Animate an Arrow on ONE LAYER | After Effects Tutorial & Free Preset
23K views · 2023-03-09
Motion Design
➡️ Download the free animated arrow preset and project file: https://animationexplained.gumroad.com/l/animatearrows
Learn how to create an animated arrow on one layer, that you can easily reuse across many After Effects projects. No plugins or third-party software required!
🎓 Learn how to create real-world animation projects. My course, After Effects, Explained walks you through 7 hands-on projects that build into an explainer animation: https://link.animationexplained.com/aeexplained14
There are many ways to animate arrows in After Effects, but by creating both the arrowhead and line on the same shape layer, there are no nulls and it’s less layers to clutter your timeline. You can change the position, scale, and rotation, adjust the colors or stroke and add effects to stylize it. Even change the path of the line! Adjust the animation by adjusting the keyframes. All this, and the arrowhead will stay attached to the line!
It’s easy to copy and paste the layer to use it in other comps. Plus, you can save it as a preset so you can easily reuse the arrow, with its animation, across any After Effects project; no need to import anything.
This method uses expressions, but I’ll walk you through every step, so you don’t need to know anything about expressions to follow along. Copy the expressions here: https://www.meganfriesth.com/tutorials/animatearrows
In this video:
1:35 Create Arrow in After Effects
6:46 Animate Line Drawing In
7:15 Attach Arrowhead to Line
13:06 Orient Arrowhead Along Line
16:05 Animate the Arrow In and Out
17:32 Adjust Arrow
18:19 Create an Arrow with Artwork from Illustrator
23:22 Solutions to Arrowhead Orientation Issues
24:54 Switch the Direction of the Arrow
25:50 Save Arrow as Preset
➡️ Watch "part 2" to learn how to update the expressions so you can animate the arrow along a path (by animating the Offset value under the line's Trim Paths): https://youtu.be/mBjtB2LeZn4
My website: https://www.animationexplained.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/animationexplained
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/explanimated/
Learn how to create an animated arrow on one layer, that you can easily reuse across many After Effects projects. No plugins or third-party software required!
🎓 Learn how to create real-world animation projects. My course, After Effects, Explained walks you through 7 hands-on projects that build into an explainer animation: https://link.animationexplained.com/aeexplained14
There are many ways to animate arrows in After Effects, but by creating both the arrowhead and line on the same shape layer, there are no nulls and it’s less layers to clutter your timeline. You can change the position, scale, and rotation, adjust the colors or stroke and add effects to stylize it. Even change the path of the line! Adjust the animation by adjusting the keyframes. All this, and the arrowhead will stay attached to the line!
It’s easy to copy and paste the layer to use it in other comps. Plus, you can save it as a preset so you can easily reuse the arrow, with its animation, across any After Effects project; no need to import anything.
This method uses expressions, but I’ll walk you through every step, so you don’t need to know anything about expressions to follow along. Copy the expressions here: https://www.meganfriesth.com/tutorials/animatearrows
In this video:
1:35 Create Arrow in After Effects
6:46 Animate Line Drawing In
7:15 Attach Arrowhead to Line
13:06 Orient Arrowhead Along Line
16:05 Animate the Arrow In and Out
17:32 Adjust Arrow
18:19 Create an Arrow with Artwork from Illustrator
23:22 Solutions to Arrowhead Orientation Issues
24:54 Switch the Direction of the Arrow
25:50 Save Arrow as Preset
➡️ Watch "part 2" to learn how to update the expressions so you can animate the arrow along a path (by animating the Offset value under the line's Trim Paths): https://youtu.be/mBjtB2LeZn4
My website: https://www.animationexplained.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/animationexplained
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/explanimated/