How to use anchor points in After Effects (for beginners)

Maybe you have heard of “Anchor Points” but you don’t really know how it works. I’m going to give you a very basic explanation that hopefully, anyone can understand.

An “Anchor point” is basically the point from where an element will scale or rotate.

In the video below, I have two shapes with the anchor points in the middle of the shapes.

When rotating, it rotates around the “anchor point”.
The same way the planets rotate around the sun.

When scaling, it scales from the “anchor point” and out, so two directions at the same time.

If you want a shape to scale in only one direction, drag the anchor point to
the opposite direction from where you want your shape to scale. And if you hold down “cmd” while dragging, the anchor point will “snap” to the corner.

Now, it will only scale in the opposite direction from where you placed the anchor point.

How to use anchor points (for beginners)

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