Aescripts FX StrokeSetter v1.0 (WIN, MAC): There is a missing Stroke panel in After Effects!
Change the Stroke Caps, Corners, and Alignment of several Shape Layers at the same time.
Include Taper, Wave, and Dashes into your strokes and manage them using expressions local (effects generated on every layer) and globally (effects on an entire Null) by using simple shortcuts!
As a motion artist, the chances are you will find yourself twirling all of your Shape Layers' content groups to discover and alter all the properties associated with a stroke, such as Color, Width, Opacity Dashes, Taper Wave...
In fact, After Effects doesn't even have a "Stroke panel" like Illustrator particularly when you have a lot of vector illustrations that are stylized spinning the groups of content for Shape layers over and over can become extremely lengthy.
This is the reason I've developed a specialized, practical new tool! I'd like to introduce you to...
FX StrokeSetter comprises icons that are organized into an intuitive, fluid UI Panel, which is arranged in the following order:
Select one of these two buttons to change your stroke's ' Taper Start' (10) or the ' Taper End' (11) to 100 percent, for specific Shape Layers.
ATL Clicking upon this button will create Local Controls. In this way, you'll force all of the options in the Stroke Taper ('Start Length'and 'End Lenght' as well as 'Start Width 'End Width'as well as 'Start Ease and End Ease') to be connected to the same Expressions Controls which will be added to every Shape Layer's stack of effects. This is ideal for those who want to keep an evenness across all forms that are contained in the same shape layer. Each of them must share the same Taper Effect.
Alt + Shift and clicking upon these keys will generate global control. Just like explained earlier each Taper property will be controlled by a set of Expression Controls that are created local to the property... However, each one of this effect will be connected by an expression with a master null named 'FX_StrokeSetter CTRL' which contains the same effects of Controls that be driving all specified shapes Layers global (conversely from the ALT-only shortcut where the controls were only local and independent of the other layers). This is the best option when you wish to ensure the same consistency across all your compositions or display the effects as Master Properties within the Essential Graphics Panel for templates for creation. If there is an 'FX_StrokeSetter CTRL' null layer is already in the current composition the Effects Controls Effects can be added to its effects stack, in addition to other controls already in use.
Click the option (12) to change the value of the stroke's "Wave Amount' to default to 75% for the selected Shape Layers.
ALT + clicking the button to create Local Controls. This way, you'll be able to force all the options of Stroke Wave ('Wave Amount', 'Wave Length' and the last one, 'Wave Phase') to be linked to the same Expression Controls that are added to the Shape Layer's effect stack. This is ideal when you wish to ensure some consistency across all shapes that make up a shape layer. The shapes will share the exact Wave Effect.
Alt + Shift and click to generate global control. Just like explained earlier every Wave feature will be controlled by a set of Expression Controls that are created locally to the Wave property... However, each one of these Expression Controls effects will also be linked by the expression of a master null known as 'FX_StrokeSetter' in which you'll discover the exact identical Controls effects that be driving all specified shape Layers worldwide (conversely from the shortcut ALT-only that controls were local and independent of the other layers). This is the best option when you wish to ensure the same consistency across all your compositions or make the effects available as Master Properties within the Essential Graphics Panel for templates design. If the 'FX_StrokeSetter' null layer is already present in the current composition The controls Effects are added to its effects stack, along with other controls that are already present.
Click the button (13) for adding the Gaps and Dashes in the Stroke's " Dashes' group on the selected shape layers. A pop-up window will ask you to add gaps and dashes by pair ('Dash 1', 'Gap 1" and 'Dash 2') Gap 2 '...), all the way to 3 pairs of Dash/Gap (After Effects cannot add more in natively) Thanks to buttons and - buttons. and + and - buttons (then verify by clicking "Set Dashes for selected shape layers').
Alt + click the button to generate some Local options. This way, you'll have to force all choices for Stroke Dashes that you have selected within the window in the modal mode ('Dash 1 'Gap1 2), ... + another option called "Dashes Offset") to be connected to the same-named Expressions Controls that are added to every Shape Layer's stack of effects. This is ideal for those who want to keep some consistency across all shapes that make up a shape layer. It will share the exact Dashes set-up.
