Effect control points



Some effects have effect control points, which determine how the effect affects the layer. For example, the Advanced Lightning effect has two effect control points—Origin and Direction—which specify where the lightning begins and in which direction it points.

View an effect control point

  • To view an effect control point in the Layer panel, choose the effect name from the View menu at the bottom of the Layer panel.
  • To view an effect control point in the Composition panel, select the effect name in the Timeline panel or Effect Controls panel.
    Note: To view effect control points in the Composition panel, select Show Layer Controls in the View menu and select Effect Controls in View Options (View > View Options).

Move an effect control point

  • In the Composition panel or Layer panel, drag the effect control point .
  • In the Effect Controls panel, click the effect control point button ; then, in the Composition or Layer panel, click where you want the effect control point.
  • In the Timeline or Effect Controls panel, drag or enter values for the x and y coordinates for the effect control point as you would to modify any other property.

Effect control point coordinates

Effect control points are in layer space for layers that are not continuously rasterized and for which transformations are not collapsed. If a layer is continuously rasterized or has collapsed transformations, then effect control points are in composition space. (See Coordinate systems: composition space and layer space.)Vector layers (including shape layers and text layers) are always continuously rasterized, so for them effect control points are always in composition space.

Null object layers, solid-color layers, and other layers based on source footage items by default have effect control points in layer space. For more information about render order and collapsing transformations, see Render order and collapsing transformations.

For more information about continuous rasterization, see Continuously rasterize a layer containing vector graphics.