MORPHING ICONS FROM ILLUSTRATOR IN ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 2023

[@FilmDat]

New video on this topic right here! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bX-thpRrjdWaZrc A lot of you asked about how to morph simple icons to more complex icons or the other way around (from a few masks to a lot of masks). So instead of replying in text all the time, I thought I'd try and explain it in a video. Hope it helps you guys to create what you want! Happy AE'ing everyone!

[@2HHB]

Create two icons in illustrator side by side Copy first Shape Open After Effects: New Project/Composition/New Composition/Choose background color/OK New Shape Layer/Control V (it will be invisible) Effect/Generate Stroke: Click all masks, give stroke number Give mask path a keyframe Move forward keyframe a few seconds Copy second illustrator icon Paste in AE If it looks weird morphing, go back to illustrator Right click second shape/make Compound Path Window/Attributes/Show All/Reverse Path Direction Copy into AE keyframe and see if it looks better

[@fatenassiri200]

Thank you!!!, you are the first person I have found that has simplified a way to easily morph in AE.

[@FilmDat]

Thanks, I appreciate it!

[@osotheom]

This is really most simple example to show shape morphing instead of using script and all. Thanks.

[@FilmDat]

Please consider liking and subscribing. My goal is to make every designer grow, so let's try and spread this to as many people as possible, because with only 3K subscribers I feel I'm not making much of a difference. Anyways, hope this video was useful and even though this might be an older video, if you have any questions, drop 'em below! I try to answer everything!

[@hmmmmm6669]

Love ur quick short tutorial

[@FilmDat]

Thanks! Appreciate it!

[@mahsamohammadi3116]

the most useful and handy tut I've ever seen!

[@FilmDat]

Mahsa Mohammadi awesome!

[@SuhaidatuDramani]

After a bunch of long animations, this one actually works!

[@kgaugelomohai7322]

i've been looking for such a tutorial for sooooo long!!! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

[@FilmDat]

That’s awesome! Thanks! Glad you found it ;)

[@Damarco4u]

OMG! I can't believe how this saved the day. Thank you! My morph was twisting like wet washcloth and I had guess there was a direction issue involved but I didn't know how to solve it or if that was even correct. Thanks for confirming I am not crazy (at least on this subject) and telling me hot to fix it. I was afraid I was going to have to painstakingly re-draw all the shapes in AE.

[@FilmDat]

Damarco4u haha nice reference. Glad it helped!

[@FilmDat]

Thanks for the love everybody! Over 900 likes. Crazy. Hopefully I will have more time to do similar tutorials in the near future!

[@tonomunoz4107]

Thanks man, very useful

[@yogitagore]

Really good and very easy to understand thank you so much...!

[@FilmDat]

Thanks!

[@xoBonjourBelle]

Hi! This is great! Can you use a similar process for icons filled with colour? If not, do you know how to do that? If all the icons are different colours...

[@obv_design9310]

Cool tip, thanks !!!

[@kgaugelomohai7322]

Thanks!

[@damagebrain]

thanks man finally someone to the point

[@FilmDat]

D Brain appreciate it!

[@galaclava]

JAW DROP!!! THANK YOU

[@susanwojcicki5714]

THANK YOU, SAVED ME

[@FilmDat]

Awesome, cheers!

[@BrandBos]

Geniaal. Bedankt!

[@FilmDat]

Jij bedankt! ;)

[@TeriScott]

Incredible tutorial!!!

[@FilmDat]

Teri Scott thanks a lot!

[@АнтонПопов-х5в]

Thanks!!!

[@w2ogroupsentientread939]

very helpful. thanks. And changing the direction was in attributes

[@emma-wv7hc]

Thank you!!!!!

[@魏铭-m3s]

Cool,thanks!

[@TheMigafan]

Your tutorials are really effective and leave a lot open to the actual maker! Thanks

[@FilmDat]

Great to hear that! Cheers man!

[@Mafon2]

It's faster and easier than I thought.

[@Gafaca.]

thanks man, you've already saved my job hahahahaha

[@jimcrick4429]

Great video! thanks

[@dweebisonline7333]

Holy shit, this is gonna be handy as fuck. Thanks a ton, my dude!!

[@jagdishlimbachiya7114]

Fantastic. Thanks!!

[@startfromend]

Just saved my life.

[@noinoinoi2095]

This is awesome!

[@FilmDat]

noinoi noi cheers!

[@PyreFrog]

Thank you. I've been wondering for quite some time on how to do this.

