How to create Lines and Shapes ?

[Swan Htet35172951uer4]

I've been creating comparison videos but they are kinda plain. Any tips on adding cool lines and shapes like this? Right now, I only know how to create basic rectangle. Do I have to draw everything in detail, or is there a shortcut, like templates? Which Adobe software should I use for this ?

[Bojan Živković]

To apply layer effects, go to Layer > Layer Style in Photoshop. You should apply the effects to each element separately to match the effects in the row above. It seems that the effects do not affect the entire composition, but only some elements or parts of it. I think that Stroke, Drop Shadow and Inner Shadow are used.

[Conrad_C]

The artwork and graphics have many hard-edged lines, so in Photoshop it might be faster to draw and duplicate them using the shape tools, and editing shapes with the pen tools. In this way you don’t have to paint them, you can edit the lines by dragging handles. And then you can add layer style effects such as drop shadows, as Bojan suggested.

But if you want this to be the art style, then it might be better to use Adobe Illustrator, which has much more powerful path editing tools.

I do not know if Adobe has any templates of this exact type. If they do, you might find them on Adobe Stock.

Actually, if you are doing these as videos, it may be best to build them in Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe After Effects. Both have tools that can create these vector graphics and effects, such as depth blurs, and in those applications, graphics and effects can easily be animated. Because the style is so consistent, you should build them as Motion Graphics Templates that can easily be added to multiple sequences, and then customized, like quickly replacing text and colors.

[Swan Htet35172951uer4]

Thanks for the information. It is very helpful. I also have another question about the animation. In the first 5 seconds, during the intro where shapes and lines keep appearing from a blank canvas, is that achieved through keyframe movement in Adobe After Effects?"

[Swan Htet35172951uer4]

Here is the video link 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW0Vr9I7aOE&t=11s

[Conrad_C]

Traditionally, that would be done using Adobe After Effects. Although if each effect is just a simple wipe, it can also be done in Adobe Premiere Pro by animating a mask. But for the most precision and flexibility, After Effects is better, and it will let you animate for example a shape being drawn by a pen going in any direction.

Many artists will draw the vector shapes in Adobe Illustrator, then move those paths into After Effects to animate them.

The way each card draws the same way definitely suggests creating a Motion Graphics Template of that animation. Then all you have to do for each card is replace the text, and drop in the picture.

[Trevor.Dennis]

You can be super quick building shapes like this by snapping to grid or guides.  A huge plus side of using shapes is that you can edit using Direct Select tool, and strokes and layer styles update with the changes.  I suspect a lot of this style is done with Illustrator or dedicated apps.

[Trevor.Dennis]

I am a big fan of stroked paths as it lets you be super accurate with lots of control, but it can be a slow process.  If you have tablet and decent brush smoothing like Lazy Nezumi Pro, then setting size jitter Fade with 1% spacing can give you some nice linework.  I used Layer Styles to add the stroke as it lets you edit as you go.