Pickwhip (Almost) ANYTHING in After Effects | Tutorial

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to pickwhip (almost) anything. Whether it's a transform properties, layer value, effect value, expression... almost any property at all can be pickwhipped. This yields great results if done correctly, and will also save you a ton of time!
PROJECT FILES AND NOTES: www.dropbox.com/sh/aw5wecgskd...
THE POWER OF SHAPE LAYERS: www.udemy.com/course/power-of...
00:00 - Begin
00:09 - Intro
01:15 - What is pickwhipping?
02:59 - Opacity pickwhip
03:30 - Shape Layer Position pickwhip
06:13 - Gear Animation pickwhip
07:57 - Pie Chart Animation pickwhip
09:31 - Pickwhip Effects (Fill)
10:30 - You can't pickwhip everything
11:30 - Clock Animation pickwhip
12:42 - Summary
13:18 - Outro
INTRO
Hey everybody, and welcome back to another episode of 13 Minute AE Tutorials, where you learn tips, tricks, and shortcuts in 13 minutes or less. No BS. Just AE.
In this episode, we're gonna talk about pickwhipping. If you're unfamiliar, pickwhipping is how you create a parent-child relationship between two layers or properties. Most motion graphic designers are familiar with the concept of pickwhipping, but to a limited degree.
We've all pickwhipped layers to a null, or maybe one layer to another layer so they follow each other. But there's so much more that you can do with pickwhipping. I'm going to show you several ways to increase your speed, streamline your workflow, and make life in general so much easier by simply pickwhipping the right properties to one another. This is one of those episodes where you will learn techniques that you can use every single day.
Please like this episode so I can get into the good graces of the elusive KZbin algorithm. Share my channel with your friends, colleagues, and co-workers. And click the bell so you're notified every time I upload a new video. Drop examples of what you learned from this episode into the comments below.
I hope that helped you. Please like, subscribe, share, and comment. Click the bell so you're notified every time I upload a new video. Tell your friends, colleagues, and co-workers about my channel so they can hone their motion graphics skills, too. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and I'd like to see what you come up with using this parenting technique. Drop your examples into the comments below!
And sign up for my Udemy course, "The Power of Shape Layers." It's a comprehensive course that covers literally every aspect of shapes layers. And it's guaranteed to make you a shape layer superstar.
The link to that course as well as the notes and project files for this episode are in the description below. Thanks for watching, everybody. And I'll see you next time.

[@dkdakty]

so skilled m8, ty for teaching us

[@dancu9271]

A lot of thanks for making and sharing your video!!

[@shimronnetia]

you are After Effects Rock Star. thank you

[@Ramonizado]

This is the ultimate channel for After Effects tutorials. 10/10

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Thanks so much!

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

Best Mic setup in the game 😂 thanks boss 🖤🍭🫶😎🐓

[@WiLDeveD]

Awesome Tutorial . Thanks

[@SandorLevente]

your chanel is way too underrated! keep up the quality content!

[@hoagieman37]

insanely good video

[@KarenAJS]

Very very helpful!

[@pixelrubbish]

literally just had to figure out that gear thing today ha! I thought to myself.. "man, what would Jeff do?" that is super eerie man, we on the same wavelength ~~~~ Thanks again for another lesson towards AE mastery!

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Pixel Rubbish perfect timing my friend. Glad I could help

[@stevemilne9306]

This is excellent, will be referencing back to this for sure!

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Steve Milne thanks for watching - glad I could help

[@roy.phalguni]

Awesome tutorial

[@JaredWoodsAus]

Amazing tutorial - thanks!

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Jared Woods much appreciated. Thanks for watching

[@xDaShaanx]

Thanks. Subbed you for this.

[@randallhernandez1644]

Holy moly, you helped me to open my gate of imagination. Thanks 👌🏽

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Thanks for watching!

[@unk359]

you helped me so much thank you

[@ajeet1994]

again...a very useful and important tutorial... thank you sir...

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Ajeet Singh truly appreciated - thanks for watching

[@libyaticketing8131]

MASTER

[@mostafakhater1399]

Thanks

[@catarinasofia2850]

glad i found you!

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Thanks for the comment. I'm super happy to have you watching

[@artist1712]

thank you very much

[@ShubhamSharma-wm9qr]

awesomeeee tuts man! just asking, why do you paint your nails black ???

[@ELNTX]

Holy sh*t! Perfect tutorial!

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Much appreciated. Thanks for watching, and thanks so much for the comment.

