[Music]
hey there this is Zack love it and I'm
going to show you the new version of
explode shap layers now even if you're
familiar with explode shap layers
there's a lot of new functionality and
I've changed the way a few things work
so you might want to sit down and take a
look at
this now the first thing you'll notice
is that we have a row of buttons instead
of just two going through these the
first one explodes the second merges the
third converts a vector layer to a shape
layer the fourth removes artboard
artifacts left over from illustrator the
fifth selects fills and the sixth
selects Strokes the very last button
here will open your options where you
can control the same options you're used
to plus a few new things let's get right
into this I'm just going to dock this in
my interface down
here nice and out of the way I've got
this scene here of a little lab bench
and inside of my one shape layer we've
got all of these different shapes this
is the microscope scope this is the
bottle this is the glass um more bottles
the beaker you get it first button super
simple
explode it's going to run through our
layers and at the end you'll get a
report it exploded one layer with 12
total shapes you see here on our
interface it did now each of our shapes
is a separate
layer perfect next up
merge so merge is essentially the
reverse we're going to select our layers
in this case I'm going to
select all these all the bottles in this
glass and I'm just going to hit
merge merge complete we merge six layers
together containing a total of six
shapes if we twir this down we're going
to see we've got each of those bottles
and that glass Beaker third button
convert so let's come over into this new
scene and we just brought this in
directly this is our AI file and what
you can do is you can right click and
hit create shapes from vect
layer and that does it that's fine it
works it's just that's two steps
alternatively we can just click this
button it does the exact same thing but
in a oneclick solution now you may have
seen this before in the corners here at
the edges we've got our artboard this is
the same artboard that illustrator uses
it's brought into after effects in two
situations that I've found the first is
if you have any art going outside of the
artboard it'll bring in the artboard as
a mask the second is if you have any
layer that has an opacity not 100% it's
going to bring in the artboard it
doesn't really do much it just kind of
gets in the way and clutters it up so
this new button here oneclick solution
and it just removed that artboard from
all of our different shapes within it
these last two buttons select fills and
select Strokes will select all of the
appropriate property in your current
comp so if we hit select fills it's
going to select everything in here at
which point we can change the
color or you know remove it outright
change the mode anything you'd like
select Strokes same thing we're just
going to select all of our Strokes we're
going to change the color to a bright
garish red and scale it
up pretty straightforward alternatively
we don't like that let's just remove it
and they're all done in one click great
that's the basics of explode shape
layers version three if you stick around
I'm just going to show a few more
advanced things Okay so
let's go into our options here there are
two tabs the first is options letting
you toggle certain functionality and
display options on or off and the second
is a help panel just a bit more
information about the different controls
we have looking the options these first
three are very familiar to anyone who's
used the existing version delete Source
chooses whether you want to delete a
layer or shape after you've exploded or
merged it or whether you want just want
to hide it if delete is turned off it's
going to hide it if it's turned on it'll
delete the third one Center Anchor Point
points is whether or not you want to
preserve the Anchor Point of your shape
layer when you explode something so here
I'm exploding it and you can see this
Anchor Point is Centered for the all
just going to undo if it's turned off
and we explode the Anchor Point is
preserved to where it was on the shape
layer this is kind of Handy for
different rigging options or depending
on just how you set up your scene now
kind of skipped over this one but use
all shapes is probably the most complex
option we have here by default it's
turned on and what that means is when we
explode or merge it's going to explode
out every single shape layer we have
it's going to merge full layers it's not
going to merge specific things within it
it's going to take every layer you
select and put it into a new one or
every shape in your layer and explode it
to new one with this turned
off what you have to do if you try to
explode it it's going to tell you to
select shape groups instead of shaped
layers this means you need to go and
specify what layers you want to explode
hit EXP
explode and now it's only exploded those
ones out to a new one preserving the
rest of it in your main layer with merge
this works a bit differently we're going
to do in this comp just cuz it's a lot
cleaner we're going to take just our
bottles and instead of exploding them
we're going to merge
them and what this does it makes one new
layer with those properties in it so
that way instead of exploding each to a
new layer it's merged them together to
one layer but it's only merged what
you've chosen instead of the full layer
great now at the bottom at the side
here these are mostly display ones this
here says use graphic buttons right now
our interface has these graphic
buttons these Works they're small if you
know what they mean they're kind of
quick you can work with it easier it
takes up less room in your interface
however turning this off will give you
these text
buttons it's just if you can't remember
what the buttons do if you'd rather the
look of the text this is a easy way to
do that now what display does is lets
you choose what buttons to show for me I
don't really use convert or clean
artboard much maybe I make a lot of my
shape layers within After Effects I
don't do a lot of bringing in from
illustrator but I'd like to be able to
select all fills stroke and I still want
to explode and emerge so just going to
hide those two when you hit okay it's
going to update your interface just to
show those buttons that you
specified in addition the interface is
now completely responsive to fit any
layout that you'd like if you want a
vertical you can do that if you want a
mix of some sort totally up to you all
of this is completely customizable to
what your feel like your needs would be
and so that's explode shape layers
version 3 I hope you found this useful
if you have any questions comments or
concerns don't hesitate to get in touch
[Music]
thanks