AfterEffects

Sketch a motion path with Motion Sketch

You can draw a path for the motion of a selected layer using Motion Sketch, which records the position of the layer and the speed at which you draw. As you draw, a Position keyframe is generated at each frame.

Motion Sketch does not affect keyframes that you have set for other properties. For example, if you set Rotation keyframes for an image of a ball, you can use Motion Sketch to generate Position keyframes, so that the ball appears to roll along the path you created.

  1. In the Composition or Timeline panel, select the layer for which you want to sketch a motion path.
  2. In the Timeline panel, set the work-area markers to the duration in which you want to sketch motion.
  3. Choose Window > Motion Sketch.
  4. Select the appropriate Motion Sketch options:
    Show Wireframe
    Displays a wireframe view of the layer as you sketch the motion path.

    Show Background
    Displays the static contents of the frame at which you started sketching in the Composition panel while you sketch. This is useful if you want to sketch motion relative to other images in your composition.

    Smoothing
    Eliminates unnecessary keyframes from the motion path. This setting has the same result as using the Tolerance setting with The Smoother. Higher values produce smoother curves, but too high a value may not preserve the shape of the curve that you draw.
    Note: You can smooth a motion path after it has been created by using the smooth expression or The Smoother.

    Capture Speed At
    The ratio of the speed of the recorded motion to playback speed. If Capture Speed At is 100%, the motion is played back at the speed at which it was recorded. If Capture Speed At is greater than 100%, the motion plays back slower than it was recorded.

  5. Click Start Capture and then drag in the Composition panel to create the motion path. Release the mouse button to stop capturing.
    Note: After Effects automatically ends capturing when the capture time reaches the end of the work area (which, by default, is the composition duration).