You’ll begin by drawing a rectangle with a fill and stroke. When you select a drawing tool, you can specify whether the tool draws a shape or a mask. Masks are applied to layers to hide or reveal areas or as input into effects shapes have their own layers. The same drawing tools can create both shapes and masks. Shape attributes are all represented in the Timeline panel, and you can animate each setting over time. You can apply stroke and fill settings to a shape, modify its path, and apply animation presets. When you draw a shape directly in the Composition panel, After Effects adds a new shape layer to the composition. After Effects includes five shape tools: Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, and Star.
