Learn how to capture a handwritten signature with Adobe Capture and turn it into an animation in After Effects.

Illustration of woman doing backstroke against a pastel background with abstract shapes and squiggles.

Capture a shape in Adobe Capture

Open Adobe Capture. Select Shapes and click the plus sign (+). Use your camera on your mobile device to capture a handwritten signature.    

Adjust the slider to select a look you want and click the round button to finalize your selection.    

Handwritten name "Theo" is displayed in Adobe Capture on mobile phone.

Save a shape in Adobe Capture 

If you like the captured signature, click Next, then in the Preview screen press Next again. Finally, name your shape and choose a Library you would like to save to and press Save Shape.

If you want to clean up the rough edges of the signature, you can open Illustrator, get the signature from your CC Libraries, and edit the signature.    

Handwritten name Theo is saved to the Creative Cloud Libraries.

Import the signature from your Creative Cloud Libraries    

Open After Effects and create a new composition.

Choose Layer > New > Solid... to create a solid layer. In the Solid Settings dialog box, enter a name for the layer in the Name field and under Color choose the color you want. Then click OK.

If the Libraries panel is not already open, choose Window > Libraries to open it.

Drag the signature from the Libraries panel to the Composition panel.    

A new layer is created and Theo signature is dragged from the Libraries panel to the Composition panel.

Make the mask in After Effects    

In the After Effects tool bar, select the Pen tool. Zoom in the signature text. Trace along the center of each letter in the order that you would actually write the letters by hand.

The Pen tool traces along the path of the signature.

Generate the stroke    

In After Effects, choose Effect > Generate > Stroke.

In the Stroke effect panel, make sure that All Masks and Stroke Sequentially are both selected.

Then increase your brush size until the strokes completely cover the signature.

From the Paint Style pull-down menu, choose Reveal Original Image.    

In the Stroke effect panel, All Masks and Stroke Sequentially are selected, brush size is increased to cover the signature.

Define the length of animation    

In the Stroke effect panel, make sure that Start is set to 0%. Click the stopwatch icon next to End and set it to 0%. 

Move the playhead forward to a location where you want the animation to end.    

In the Stroke effect panel, Start displays 0%, End displays 100%, and playhead is moved to location at end of animation.

Preview the animation    

Return to the Stroke effect panel and set the setting for End to 100%.

In the Preview panel, click the First Frame button and then the Play button to see a preview of the animation of the signature.    

In the Stroke panel, the End is highlighted and displays 100%. The first frame and play button are highlighted.

 Adobe

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