“Penpal has made my workflow so much easier. Gives me really smart basic shape layer functions that I've been wanting for years inside of AE” - Claudio Salas.
If your path is inside a group or layer that’s rotated, Ae’s snapping can act weird. With Penpal you can work on the path as it really is, and move the points in their original space.
It’s a bit like having your shapes stored in ‘right way up’ external files, except you can adjust and keyframe the path right there without having to leave your comp.
Penpal’s UI is based on the one you already know from Ae - so it’s pretty intuitive. There is one thing it does differently: tangents can be selected in the same way that you select points - by either dragging a marquee over them, or shift-clicking them one-by-one.
This enables tangent control that’s more advanced than anything in Ae or Illustrator.
Load paths from selected layers into Penpal by clicking the reload button at the top-left, or double-clicking anywhere in the canvas space below.
Select the elements you want to work with by either dragging a marquee, or shift-clicking on them one-by-one. You can select paths, points and tangents independently of one another. The icons of points and tangents will change from empty to filled as you select them.
Click on the three tabs at the top of the panel to see the buttons that work with that element - paths, points or tangents. As you change tab Penpal highlights those elements blue, so you know what you’re about to affect.
“Penpal is so jam-packed with essential path editing features, I have it permanently docked in my After Effects workspace” - Al Boardman.
The Penpal User Guide is the most thorough way to learn everything Penpal can do. You can also access it from within Penpal itself - just click the Hamburger and then the Help… button.
Click the Try button at the top of this page to instantly download a 10-day trial - it will only load paths with 10 points or less. Purchase a license to unlock the full version.
Penpal is localized for Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
| After Effects | 2022, 2021, 2020, CC 2019, CC 2018 |
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