When I use the pen tool to edit a shape and add new vertices, it's incredibly difficult as the pen tool has to be EXACTLY over the line, there's no margin either side. This means that the mouse movement has to be so precise, it makes adding a new vetice really difficult and normally results in multiple clicks before it adds a point. Is there a setting or a way to improve the snapping to the line? I'm having a really hard time editing very complex shapes with hundreds of vertices.
If you are really editing that kind of complex shapes, then you are using the wrong tool. Really not much more to say about the matter. If you're doing maps or tracing complex artwork, then this should be done in Illustrator or Photoshop and the masks copy & pasted over. Apparently the mask/ shape toolswere never built for this in the first place and the limitations in terms of zooming and resolution in AE clearly don't help, either.
I'm using the excellent Geolayers plugin which generates map shapes etc, so is tied to AE in this case.
However, it's not just an issue linked to very complex shapes, even simple shapes are difficult to add new points to as the mouse pointer has to be SO precise in positioning. This translates to such a tiny movement in the mouse, it's difficult to position to add the point. maybe I need to look at the DPI of my mouse to make it more controllable? hmmm....
Ah, I think it's linked to the way Geolayers zooms in on world features. If I zoom in to add vertices, that's when it becomes really difficult to add new vertices, quite different behaviour to drawing a regular complex shape and clicking with the the add point tool which doesn't need to be so precise.
I guess that's all to do with the way AE works and its precision (or lack off)?
I saw in other posts that some users report issues with drawing masks in case where the layer is parented, so if your layer is parented, try do disable parenting temporarily and see if this can help you with mask drawing..
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