Animate around a 'Square Shape'

[BenSCR]

How can I animate this 'Small Square' shape around all 4 corners of the 'Large Square'.

[P.M.B · Accepted solution]

Copy/paste the path information of the large square to the position property of the small one.

If it has no path info you can get it several ways.

You can bring it from illustrator.

You can duplicate and convert the duplication to a shape

You can use AE shape tools to draw a matching square.

Once the path information is copied you can hide or delete the source

[Roland Kahlenberg]

As Gutterfish says, you can copy the path over from Adobe Illustrator and paste ... .

AE is able to use non-parametric Shape Layer Paths and Mask Paths as position data, if you paste these paths into a Position (or even Anchor Point) property — essentially, any property which accepts [x,y] values.

However, I think it's better if you just convert the AI layers to Shape Layers, in AE's Timeline.

1) select each layer and go to the Layer Menu — Layer > Create Shapes from Vector Layer

2) When both layers are converted, copy the Contents > Shape > Path property of the larger square

3) For the smaller square, you'll likely have to do a bit of cleanup with the Shape Layer's Path > Transform > Position property before pasting the Path you just copied.

4) For the cleanup, twirl down Contents > Shape > Path > Transform : Shape, till you are able to see the Position property. Change the Position property's value to 0 (zero).

5) Now paste the Path you copied in Step 2, above to the Position property you just manipulated in Step 4.

6) Take note that the keyframes created after pasting a Path onto a Position property will be set to a fixed duration of two seconds, regardless of how complex or simple the path may be. The Temporal Keyframes pasted will also be of a special type; known as Roving Keyframes.

You can easily Time Stretch ( the process of changing the duration of an animation by compacting or stretching the time differential of at least three, contiguous keyframes) Roving Keyframes  by simply dragging either the first or last keyframes. As a side note, if your keyframes are not Roving Keyframes, you can still apply Time Stretching by first selecting three or more keyframes and then holding down the ALT/Option key and dragging either the first or last selected contiguous keyframe.

Lastly, while selected keyframes do not have to be contiguous, technically, for Time Stretching, the result of such an exercise will invariably lead to unwanted/unexpected/unworldly/sucky/crap results.