How To Use Simple Shapes and Masks to Make an Entire Animation


Can’t see the video? Go to GreyscaleGorilla.com

In one of my most asked for tutorials for After Effects, I go though the process of making my personal project from 2005, Conform Non Conform. I go though the process of using masks to animate simple shapes. Then, using precomping and simple plugins, we warp and distort the simple shapes into our final animation. I purposely kept this tutorial loose and unfinished so that you could use the techniques involved to make your own short project. Post yours in the comments! I would love to see examples on what you would make with simple shapes and pre-comping. We have all seen exact copies of tutorials… try to make it your own so you can put it in your reel will ya?



Also, what do you think about this type of tutorial? Again, I purposely made it as “in the moment” as I could. I just went through the process of how I would make something. Nothing was pre-made or scripted. I make mistakes and try different ways of doing things. I want to know what you think about it. Is it annoying or is it insightful to see me problem solve on the fly? Leave your feedback in the comments please. Enjoy!

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242 people have commented on this post. You should too!

  1. Josh Stolz says:

    Hey I was gonna put that you should use the radial wipe in the part where you were havin some problems with the orange solid, but as soon as I was gonna make this comment you figured it out. Another way that you could do it is have circles with a stroke instead of solids with masks, and then animate the strokes from 0 to 100. Great tut, love the site.

  2. debbie says:

    i thought the tutorial was great, thanks very much! i please post some more

  3. Derek Edwards says:

    I’m so confused. How are you seeing your 2d background solid through your 3d solids by way of custom view 1? Every time I do this custom view 1 gives me the animation but only with the solid black composition background. Am I missing a step?

    I’ve seen you do this twice now without changing any additional settings. Everyone I ask is of the mind that custom view doesn’t work the way you’re showing, so how is it being done?

    • Ely says:

      For Derek Edwards :
      I think you have to leave the background 2D, not 3d, so it stays all the time unchanged of the camera :)

      • Ely says:

        And work in custom view all the time

        • Bruno says:

          I have the same problem!! I’m working on Custom Viem 1, when i pre compose the strips and make it 3D my back ground turn black! How can i fix this to do like on the tutorial?

          • Tony Katz says:

            I figured out, you just need to change background color of composition, so probably follow this steps:

            1. right-click on comp1
            2. choose composition settings
            3. Find Background color
            4. Take pipette and take the color of your solid layer

  4. Pingback: after effects racing strips tutorial « Solupedia: a place where problems get solutioned

  5. monkey says:

    Amazing vid dude – keep up the ace work!
    Bezier! ;)

  6. pizza_party says:

    Great video- loved the ad lib mistake fix. Problems like that occur in real professions life + great to see how you worked through it, came up with a better solution, and didn’t give up. Disappointed that you didn’t show how you made the paint textures, brush stroke edges, and the white dots- would still love to know how you created that. Overall great tutorial- I’m a new fan!

  7. Lara says:

    I love the parts where you you had issues! It really helped going through the motions and thinking it through along side you. Thats how it actually is when I am mucking about in After Effects.
    Do more unscripted videos please :)

    Thank you!

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