Skip to main content
MrDerk
Inspiring
October 25, 2019
Answered

Wierd Circle Rotation and Oval Shaped

  • October 25, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 3041 views

A perfect circle (made by holding shift-key while dragging elipse) rotates along a wird access as shown below.

https://youtu.be/UluFxobyBx8

 

Also the circle seems to show a little oval shaped sometimes. I have square pixels turned on.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Rick Gerard

    When you create a parametric shape layer (Ellipse, Rectangle, Polystar), if you click and drag there is almost no chance that you will draw the ellipse exactly in the comp center. Take a careful look at this screenshot:

    To get that info to show up all I did was press the "u" key twice to show me all of the modified properties of the shape layer. As you can see the layer Anchor Point is nowhere near the center of the circle. That means that when you rotate this layer (Ctrl/Cmnd + r sets a rotation keyframe and reveals the Layer>Rotation property.  Fortunately, you can easily fix the problem by simply typing 0, 0 in the Transform Ellipse 1> Position property or by Resetting that property with a right-click:

     

    Every element in a shape layer has Transform Properties associated with it. There are actually more than there are for a layer:

    Skew and Skew Axis can be very useful. 

     

    All you have to do to make the Ellipse rotate perfectly around the center of the circle is to move the anchor point to the exact center of the ellipse manually by turning on Snapping and using the Pan Behind feature of the Anchor Point tool (y), or move the Ellipse 1 position to the Layer center by resetting the Transform Ellipse 1>Transform properties when the layer Anchor point is at the default position [thisLayer.width/2, thisLayer.height/2].

     

    I hope this makes sense. Select your ellipse layer, press uu, find the modified properties and reset, and your ellipse will rotate perfectly around its center.

    1 reply

    Rick GerardCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    October 25, 2019

    When you create a parametric shape layer (Ellipse, Rectangle, Polystar), if you click and drag there is almost no chance that you will draw the ellipse exactly in the comp center. Take a careful look at this screenshot:

    To get that info to show up all I did was press the "u" key twice to show me all of the modified properties of the shape layer. As you can see the layer Anchor Point is nowhere near the center of the circle. That means that when you rotate this layer (Ctrl/Cmnd + r sets a rotation keyframe and reveals the Layer>Rotation property.  Fortunately, you can easily fix the problem by simply typing 0, 0 in the Transform Ellipse 1> Position property or by Resetting that property with a right-click:

     

    Every element in a shape layer has Transform Properties associated with it. There are actually more than there are for a layer:

    Skew and Skew Axis can be very useful. 

     

    All you have to do to make the Ellipse rotate perfectly around the center of the circle is to move the anchor point to the exact center of the ellipse manually by turning on Snapping and using the Pan Behind feature of the Anchor Point tool (y), or move the Ellipse 1 position to the Layer center by resetting the Transform Ellipse 1>Transform properties when the layer Anchor point is at the default position [thisLayer.width/2, thisLayer.height/2].

     

    I hope this makes sense. Select your ellipse layer, press uu, find the modified properties and reset, and your ellipse will rotate perfectly around its center.

    MrDerk
    MrDerkAuthor
    Inspiring
    November 23, 2019

    Thanks, sorry for taking so long to reply!