In addition to being able to animate individual shapes, you can animate the complete set of shapes on the shape layer as a single entity.

This is useful if you have constructed a complex illustration from a number of separate shapes and want to animate it as if it were a single object.

Each shape can be given its own animation path with control over the following features:

  • Opacity

  • Drop shadow opacity

  • Offset color and softness

  • Position

  • Rotation

  • Scale

  • Write on amount

  • Softness

To Auto-animate the Entire Shape Layer

Click the Auto Animate button on the Properties panel for the shape layer, or select the shape layer in the Layers list and click Auto-Animate... on the Layer menu.

The Automatic Animation dialog box allows you to automatically slide in, slide out, fade on, and/or fade off the shape layer with specified timings.

For more information about using the automatic animation dialog box see section Automatically Animating a Layer.

To Animate the Entire Shape Layer

  1. Select the Path tool:

  2. Drag the shape layer to the position you want it to have at each frame of the animation.

  3. Hold down CTRL and drag from a point on the animation path to extend tangent handles from that point and create a curved animation path:

Tip: If you are creating a small graphic draw it in the center of the shape layer, as this makes its position correspond to the points on the animation path.