Stop Using Boring Static Highlights - Pro After Effects Workflow

Stop Using Boring Static Highlights - Pro After Effects Workflow

Graham Quince August 24, 2026

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Did you know you can use After Effects expressions to dynamically rewrite your mask shapes on the fly? In this tutorial, I'll show you a cool experssion (createPath) which lets you use code (and maths) to draw masks and paths! This means we can set a starting point, give it a length and AE will create a line for us.

I came up with this because I was tired of trying to move or adjust path points. This way, I just use a point control and a slider and I'm done. But then, thanks to laziness, I also added code to have the line draw based on the layer's in-point, so I don't even have to add keyframes. All bundled up into a preset.

In this video, I cover:

Getting a web page as an image (there's a couple of tricks I've picked up)

The expression code for createPath

The draw on expression for Trim Paths

Adding Fractal Noise and Layer Styles to help make it look like a marker pen.

Download the preset here (Pay What You Want, including free)

Bonus: Free step-by-step PDF

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