[@getdesigned1402]

So useful !! Thank you

[@anthonysantos2303]

Thanks man!

[@JoshBollman]

Thank you! So simple!

[@JasonBelcik]

Thank you so much bro!

[@sandymonline]

I'm very very grateful to you! thanks

[@BFnumber1fan]

This blew my mind, thank you!

[@AnsarAli-uq3yg]

So now you have no kind. Congrats...

[@makumontogomeri]

Thanks for this!

[@jccarvajal7139]

Cool trick =)

[@tromiverto]

thank you

[@cecileboucheron3088]

Great tutorial! Do you know how to add some easing to the animation?

[@valeriacardoso1369]

eu quero chorar porque consegui fazer isso. sensacional!

[@lil0_0it61]

thank you!

[@holapro8780]

thanks man

[@holyhorse5008]

You are superman !

[@PIRATEAYDIFUNDE]

Thanks

[@SL4RK]

Big thanks

[@lorenzomazza5118]

Great tutorial buddy, thank u, but how can i make a mask become a certain mask in the second picture? I mean, every mask in the first picture become another mask in the second picture randomly, i would like to decide which mask before become a certain mask after

[@FilmDat]

What's up everyone?! Hope this was clear and useful! Just drop a comment if you still have any questions!

[@martaserra5399]

Hey! If you're icons don't have the same number of masks this doesn't work..

[@FilmDat]

It can take some time to get the hang of it, but it can be done! It would be handy if we could make a new keyframe and just delete a few anchor points of a certain mask, but we can't. And please, NEVER try to copy ONE ANCHOR POINT from Illustrator and paste it in After Effects. AE will crash. I have tried this ;) So let's say you go from 10 masks to 6 in a transition of 2 seconds. 4 masks will indeed stay the same and screw up your animation. What I mostly do is create a new keyframe for these 4 masks (one keyframe AFTER the first situation) and just move them outside the sequence. Since these masks will make a huge position shift in just one frame, you won't even see them moving off the screen. Hope it makes sense!

[@sabrina.oellinger.k1-met]

@@FilmDat You never explained how to do it when you have e.g. 4 masks at the beginning and 10 masks at the end. You answered the only person who asked this question with the sentence “please read the other comments, I answered this before several times. I will make a new video.” and what is if I want to morph 4 masks into 10 masks and these 10 into 8 masks, the 8 into 12, the 12 into 3? Thank u!

[@SlmeE20]

thanks buddy, I needed it

[@greenlheemon9038]

Love U!

[@Leam1201]

give him the ten thousen dollars to this guy!

[@chanelcricket1596]

Why you record into camera mic while you have good mic in front of you!?

[@notbarbara2647]

I am trying to morph something with 1 path into something with 2 paths, how would I go about that? Lets say I wanted to make an O from a very stretched filled circle?

[@FilmDat]

Let's say you start with a icon with 4 masks and want to go to an icon with 3 masks you have to add an extra keyframe for the last icon and manually move the crap out of the screen. It's best to do this just one frame after the morphing starts so you don't see something moving out of the screen. I know this might sound like a messy solution but unfortunately it's the only one that seems to work at this point.If you want to add filled icons you probably have to add a different solid or shape layer and do more work manually. The method I explain in the video works best with outlined icons.

[@yonnileung]

The numbers of path for both shape need to be the same, am I correct?

[@FilmDat]

yonnileung that would indeed be the easiest way, but if you want to use different amount of masks / paths per shape; check out one of my latest videos where I explain how you can do this.

[@martkohn]

Hi! Thanks for the tutorial, it`s exelent. I`m having an issue when importing vectorized images to After. AE divides mi object (when creatin vecotrized image from illstrator file) in different groups. I`m not being able to create a single path to control all the groups, so the morphing effect doesnt work. Any idea? (i tried goruping all the groups into a new group but when copying the keyframe to mymorphnig layer it reads the new shape as a transparent object)

[@FilmDat]

Cheers! Let me try to help.. did you import an AI file in After Effects? Or did you copy the paths from Illustrator to After Effects? For this trick it's important to just copy paths (to a shape layer) rather than importing files.

[@guillerminarivassbona999]

You're my salvation.

[@marcdemontbron9657]

talks into expensive microphone... can't hear him xD

[@oreowithurea5018]

PROFIT

[@tengteng8640]

where i can find kenmerken ?

[@FilmDat]

The panel is called "Attributes" in the English version! Hope it helps.

[@officialzemo]

Do both of the icons/vectors have to have the same amount of of masks for the transition to work correctly?

[@abed2388]

yeah they should be same to work good i made a vector it had 8 mask and the other one it had 6 mask when the transition finishes it still there the rest change but the remaining mask stays there i tried to give opacity mask but apparently its not working

[@iaopitz]

hi! I found this video very helpful! For some reason though, when I paste my second shape in, it deselects some of the mask layers I had selected so that only part of the original shape morphs into the second one (even though they both have the same amount of shapes!)

[@sabrina.oellinger.k1-met]

How do I solve this problem when I actually have a different amount of shapes?

[@jillianslater3934]

Add in hidden lines to the icon, where lines already exist. You wont see them but it'll help when morphing into the next@@sabrina.oellinger.k1-met

[@petewilson6376]

Hi, as old post not sure if this will get seen but when I try this technique the second image that gets pasted in appears overlaid on the first image from the very start of the comp. the morph works great but how do I have it so only see the first image at the beginning on the clip?

[@FilmDat]

Pete Wilson hmm that’s a difficult one. Could be a number of things, did you maybe turn on Continuous Rasterization? Did you paste the second image in different masks than the first image? Did you set the keyframes right like in the video?

[@lukinnni]

Nice tuts! Thanks! But what if I have two shape layers (icons etc) with a different count of masks? In your case u had 3 at both of them. But if one have, for example, 5 masks and another have 10. I tried to morph this, but some elements stay at place (cause no masks for them). How to fix this to use it with more complicated elements?

[@FilmDat]

Thanks, and great question! It would be handy if we could make a new keyframe and just delete a few anchor points of a certain mask, but we can't. And please, NEVER try to copy ONE ANCHOR POINT from Illustrator and paste it in After Effects. AE will crash. I have tried this ;) So let's say you go from 10 masks to 6 in a transition of 2 seconds. 4 masks will indeed stay the same and screw up your animation. What I mostly do is create a new keyframe for these 4 masks (one keyframe AFTER the first situation) and just move them outside the sequence. Since these masks will make a huge position shift in just one frame, you won't even see them moving off the screen. Hope it makes sense!

[@andreah.8185]

What if you need the mask to appear if the second icon has more masks than the first? When I insert my second icon, everything transforms except a few little pieces. Those pieces show up at the beginning of the transformation and I'm not sure how to get them to appear after the first icon morphs into the second. I'm very new to AE, any help is greatly appreciated!

[@Cas_98]

@@andreah.8185 I have exactly the same question as Andrea!

[@gitter.bundgaard2302]

How do you change the rounded caps on the stroke when it's an fx?

[@FilmDat]

Gitte R. Bundgaard you can’t change the caps on the Stroke Effect, which is a pity. ButtCapper won’t help for that either. Instead of working with masks you’d have to turn it in to a path on a Shape Layer and maybe work with things like Trim Paths.

[@sansanxaverius3436]

you..know...I...thank...you...for...this...tutorial....(with a sleepy voice)

[@FilmDat]

sansan xaverius hehe thanks!

[@delphined2429]

Thanks for this tutorial, I have a problem when importing my icons from illustrator to After effects ... in illustrator they are drawn with an outline and as soon as I import into after effects, there is an outline around my contour (not very clear sorry), possible to send you a screenshot to discuss it?

[@FilmDat]

Are you sure your Illustrator icon consists of a path (with a stroke)? Instead of an expandad icon? Hit CMD Y to see your linework in Illustrator. If you see a double line it's already expanded and copying it in to After Effects will result in to that double line you're talking about.

[@C4SHI]

I have the same problem. I checked it. It is only one line drawn with the brush tool

[@studioesp2752]

Same here! It brings a doubled number of masks into AE compared to the number of outlines in Illustrator. Any solution founded?

[@jheisoncordero9513]

Hello, how can I make the masks have a different brush size?

[@FilmDat]

Yes! You can make keyframes for the "Brush Size" as well.

[@Vault101.3D]

But what if i have to morph a complex shape with filling?

[@Rickurru]

One question if my path has 6 masks and I want to transform it into one of 9 masks. How do i do it? because those 3 masks that are left over don't recognize me in the first keyframe

[@FilmDat]

Ricardo Urrutia this is a good question, and something that has been asked multiple times, I’ll make a video about this soon but for now, please scroll through the comments, I’ve explained how to “fix” this a few times. Hope it works for you!

