<p>As far as I know, there isn't a great automatic way of doing this in AE.</p>
<p>One technique is to make keyframes on your all shape paths, then paste the initial shapes into the path of the end shape after the required number of frames. The result often isn't good:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/gQBwy.gif" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/gQBwy.gif" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>You're often better off manually moving all your bezier paths yourself.</p>
<p>PS:
There's a useful script called Masks to Shapes (rd_MasksToShapes.jsx) which was part of the <a href="http://redefinery.com/ae/rd_scripts/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ReDefinery</a> Scripts bundle.  It seems to be offline now, but is <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20190305110031/http://redefinery.com/ae/scripts/rd_scripts_20170108.zip" rel="nofollow noreferrer">archived</a> on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, but it helps with switching between masks and shapes, but won't help with the morphing</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-05T08:18:08.200Z
2023-05-26T12:14:38.517Z
2023-05-26T12:14:38.517Z
tomh
<p>I've these shapes:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/pG1qF.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/pG1qF.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<hr />
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/kLeuz.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/kLeuz.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>The first one has three path within, my question is how do I merge these three dots into the big one during an animation?</p>
<p>I saw some tutorials about <code>reshape</code> but when I've tried it, it just appears the mask related to the first shape.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/YQFfi.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/YQFfi.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

<after-effects><animation>
How do I merge two shapes in one during an animation?
Yago Biermann
# How do I merge two shapes in one during an animation?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-09-03)

I've these shapes:

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/pG1qF.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/pG1qF.png)

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[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/kLeuz.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/kLeuz.png)

The first one has three path within, my question is how do I merge these three dots into the big one during an animation?

I saw some tutorials about `reshape` but when I've tried it, it just appears the mask related to the first shape.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/YQFfi.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/YQFfi.png)

**Tags:** after-effects, animation


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-09-05. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

As far as I know, there isn't a great automatic way of doing this in AE.

One technique is to make keyframes on your all shape paths, then paste the initial shapes into the path of the end shape after the required number of frames. The result often isn't good:

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/gQBwy.gif)](https://i.sstatic.net/gQBwy.gif)

You're often better off manually moving all your bezier paths yourself.

PS:
There's a useful script called Masks to Shapes (rd\_MasksToShapes.jsx) which was part of the [ReDefinery](http://redefinery.com/ae/rd_scripts/) Scripts bundle. It seems to be offline now, but is [archived](http://web.archive.org/web/20190305110031/http://redefinery.com/ae/scripts/rd_scripts_20170108.zip) on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, but it helps with switching between masks and shapes, but won't help with the morphing


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