and "Scale", it will get distorted, as you can see.
If I resize the yellow one, by going to "Contents", "Rectangle 1", "Rectangle Path 1" and "Size", it will not get distorted.
However, if you move the anchor point to one of the corners, hoping that this will help you grow your shape in only one direction, it doesn't work.
Luckily, there is a way to get around this, using an expression.
I'm going to show this by using my third and final shape, the green one.
Under "Contents", "Rectangle 1" and "Transform", you click the stopwatch next to "Anchor Point" while holding down the "alt"-button.
Now you "copy and paste" the expression from the video description below and then click somewhere outside the textbox to activate this and then move your shape to where you want it to be. Your anchor point should now be visible in the corner of your shape.
Now, when you go up to the "Size" property, you can resize the width in one direction and height in one direction. And if the directions are wrong, just go down to "Rotation", type in 180 and then reposition your shape.
Now you can resize your shape in the opposite directions.
Pro-tip is to take a copy of your shape layer before you paste the expression, so that when you need to reposition the shape, you can just select both av them and use the Align-tool. Then just delete your copy.
I hope you liked this video and if you want to see more quick tutorials just like this one, please subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell so you don't miss out on my next video!
Thanks for watching, keep learning, and have a great day!
🎁 The expression used in the video:
box_width = content("Rectangle 1").content("Rectangle Path 1").size[0];
box_height = content("Rectangle 1").content("Rectangle Path 1").size[1];
[box_width/2, box_height/-2]
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#AfterEffects #AfterEffectsTutorial #HowToResize

[@DavidLindgren89]

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[@vickz2985]

snälla hjälp miggg hur gör jag detta i ae 2020

[@tothnorbert1233]

What an intuitive way. XD Can't believe in 2023 Adobe still has softwares with features like this.

[@DavidLindgren89]

I also wish it was easier, but its like exercising, don’t wish for it to be easier, wish to become stronger 💪 In this case, it just requires more practise from us users 🙋‍♂️

[@EsainM]

every few months I need to come back to this tutorial because I keep forgetting how to do this, but always look for this one, because I kinda got attached to it

[@DavidLindgren89]

Thank you 😊 Happy you liked it! 🙏 Come back as often as you want to 😄👍

[@OBryanAguiar]

Yes adobe, that's really user friendly and intuitive, too bad resizing things and not deforming it is one thing we not at all do all the time.

[@DavidLindgren89]

I can sense some sarkasm 😄 But I totally agree, it should just work by default.

[@OBryanAguiar]

@@DavidLindgren89 Yes, just like changing language. It's such a simple feature, but a headache of a workthrought. Btw, I have to say many of your videos saved me. they're short and valuable. It's the top channel I share with my friends when they ask me.

[@DavidLindgren89]

Hey hey hey! Thank you so much for that! 🤩 I truly appreciate it! 🙏 More videos to come! (I have a tutorial about changing language as well. In Premiere Pro but it might work in After Effects as well) 😉 kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZ_QnmakqNyXhJY

[@CaptainItalia12]

Thanks a lot for the tutorial, needed some refreshing on the topic. This is what you can use on your Rectangle 1 position (not transform) to auto reposition where your layer originally was: box_width = thisComp.layer("YOUR_LAYER_NAME").sourceRectAtTime(0).width; box_height = thisComp.layer("YOUR_LAYER_NAME").sourceRectAtTime(0).height; [box_width/2, box_height/-2]

[@azsportza]

You don't need to rotate the shape to change directions of the animation. Change the box_width to be /-2 for left to right or /2 for right to left Left to Right: [box_width/-2, box_height/-2] Right to Left: [box_width/2, box_height/-2]

[@DavidLindgren89]

Awesome!! 😃 Thank you for this handy tip! 🏅🙏

[@NguyenThuan-hk3wb]

Tks sir. I love the way you use pop-up bubbles to show the detail of comp panel, I can see it clearly not take time open fullscreen

[@DavidLindgren89]

So happy you like it! :D I actually spend a lot of time on my tutorials (even if they are short) so I really appreciate comments like this! Would love to hear your thoughts on my new tutorial design! Feel free to check it out! 😊 (180 tutorials and counting)

[@rickymotions3046]

Just removing the stroke from the shape itself and adding the stroke as a Layer Style works as well, since the stroke is being applied AFTER the transformations. Layer Styles are very underrated in AE and a lot of designers forget about it's existence lol. I always look for other solutions before using expressions as a last resort. I had to do the layer style method instead for multiple lower thirds that included long names. Hope it helps y'all, too!

