How do you create outlines in mask form to an image

[Benjamin227888702o11]

I was watching a video from Video Copilot on the saber plug-in (https://youtu.be/reSXGxkyr0k 17:37), and he has made some outlines in the form of a mask on a image. I was wondering how to do this as it is not explained.

Thanks.

[Mylenium]

Whatever method you see fit - copy & pasted directly from Illustrator, copy & pasted from an imported and converted shape layer, copy & pasted from a converted text layer. I suggest you read the online help on the various methods of dealing with vector-based data in AE.

Mylenium

[ShiveringCactus · Accepted solution]

Auto-trace in the Layer menu is a quick way to get outlines.  For an effect like saber which you'll probably want slightly soft edges for, it works quite well.