STOP Struggling With Paths in After Effects with Penpal 2!

[@Ivg_design]

as an alternative you can make your paths virtual 3D with Extrudalizer script and then you won't have any issues opening/closing the the mailbox - it'll work as if its just a regular 3d layer - but without using anything 3D. As a bonus you could take the letter map the SOM logo onto it, and make it flip end over end as it flies into the mailbox!

[@sheikh_sohel]

Hmm 🧐, not a big difference if you do it manually.

[@SvetoslavAtanasov]

great tut, thank you!

[@animatabledotco]

Thank-you Sara and SoM. ❤

[@MediMilitia]

cannot show path option.. help plz

[@Enzo-ri9if]

Thank you ❤

[@andrearusky]

I don't really see how this tool really helped you to animate that closing door thing.. Actually to me, it made it even more slow and complicated, and you were looking at the left side to move the points and tangents and then check again on the right side to see how it looked together with the other elements. Just working on the actual comp would have been faster

[@akademiaonline3551]

It is good, but you can't see the front and back layers. If they do, it would be better.

[@Satysatonachair]

Then fact that you don’t have a reference image around the UI is just a massive no-no. You gently nudging the shape layer to match what you were seeing on the right felt like a 20 year backtrack.

[@animatabledotco]

You do have the option to have more than one path in Penpal’s UI. And you could then easily snap points and tangents to the same elements on the other path.

[@speld99]

Wow, it looks like you want to complicate your workflow. Especially when you attach the cover to the mailbox

[@KookyBone]

Thought the same too... I think I can do everything quicker without this tool

[@andrearusky]

this is kind of a bad example... for this type of shape animation it would have been much easier just to start with the clean path of the closed door and then just animate the points to open it! you made the whole thing so overly complicated

[@lettertosohan]

not a helpful tool and not a good tuts. its overrated