Using Bezier Warp - Adobe After Effects Tutorial

Jacquelin Vanderwood July 1, 2004   1 With the graphic in place and selected, open up Effect and Distort. Choose Bezier Warp.   2 As you can see there are a variety of options available to use for manipulation purposes on the graphic. Let's see how it works. A vertex controls the position of the segment while a tangent controls the curvature of the segment.   3 Here is our graphic with Bezier Warp applied. To understand how it works, think of it as a closed bezier curve enclosing the layer. Each part of the curve consists of four segments as shown below.    4 If we pull on the tangent, we can see that the segment begins to curve outward.   5 Let's click on Top Left Tangent and place the crosshairs in a different position such as below the neck of the item.   6 The position of the top left tangent is moved down.   7 Bezier Warp can also be animated in a variety of ways. Under Elasticity you'll find four options for the style of movement you desire such as Stiff, Normal, Loose, and Liquid (which can actually replicate the gelatin movement).   8 Here we've simulated the movement of the graphic as it may be animated. There are a variety of ways to animate. You can include such effects as a fisheye lens, or maybe wrapping a label around a bottle.     9 You could also animate the piece to act as if it is carrying on a conversation by moving the pieces and keyframing along the way.    Copyright 1998-2004, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved