: When making a Gradient Ramp can the Start/Stop be relative to the object? When making a Gradient Ramp in After Effects is there a convenient way for it to be tied to the object its applied

@BetL875

For a situation like this, your best approach is to pre-compose individual timelines consisting of just the bar, one for each color of bar in the final composition. You can use a ramp or a fill effect in the pre-comps, since you're rendering the effect only once.

Pre-comps are the equivalent of symbols in Ai, Fl or Edge Animate, or of Smart Objects in Photoshop.-- You can place multiple instances, and any change to the original updates all of them at once.

Add the pre-comps to your main timeline just the way you would any other object, and animate them in from off-screen.

The big advantages to this approach are improved rendering time and (just as with Smart Objects or Symbols) speed and efficiency updating the artwork when the client asks for tweaks.

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@Alves566

Asked for the answer on the After Effects forum of the Adobe website:

If using Gradient Ramp then the best way to achieve this is to Pre-Compose the Shape along with Gradient. Then place the Pre-Composed piece into your timeline instead and it will work as one.

Alternatively you can use Gradient Fill directly on the Shape Layer instead of using Gradient Ramp at all:

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