Creative Dojo shows how to create a simple accent swirl using the new tapered stroke in Ae.

It’s been a long time coming, but now you can create tapered strokes natively right in Adobe After Effects. It’s always a bit of a shock to note that After Effects lacks internally some of the essential tools that artists would expect. Creative Dojo’s VinhSon Nguyen has a look at the new tapered stroke, how it works, and also shows how you can make a simple animated accent with it.

Tapered Strokes and More.

Ae’s new internal tool for creating variable-width lines sits right where you’d expect it, under the shape layer taper twirl-down. The feature also lets you add a wave to the stroke, making it easy to get a loose and hand-drawn type of feel.

Thicc Stroke is free, and Lets You Use Gradients.

The new additions to Ae are a great start, yet, if you are looking for a bit more features with variable-width strokes in Ae, you can check out Thicc Stroke from Plugin Everything. The Plugin lets you add gradients along a path as well as offering tapered stroke effects to previous versions of Ae, going back to AE CS6 and up.

Get Thicc Stroke for Free.

Download the new variable stroke plugin for After Effects here.