Adobe After Effects CS3 User Manual

Page 324

AFTER EFFECTS CS3

User Guide

319

•

To scale a circle, ellipse, square, rounded square, rectangle, or rounded rectangle around its center while drawing,
hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) key after you begin dragging. Don’t release the key until you have
released the mouse button to finish drawing.

•

To cancel the drawing operation, press Esc.

Note: Each shape tool retains the settings of the most recent drawing operation with that tool. For example, if you draw
a star and modify the number of points to be 10, then the next star that you draw will also have 10 points. To reset a
tool’s settings and create a shape with the default settings, double-click the tool in the Tools panel. (See “Create a shape
or mask the size of the layer” on page 320.)

“Shortcuts for working with shape layers” on page 655

Draw rectangles, rounded rectangles, squares, and rounded squares

Select the Rectangle tool

or the Rounded Rectangle tool

, and do one of the following:

•

To draw a rectangle or rounded rectangle, drag diagonally.

•

To draw a square or rounded square, Shift-drag diagonally.

(Optional) If drawing a rounded rectangle or rounded square, do the following before releasing the mouse button:

•

To increase or decrease the corner roundness, press the Up Arrow key or the Down Arrow key, or roll the mouse
wheel forward or backward.

•

To set corner roundness to the minimum or maximum, press the Left Arrow key or the Right Arrow key.

Release the mouse button to finish drawing. If drawing a square or rounded square, release the Shift key after

releasing the mouse button.

Note: Squares are created to be square according to the pixel aspect ratio of the composition. If the composition’s pixel
aspect ratio is not 1, then squares only appear square in the Composition panel if the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio button

is selected at the bottom of the Composition panel.

Draw ellipses and circles

Select the Ellipse tool

, and do one of the following:

•

To draw an ellipse, drag diagonally.

•

To draw a circle, Shift-drag diagonally.

Release the mouse button to finish drawing. If drawing a circle, release the Shift key after releasing the mouse

button.

Note: Circles are created to be circular according to the pixel aspect ratio of the composition. If the composition’s pixel
aspect ratio is not 1, then circles only appear circular in the Composition panel if the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio button

is selected at the bottom of the Composition panel.

Draw polygons and stars

Select the Polygon tool

or the Star tool

, and do one of the following:

•

Drag to scale and rotate the polygon or star as you draw it.

•

Shift-drag to scale the polygon or star as you draw it, preventing rotation.