[@DavidLindgren89]

That's actually a great tip! ⭐️ I didn't know that, so thanks for sharing! 😃 Will most likely create a new tutorial about making a stroke using layer styles. (Sorry for the late reply) 😇

[@ChronicalV]

doesn't that still distort the rounded corners tho?

[@DavidLindgren89]

It will distort the rounded corners if you use the settings under "Transform". But you can avoid this by going to the Shape Layer > Contents > Rectangle > Rectangle Path and then change the Size and Roundness in there. If you do that and use "Layer Styles" as Ricky suggested, you can resize without distort to either the corners nor the stroke. 😃👍

[@jordyncreates]

This comment helped me solve a slightly unrelated issue--keeping stroke width consistent with CC smear---thank you!!

[@CyborgCollective]

Cheers mate. I couldn't for the life of me work out the expression. Appreciate the short video.

[@DavidLindgren89]

Glad you liked it! 😃 Thanks for the comment! I have 150 other short tutorials and more to come! Happy to help 😊

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks bro. I was creating two "ends" and using masks to lengthen and shorten my bars. This is a lot, lot faster and easier.

[@DavidLindgren89]

Glad it helped! 😃

[@KrazyKarthik1]

You are soooo underrated man.

[@DavidLindgren89]

Thank you Karthik! I really appreciate your comment! 😊🙏

[@WeLoveBuzzYT]

Thank you so much. This is exactly what I am looking for.

[@DavidLindgren89]

Awesome! Happy to help! 😃👍

[@TradingFeline]

Finally this is exactly what I've been looking for. Is there any way we could just edit the shape just like in Illustrator by just dragging corners and such?

[@DavidLindgren89]

I think I have a tutorial that could answer that right here: "How to change round corner After Effects" kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWbHqKp7eJVrj9E Hope that helps :)

[@bozhenadarchuk2535]

Thank you so so much! I can not explain how much you've just helped me! Appreciate it!

[@유엉유]

this is a very helpful video and I can finally resize rectangular shapes as i want. thank you !!!!!!!

[@김피부]

really helpful and explicit. thanks

[@DavidLindgren89]

Thank you very much for the nice comment! 😊

[@maheshnagaraj9262]

This is very helpful. Thanks a lot for the tip.

[@DavidLindgren89]

Glad you liked it Mahesh 💪 Thanks for your comment! 🙏

[@yacwac]

that was so helpful thanks alot 🙌🙏

[@DavidLindgren89]

Happy to hear! :D

[@emmetblanchette6496]

Thank you

[@DavidLindgren89]

No problem 👍

[@mhdsameeruc2738]

thanks bro, this help me lot

[@DavidLindgren89]

Happy to hear that! 🙏

[@RahulKashyap-zd8ho]

Thanks a lot ♥

[@DavidLindgren89]

No problem! 😊

[@arnaudmarie3092]

THANK YOU

[@DavidLindgren89]

No problem! 🫡

[@amitkoeri2364]

i like your tutorial... thanks for this information

[@DavidLindgren89]

Glad you liked it! 😃 Thanks for the comment! 👍

[@Serkits]

Thanks a Lot🙂

[@DavidLindgren89]

No problem mate 😊

[@rasandavalery9853]

Thanks man! you just saved me 😁✌

[@DavidLindgren89]

Happy I could help! 😃

[@konepow]

i love you

[@DavidLindgren89]

Love you too ;)

[@martin_bolha]

You are a live saver sir :)

[@DavidLindgren89]

Thank you for the kind words! 🙏

[@alekseimutovkin]

"Expression result must be of dimension 2, not 1" - didn't work...

[@DavidLindgren89]

Double check that the code is exactly as in the video description and that the numbers are correct. Let me know how it went :)

[@alekseimutovkin]

@@DavidLindgren89 checked. Actually copied it. That's odd

[@DavidLindgren89]

Oh ok. Sorry about that.. Not sure how to assist further :/ Hope u find a solution to it.

[@DavidLindgren89]

Not sure if this is helpful, but maybe this could be a solution? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWikfGlofM2Wask

[@ice_boy8228]

Thank you very much, i spended on this shit for 3 hours

[@DavidLindgren89]

I feel you bro 😄 Happy I could help 😃

[@tommyshimko]

It is actually insane that a 200 billion dollar company's flagship product needs a hacky code trick to change the shape of a rounded rectangle.