[@ehsan_shardum]

I think we need more video about this

[@el-haythemberrahal9009]

Thanks 👆

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

El-Haythem berrahal glad to help

[@Bloom-pq8nf]

hello in my after effects 2015 version, pick whip only shown to main layer. not availabe to drop down layers. how to correct that

[@Ann_Ann11]

Can i parent pick TEXT layer to the Solid and Camera layer? I have tried many times but it doesnt work.....

[@ilyasbarati509]

can you please make an other video about how to pick whip a shape to the offset of a trim path

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

I'm not sure I completely understand what effect you're trying to achieve. Are you asking to see a video that shows how to pick whip a shape to a trim paths with the final result being that the trim of the path is offset by the animation of the shape? Please elaborate.

[@praveenyadav9558]

This video helped me alot literally excellent way of explanation, You don't deserves just 16.3k subscribers you deserves 17M subscribers. Alots of love from India🇮🇳

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

I agree with the subs! Thanks so much for watching.

[@praveenyadav9558]

@@7MinuteAETutorials Alots of love from India 😘

[@Akkerbouwbedrijf_prosu]

THANKS! can you help with a instruction how colors work, because i dont want to multipli or divide

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Let me know if this helps - kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJmTiKFoqM-Zi9U

[@Akkerbouwbedrijf_prosu]

@@7MinuteAETutorials no it doesn't. at 10:08 you mutilply the color for another effect. I have done that, but have no idea how it works

[@MikeyDoland]

A problem I'm having is that when I apply the pick whip to position (let's say), it'll snap my object to the current position of the null object and it cannot be edited. Like if I want to pick whip something to follow the null object, just under the null object, it won't let me make that happen. Any help would be appreciated.

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Instead of pickwhipping at the position level, try pickwhipping the layer . Let me know if that helps.

[@MikeyDoland]

@@7MinuteAETutorials Thanks for the reply. Not to make you feel like tech support, but this is a problem I don't see addressed often. That gives me an error of "Object of Type Layer found where a Number Array or Property is needed." All I did was pick whip and it generated this code: "thisComp.layer("Shape Layer 1")". If I pick whip the position attribute, it generates this with no errors: "thisComp.layer("Shape Layer 1").transform.position"

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

@@MikeyDoland The reason why the layer snaps to the position of the null and is not editable when you pickwhip POSITIION is because you're telling the child layer to have the position (and only the exact position) of the null layer. Depending on the situation, you'll want to pickwhip the null at the layer level - that way it will follow the null, but you have more freedom to edit your transform properties. One of the few instances where I pickwhip POSITION to POSITION is when I have text on a shape layer text box and I need the positions to be exact - even then, this only works if the anchor points for both text and the text box are centered. I hope this helps explain why you're unable to edit the position of the child layer when you parent it to the position of the parent.

[@sgc4271]

I'm sure it's something really simple but I've currently got an issue wherein I attempt to pick whip one layer to another and either one or both layers disappear...any advice out there?

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Does the layer have "SHY" enabled? It's the icon of the little guy that's peeking - it should be the icon to the left of the rasterize icon. I've never heard of a layer disappear when it's pickwhipped, though.

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Does this help - kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3fFp5Khj9uMa5I

[@sgc4271]

@@7MinuteAETutorials thanks - yeah, no shy icon and no 3D layers...I've never had this happen either...gonna re-instal and try again - thanks for the advice :)

[@Ellie-iz7ds]

This is 3 months later but were you ever able to figure that out? I'm having the same issue. Pig whip is turning into a matte now

[@sgc4271]

@@Ellie-iz7ds yeah, it's a new feature in the updated version - a pick-whip function for track-matting...it threw me off until I realized it was a new feature😝 just go to columns and choose 'parent and link' column and you should be fine

[@teevee7678]

i dont have the @ thing help

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

What version of AE are you using?

[@HueyishXL]

Channel name 7 minute AE tutorial, Playlist name 13 minute AE tutorials, video length 14 minutes xD brother let me get you a CLOCK

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

Consider it a gift that you got double the content :) A clock really isn't necessary. After editing the tutorial, I'm fully aware it's over 7 minutes. The original concept was to keep these at that length. After 8 years, a few things change - some are longer, some are shorter. Surely the title alone isn't enough to keep you from learning something new in After Effects! Thanks for watching.

[@HueyishXL]

@@7MinuteAETutorials i appreciate it, just a fun aspect of the video, really grateful for the tutorial here. I'll be sure to check out more.

[@7MinuteAETutorials]

@@HueyishXL Thanks! Yeah, I tried to keep these all at 7 minutes for a few years I did. As things got more advanced, it was just too difficult so I started offsetting the longer ones with really quick short tips. The one thing that has never changed is no B.S. - only A.E. :) Thanks again for your support.