Shape operators
Operators modify a shape’s geometry procedurally, and every parameter is keyframeable. This is where motion graphics actually gets made.
They are all behind one ”+ Add” menu in Style → Shape effects. There are deliberately no stacked per-operator Add buttons.
The operators
| Operator | What it does | Keyframeable |
|---|---|---|
| Repeater | Fans a shape into N copies, each with an offset transform | Every parameter |
| Path Operator | Zig-Zag · Round Corners · Pucker & Bloat · Twist | Amount and Detail |
| Trim Paths | Reveals a portion of the outline stroke | Start, End, Offset |
| Merge Paths | Union / Subtract / Intersect / Exclude across two or more shape layers | — |
| Audio Waveform | An amplitude envelope visualiser driven by a referenced audio layer | Config fields |
| Particles | A full emitter config block | Every numeric field, under particle.<key>; colours as channel tracks |
The Audio Waveform operator draws an amplitude envelope, not an FFT spectrum. If you are expecting frequency bars, this is not that.
Trim Paths is the one to learn first
Trim Paths animates a stroke’s Start, End and Offset along the path. Two recipes cover most uses:
Write-on. Keyframe End from 0 % to 100 %. The stroke draws itself.
Chase. Set Start and End a fixed distance apart — say 0 % and 20 % — then keyframe Offset from 0 % to 100 %. A segment runs around the path.
Trim Paths is added from the + Add menu in Style → Shape effects.
Repeater
A repeater takes one shape and produces N copies, each transformed by a fixed offset from the previous one. Because the transform offset is itself keyframeable, animating it fans, spirals and collapses the whole set at once.
Combine with a path operator for radial patterns: draw one element, twist it, repeat it around a centre.
Path operators
| Operator | Effect |
|---|---|
| Zig-Zag | Alternating displacement along the path |
| Round Corners | Fillets every corner |
| Pucker & Bloat | Pulls points toward or pushes them away from the centre |
| Twist | Rotates points progressively from the centre outward |
All of them take an Amount and a Detail, both keyframeable. Animating Amount from 0 is the standard way to make a shape morph into something else.
Merge Paths
Boolean combination across two or more shape layers — union, subtract, intersect, exclude. Also reachable from the Layer menu and the command palette.
Related
- Drawing tools
- Particles
- Audio — for the waveform operator’s source layer