[@tmcreative6835]

Great tutorial! Is there a way to make the anchor point the center/top of the rectangle, so it can grown from the center/top down?

[@DavidLindgren89]

Yes! If you "simple click" on the layer (unselect and then select once) so that the layer is selected but not the shape in it (hope that makes sense) you can move the anchor point by clicking "Y" (to switch to the "Pan behind" tool) and then drag it to the corner. If you hold down "cmd" while dragging, it will "snap" to the corner. Hope that helped! :)

[@kuldeepsinghtanwar9242]

Syntax error unexpcted token . this project cntains an expression error 1 of 1. please help

[@DavidLindgren89]

Sorry it didn't work :/ Make sure it's the exact same text and that it's pasted in the right place. (You always need to rename the layer names to your own names of your layers for it to work.)

[@mschocker77]

Can someone help? I don't have the Size, Position and Roundness properties. Mine only says Rectangle 1. Any help?

[@brandiyskischannel4806]

there s no size in rectangle path1

[@athenafml1141]

is there another way to type the expression? it's not recognizing the box width

[@DavidLindgren89]

Not exactly sure what your expression says, but make sure you name your layers exactly the same in the timeline window as in the expression. Hope that helps! :)

[@topstories4624]

Hi i want to scale right side of the rectangle then scale left side...how we can do it

[@DavidLindgren89]

Hmm not sure if I understand. Do you want to scale it twice? Why not place one edge where you want it and then only scale in one direction? :)

[@heredownunder]

Can you resize a Solid layer without Scale enlargement?

[@DavidLindgren89]

Yea I guess you can change width and height separately. Only problem is the rounded corners then. Might need a custom solution for that :/ Or make the shape first and then make the rounded corners.

[@topstories4624]

hi how to scale both left side and right side of a rectangle one after one. any idea

[@DavidLindgren89]

Keep the anchor point in the middle and it should work :) Hope that helps! 👍

[@topstories4624]

@@DavidLindgren89 Hi when I keep anchor point in the middle both left and right side equally scaling... I want to scale left and right side separately. Thanks

[@DavidLindgren89]

Aha! Then I think you can move the anchor point to the left, scale the right side and then move it to the right and scale the left side. I hope that helps! :) (Sorry for late reply)

[@topstories4624]

@@DavidLindgren89 thanks bro let me check

[@DavidLindgren89]

No worries :)

[@DaMaGeVs]

Спасибо, но это бред что так шейпы работают. Должно быть по умолчанию как с экспрешеном

[@abhishekshukla8652]

hi how can I make it appear from the top to bottom? like what values do I have to enter in box_width and box_height

[@DavidLindgren89]

Good question! I can't say exactly, from the top of my head, but you could fix this with a workaround by rotating the shape 90 degrees :) Hope that helps!

[@huytranonline]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. I'm trying to do the same thing but with a 6 point hexagon but i'm getting an error of "Cannot read property of [0]" of undefined. I've tried changing the numbers but regardless of the number I still get the error. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[@DavidLindgren89]

Have you changed the name of "Rectangle 1" and "Rectangle Path 1" according to your project? If it's not a rectangle anymore, that might be the issue. That it's referring to the wrong path. Hope that helps! :)

[@huytranonline]

@@DavidLindgren89 Yes, I changed it to Polystar. Thanks for the quick reply.

[@DavidLindgren89]

@@huytranonline No problem! Did it work? :)

[@huytranonline]

@@DavidLindgren89 It did not. still get the same error

[@DavidLindgren89]

Oh, that's weird. I would help if I could :/

[@aureliomedina460]

It doesn't work anymore

[@naraosga]

I have a syntax error with the code :(

[@DavidLindgren89]

What does the error say? It usually gives you an indication on where the problem is and if you can check that row, it might just be a typo error or that something isn't the same name as the layer you are reffering to. Hope that helps! :)

[@SriSankaraTVKannada]

hi

[@usernamejase]

Doesn't work

[@martinradin]

🥰🥰

[@7h07productions]

Merci !

[@DavidLindgren89]

Thanks for the Super Thanks!! 🤩🙏🙏 Super grateful for that! Have a great day! 👍

[@_casg]

already cringing

[@DavidLindgren89]

Nooo, why? 😂

[@_casg]

@@DavidLindgren89 naw man it’s that I wasn’t focusing on the tutorial correctly. I was able to follow thru. Thank you I had to watch it like 8 times to get it right lol

[@odilbekabdusalomov4051]

@DavidLindgren89Expression doesn't work sir