How do I add a stroke to a pre-comped animation that has no Fills?

[Kevin28400787adj8]

I am trying to create an animation with a stylised offset stroke on top of the main colour. I have attached an image for example.

I want the outline to have the same animation as the original shape. So i have  duplicated and precomped the original layers to retain the animation (as the layers have parents and unable to be part of the same layer). When applying a stroke to this, nothing appears in the main comp as inside the precomp has no Fills as this part will need to be transparent to show the BG and the original coloured layer slightly offset.

How do I go about applying a stroke to a precomped group of layers that have no Fill.

Hope this makes sense. Happy to clarify.

P.S Eevery asset in the animation has this stylised effect so looking for an easyily duplicated process. 

Thanks

!

- After Effects 24.6.3
- Mac

[RobShultz]

I'm not sure if I understand your question but maybe you can create a black layer, masks it and use the stroke effect to animate your stroke. You could also use the screen blend mode to make the black in the layer invisible.

[Kevin28400787adj8]

I appreciate the response, the current precomp will be inserted into to the main comp which will have various other Solid Colours which would be effected by the blend mode.

I need the outline stroke to mirror the (Pink colour) animation exactly without having any fill. The hand extends open with the segments of the fingers parented to one another, so having them as one layer would not be possible.

Very aware I could be over thinking this solution but struggling to find assitance online. 

[Rick Gerard]

I don't know how you set up your timeline or what layers create which part of the image.

Show us your timeline with the modified properties of the problem layer (select and press 'uu'), and we can probably help.

After Effects is all about layers, one stacked on top of another; you need to stack them in the correct order and use the correct channels or blending modes to create the composite.

[Kevin28400787adj8]

I understand reading my post a day later to be slightly clumsy and  I appreciate your response. 

Blending modes won't work as I plan on placing this precomp into my main compisition which will then effect the background Solid colours it will animate across. The comp layers itself is very minimal with 3 shape layers. The animation is of a closed fist, with the fingers extending open to reveal the palm (see original image). It is a very simple animation in this example and I am possible over thinking. My solution has been to animate the stroke as a seperate entity altogether, sadly this adds time and creates little subtle differences to the pink shape layer animation.

Appreciate your input.

[Mylenium]

Same old, same old: track mattes. Any kind of "strokes" can be created by shrinking a duplicate of a fill layer with Simple Choker, Matte Choker, Minimax and other effects and stenciling the larger shape with the smaller shape. Other possible solutions include the Vegas Effect, Radio Waves and/ or importing prepped Photoshop layers with advanced blending for Fill opacity. AE will honor those settings, you just have no way to acces this stuff in AE after import or create it from scratch with layer styles.

Mylenium