ALT + SHIFT and click to generate global control. Just like explained earlier the Dashes property can be controlled by a set of Expression Controls that are made in local memory... But every one of the effects will also be linked by the expression with a master null named 'FX_StrokeSetter CTRL' which contains the same effects of Controls that be driving all specified shapes Layers global (conversely from the shortcut that only uses ALT, which controls were local and independent of the other layers). This is the ideal choice for those who want to maintain uniformity across the entire composition or make the effects available as Master Properties within the Essential Graphics Panel for templates design. If the 'FX_StrokeSetter' null layer is already present in the composition currently active The controls Effects are added to its effects stack, in addition to other controls already in use.
(14) is employed to serve two purposes for either restoring the Dashes as well as Taper effects or applying global or local controls to Strokes Dimension, Color, and Opacity on the specific Shape Layers.
If you click the button only without a shortcut the script will eliminate any Dashes that are present from Strokes. change the Wave Amount to 0 and set their Taper Start and End Length values to zero.
If these properties contained an expression associated with them, for instance, if you made global or local controls by pressing ALT on the tool's buttons, for example then you'll have to reset the 'Hard' of the Shape Layer you want to change's Stroke, which means taking out all the effects, expressions and the master 'FX_StrokeSetter CTRL' layer. Hold the shift key when you click this button to accomplish this (and confirm the action when the message pops up)
Alt + clicking the button below will make local controls for Stroke width, Color, and Opacity as well as a checkbox titled "Non-Rescaling Stroke Width'. This is a checkbox you can select if would like your Strokes width to remain the same when you change the size of your shape or the parent layer! This way, you'll be able to force the Stroke width, Color as well as Opacity linked to similar Expressions Controls which will be added to every shape layer's effect stack. This is ideal when you wish to ensure an evenness across the shapes that are contained within a single shape layer. The shapes will share the exact Stroke Width, Color, and Opacity.
Alt + Shift + clicking the button to make global settings. Similar to what was explained earlier Stroke's Width, Color and Opacity are controlled by certain Expression Controls that are created locally to the Shape Layer... But all of these effects will also be connected by the expression of a master null known as 'FX_StrokeSetter CTRL' which contains the identical Controls effects that be driving all selected shapes Layers global (conversely with the ALT-only shortcut which controls were local, independent from the other layers). This is the best option when you wish to ensure the same consistency across all your compositions or display the effects as Master Properties within the Essential Graphics Panel for templates design. If the 'FX_StrokeSetter' null layer is already present in the active composition the Effects Controls Effects can be added to its effects stack, in addition to other controls already in use.
Click this button (15) and without any shortcuts to get all the product's details which includes the model number as well as the tools ' descriptions, and a few external websites.
You can also utilize the exact same button while pressing your Shift key to instantly select all Shape Layers that are within the current composition. Pretty convenient when you've got a lot of Shape Layers, and a complicated timeline with various kinds of layers!
Important Notes:
You can choose any number of shape layers you like in the current composition and the program will go through all of them to locate Strokes and apply different effects to them. You can do this in the direction at the root of Contents (if you build the shape layer and then apply strokes manually, for example) or within groups at the 1st level just. Deeper group levels are not considered in order to keep responsiveness. However, it shouldn't be an issue generally, since the first levels of hierarchy are the typical situation (Strokes are included in 1st level groups when you draw shapes using the AE vector tool or import them by using Overlord for instance).
Installation:
Use the aescript and plugins manager or copy and paste both the FX_StrokeSetter .jsxbin file AND the FXStrokeSetterAssets folder into your Adobe After Effects' Scripts > ScriptsUI Panels folder.
The toolkit works on PC and MAC It is suitable for all After Effects CCplus versions, minus those with the Taper as well as Wave effects which were first added in the AE C2020 (build 17.2). Prior to this version that was not compatible, those buttons Start Taper, End Taper, and Wave buttons will be grayed out and not enabled.
