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mizugori
Participant
Sep 2, 2017 11:07 PM UTC
Answered

Why don't I see the buttons to set stroke and fill color when using pen tool?

I am new to Adobe After Effects. I saw a video and am trying to duplicate an animation effect they did. However, shortly into the video they select the pen tool, and then a little to the right in the toolbar, you can clearly see options for what I believe are "fill" (or color) and "stroke" before the rotobezier checkbox. (Yes I know, it's in Spanish, apologies.)

However, in my toolbar when I click the pen, I don't get these same buttons/tools/whatever:

I have tried messing around in menus, looking all over the place, but I cannot seem to figure this out - can anyone help me get those two options into my toolbar?

angie_taylor
angie_taylorCorrect answer
Legend
Sep 2, 2017 11:16 PM UTC

You probably have a layer selected in the timeline. When a layer is selected the pen tool defaults to mask mode. Deselect all layers before choosing the pen tool and see if that works.

hope this helps,

Angie Taylor | http://www.creativecabin.co.uk

16 replies

Participant
Aug 24, 2026 6:56 AM UTC

Fill color missing - After effects 2026

 

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Nishu Kushwaha
Community Manager
Community Manager
Aug 24, 2026 12:56 PM UTC

Hi there,


That's not ideal. Could you share a screenshot of your After Effects interface? You can try running After Effects in Safe Mode with third-party plug-ins disabled. Here's how: https://adobe.ly/4hRpnme

Let me know how it goes.


Thanks,

Nishu

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angie_taylor
angie_taylorCorrect answer
Legend
Sep 2, 2017 11:16 PM UTC

You probably have a layer selected in the timeline. When a layer is selected the pen tool defaults to mask mode. Deselect all layers before choosing the pen tool and see if that works.

hope this helps,

Angie Taylor | http://www.creativecabin.co.uk

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mizugori
mizugoriAuthor
Participant
Sep 2, 2017 11:22 PM UTC

Thank you!!!!!

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angie_taylor
Legend
Sep 3, 2017 8:58 AM UTC

No problem, happy to help :-)

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