Cleanup Master Tutorial: Faster Shape Layer Animation in After Effects

Posted in Tutorials
Gabriel Gareso
October 30, 2025

In this video, Gabriel Gareso shows how he uses Cleanup Master in his own animations, a powerful toolbar designed to simplify shape layer management and make the cleanup process faster and more precise.

Tools used

Author Notes

Cleanup Master is a Toolbar designed to greatly improve frame-by-frame animation cleanup and any other shape layer-related task in After Effects. Get Cleanup Master now at https://aescripts.com/cleanup-master/

In this video, Gabriel Gareso shows how he uses Cleanup Master in his own animations.

Think of this as a guide you can adapt and optimize for your own preferences.

 

Check out more of Gabriel's tutorials here: ‪@gareso‬

 

CONTENTS OF THIS VIDEO:

00:00 - Intro

00:04 - Initial thoughts

00:56 - 1. The Design

01:36 - 2. The Rough Pass

02:30 - 3. Tracing Your Design

04:40 - 4. Renaming Shape Groups

05:46 - 5. Fill Shapes & Reorder

06:52 - 6. The Cleanup

12:55 - 7.1 Adding Details: Parenting to Nulls

16:02 - 7.2 Adding Details: Animated Details

18:05 - 7.3 Adding Details: Quick tip: Separating Strokes

18:43 - 7.4 Adding Details: Quick tip: Contract Masks

19:12 - 7.5 Adding Details: Clipping Strokes

20:15 - 7.6 Adding Details: Working with Groups

22:24 - 7.7 Adding Details: Combining Masks

24:05 - 7.8 Adding Details: Adding Simple Shadows

25:08 - Wrapping up

 

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