I can quickly make variations of my circle burst by duplicating and slightly adjusting the keyframes or other settings. Now it looks more like it’s following the laws of physics. To smooth out the animation and give it a more natural look, I’ll change the first keyframes to “Easy Ease Out” and the last keyframes to “Easy Ease In.” Then I can open up the graph editor and ramp up the speed at the beginning, slowing it down toward the end. It’s important to not animate the scale of the shape layer, as you want control over this attribute later. Next, I’ll open up the “Transform” properties of the ellipse and animate the “Scale” from 0 to 100. I want it to disappear, so I’ll animate the width from 30 down to 0. First, I’ll animate the width of the stroke. To create a circle burst, I only need to animate two properties - “Stroke Width” and “Scale.” I want the animation to be roughly one second in length, so I’ll add a sequence marker to quickly visualize where to place the end keyframes.

Then use the “Align” panel to center the circle within the composition. If it’s not already centered, simply select the layer and go to Layer > Transform > Center Anchor Point in Layer Content. It’s important to center the anchor point to the ellipse shape so that it will animate properly. To get the look I want, I’ll turn off the fill and set the stroke to white, with a width of 35 pixels. Let’s take a step-by-step look at how to create one in Adobe After Effects.įirst, I’ll use the Ellipse Tool to create a simple circle.

The circle burst is extremely easy to create, and it’s incredibly versatile. You can throw these elements behind an animated logo to illustrate movement, or add them to text graphics for some dynamic and interesting results. In our latest video tutorial, learn how you can use circle burst animations to quickly spice up a motion graphics project.

After effects stroke animation