[@katrinafey533]

How do you switch the mask end caps to butt cap instead of rounded cap?

[@FilmDat]

I'd say, use normal Rectangles instead of Rounded Rectangle (which I used in this tutorial). However, you could always use the Live Corner Widget to drag anchors from being rounded to normal and the other way around. Other options in Illustrator are, to go to the Stroke panel, and select different "Cap" settings. If you're talking about After Effects, I suggest downloading a free awesome tool called "ButtCapper". It does the same as above, but Adobe kind of forget adding it to After Effects.

[@FilmDat]

If you want to watch more After Effects Tutorials, check out FilmDats KZbin playlist: goo.gl/qPbF8T

[@AbdulAziz-cj4hg]

how do i lock some anchor point so it wont morph

[@ZorityRobert]

Nice but how can I do butt cap stroke?

[@FilmDat]

You could download BattleAxe Buttcapper (free) but Im not sure if it works on masks, otherwise you would really have to work with (trim)paths!

[@DannyNetwirk]

brooo, your mic isn't working... great tutorial though

[@kimera_tv5568]

ur so gd

[@DavidSantillo-hs1qz]

1:42 uhuuuu

[@aarunal-rasyid3035]

this method works but anyone here know thow to resize the last mask?

[@FilmDat]

Hi Aarun, thanks for watching! Not sure what you're trying to accomplish. Could you be more specific? Do you want to resize the final icon? If so, you can just create keyframes for "scale" (which is under the transform drop down). This will resize the whole shape layer.

[@aarunal-rasyid3035]

@@FilmDat Thanks for replying me. I was trying to resizing the 4-6 layers without distracting the postition, I have found the answer now, just pre compose it then I could move and resize the icon.

[@farmiscool1992]

when i past the second icon, no keyframe is added.... :(

[@FilmDat]

João Neves Silva Farmhouse Make sure the masks (on the left menu in after effects) are highlighted and selected before pasting. If you don’t know how, you can also manually create keyframes by clicking the stopwatch icon and then hitting cmd-v or.m control-v to paste the icon from illustrator.

[@farmiscool1992]

@@FilmDat Hey, thanks for your awnser, now, im able to paste correctly, but because i do not have an equal amount of masks for each icon, some of the objects don't disapear. Any sugestion?

[@FilmDat]

​@@farmiscool1992 Okay, so let's say you start with a icon with 4 masks and want to go to an icon with 3 masks you have to add an extra keyframe for the last icon and manually move the crap out of the screen. It's best to do this just one frame after the morphing starts so you don't see something moving out of the screen. I know this might sound like a messy solution but unfortunately it's the only one that seems to work at this point.

[@farmiscool1992]

FilmDat i was trying like, adding opacity keyframes from 100% to 0% to the masks that I don’t want, but nothing happens. I will try the way u said. Thanks a lot

[@aikichen0529]

How to paste it to the keyframe? 3:03

[@FilmDat]

aikichen0529 ctrl-c in illustrator to copy the icons, then highlight the masks in after effects and hit ctrl-v on the spot in the timeline you like.

[@Azorky1]

Illustrator in het nederlands haha

[@JustFun-tn5to]

Hey. I wont transform simple shape to contour of my logo and it isnt working, its morphing throw themself

[@FilmDat]

Just Fun so at which step is it going wrong? Did you reverse the path? Or does your logo have a lot more masks than the simple shape? Play around with different settings, make sure all masks have a second keyframe (if needed, move them outside the sequence) or manually adjust parts of masks to get the right effect.

[@mychanelin]

Try to use English Software language that everyone can understand.

[@mmiio78]

Your UI is not in english, would be better to follow your tutorials !

[@FilmDat]

You're right man, I tried to put all the right english translations in the video so it should still be clear. Will try to keep this in account next time..

[@yunusk6217]

this doesn't work for objects with colour fill white boy.

[@informationforyou490]

Thank you!!!, you are the first person I have found that has simplified a way to easily morph in AE.

[@FilmDat]

Thanks man! I'm glad I figured this out and am able to share it with you guys. It's one of those things you will never find out because it's not a very logical ;)

[@bayelayelaye]

Thanks!

[@1emilyjordyn]

Thank you!!!, you are the first person I have found that has simplified a way to easily morph in AE.

[@FilmDat]

Thanks Dennis! Glad you found this video. It took me ages to find out this simple trick ;)

[@MissCherryBoom1]

Thank u!!

[@ToddBrison]

Thanks!