Manually animate an image with the Puppet tools
The
stopwatch switch 
is automatically
set for the Position property of a Deform pin as soon as the pin
is created. This means that a keyframe is set or modified each time
that you change the position of a Deform pin. This is unlike most
properties in After Effects, for which you must explicitly set the
stopwatch switch by adding a keyframe or an expression to animate
each property. The auto-animation of Deform pins makes it convenient
to add them and animate them in the Composition panel or Layer panel,
without manipulating the properties in the Timeline panel.
- Using the Puppet Pin tool
, do
one of the following in the Composition panel or the Layer panel:-
Click any nontransparent pixel of a raster layer to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline created by auto-tracing the layer’s alpha channel.
-
Click within a closed path on a vector layer to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline defined by that path.
-
Click within a closed, unlocked mask to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline defined by the mask path.
-
Click outside all closed paths on a vector layer to apply the Puppet effect without creating a mesh. Outlines are created for paths on the layer, though an outline is only visible when a Puppet tool pointer is over the area that the outline defines. Place the pointer over the area enclosed by a path to see the outline in which a mesh will be created if you click that point. (See How the Puppet effect creates outlines.) Click within an outline to create a mesh.
A Deform pin is placed where you clicked to create the mesh.
Note: If an image is too complex for the Puppet effect to generate a mesh with the current Triangle value, a “Mesh Generation Failed” message appears in the Info panel. Increase the Triangle value in the Tools panel and try again. -
You can modify the Deform pins’ motion paths as you would any other motion paths.
