Find your shape’s size in After Effects

By Kelly Barkhurst

July 1, 2025

3 Min read

In Video and Animation

F

How to Check the Size (Width & Height) of a Shape in After Effects

When you’re just starting out in a complex design program like Adobe After Effects, even simple tasks can be hard to figure out. One common question: Where can I find the exact size (width and height) of a shape?

The good news — it’s easier than it seems, once you know where to look!

📏 How to Find a Shape’s Dimensions in After Effects

There are a couple of simple ways to find the width and height of a shape in After Effects:

🔹 Method 1: Use the Timeline’s Scale Property

In your Timeline, locate your shape layer and expand it if needed.
Find the Scale property.
Right-click (or Control-click on Mac) on “Scale” and choose Edit.
In the window that pops up, look for the Units dropdown.
Change Units from “Percent” to Pixels to view the exact width and height.

🔹 Method 2: Access Transform from the Composition Panel

Click on your shape directly in the Composition window to select it.
Right-click (Control-click on Mac) and choose Transform > Scale.
The Scale window will pop up.
Again, change the Units to Pixels to view the actual size.

This is especially helpful when you’re working with precise animations or trying to match dimensions between elements.

▶️ Watch the Tutorial Video

Need to see it in action? Here’s a short video walkthrough:
📹 Watch on YouTube

This is one of those simple things that can sometimes be hard to find when you’re new in Adobe After Effects. So this is how to find the size of a shape. So you can see in this document, I have circles.They’re called circles here. I have scale showing and it doesn’t show me my size. I also have the info panel open and again that’s showing me the location on the canvas but not the size. So the easiest way to find the size, is there’s two ways. In your timeline on scale you can right click (control click on a Mac) say Edit Value. This will pop up a Scale window. Now you see that I still see percentages. If I click Units and go to Pixels. Now I can see that this circle is 160.5 pixels. So that’s a really easy way to find the size. Another way to get to this same pop-up window is to select your shape in your composition, right click or control click on a Mac. Go ahead and go to Transform > Scale and you’ll get the same scale pop-up window and again just remember to look at your units and change it accordingly there. All right ,good luck hope this helps!

✏️ Related Tip: Drawing a Path With No Fill?

If you’re also wondering how to draw a path with no fill in After Effects, we’ve got a tutorial for that too!

Happy Animating!

adobe after effects

About the author

Kelly Barkhurst

Designer to Fullstack is my place to geek out and share tech solutions from my day-to-day as a graphic designer, programmer, and business owner (portfolio). I also write on Arts and Bricks, a parenting blog and decal shop that embraces my family’s love of Art and LEGO bricks!

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By Kelly Barkhurst August 4, 2023

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