Choose stroke or fill type and blending options, Modify the color mapping for a gradient – Adobe After Effects CS4 User Manual
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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Drawing, painting, and paths
Last updated 12/21/2009
New shapes are created with fill and stroke properties depicted by the swatch buttons next to the underlined Fill and
Stroke text controls in the Tools panel. You can also modify the fill colors, stroke colors, fill type, and stroke type for
selected shapes using these controls. The Fill and Stroke controls are only visible in the Tools panel when a shape layer
is selected or a drawing tool is active.
If multiple shapes are selected, with different fill or stroke properties, then the swatch button next to the Fill or Stroke
control contains a question mark. You can still modify the fill and stroke properties using these controls, and the
corresponding properties for all selected shapes are set to the same value.
Fills and strokes can be any of four types:
None
No paint operation is performed.
Solid color
The entire fill or stroke consists of one color.
Linear gradient
The fill or stroke consists of colors and opacity values defined by a linear gradient and then mapped
onto the composition along a single axis from the Start Point to the End Point.
Radial gradient
The fill or stroke consists of colors and opacity values defined by a linear gradient, which are mapped
onto the composition along a radius extending outward from the Start Point at the center to the End Point at the
circumference of a circle. You can offset the starting point by modifying the Highlight Length and Highlight Angle
values.
You can animate and interpolate gradients by adding keyframes to the Colors property and using the Color Picker in
Gradient Editor mode to add, modify, and remove color stops and opacity stops. You can also save gradients as
The colors of strokes and fills for shape layers are not rendered as high-dynamic range colors. Color values under 0.0
or over 1.0 are clipped to fall within the range of 0.0 to 1.0.
More Help topics
Select a color or edit a gradient
Choose stroke or fill type and blending options
•
To choose a fill type or stroke type for new shapes, or set the blending mode or opacity for a fill or stroke for new
shapes, click the underlined Fill or Stroke text control in the Tools panel. To cycle through fill types or stroke types
for existing shapes, select the shapes before using these controls.
•
To cycle through fill types or stroke types for new shapes, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the swatch
button next to the underlined Fill or Stroke text control in the Tools panel. To choose a fill type or stroke type for
existing shapes, select the shapes before using these controls.
Choose a solid color or edit a gradient for a stroke or fill
•
To choose a solid color or gradient for fills or strokes for new shapes, click the swatch button next to the underlined
Fill or Stroke text control in the Tools panel. To choose a solid color or gradient for fills or strokes for existing
shapes, select the shapes before using the controls.
Modify the color mapping for a gradient
A gradient is a range of color and opacity values that you can customize in the Gradient Editor dialog box. You can
also customize how those colors are applied to a stroke or fill by modifying the Start Point and End Point, which
determine the direction and scale of the gradient. For example, you can modify these points to stretch the colors of a
gradient over a larger area, or orient a linear gradient so that colors fade from top to bottom instead of from left to
right. For a radial gradient, you define the center of gradient, its radius, and the offset of a highlight.