What It Does
Hooker lets you parent individual points on shape or mask paths to layers. Instead of animating an entire path, you can animate vertices and tangents separately. Each point follows the layer it’s hooked to, maintaining its position even when you transform the parent layer or shape. Think of it as Cinema 4D’s helix tool brought into After Effects, giving you granular control over Bezier curves.
Works with both shape layers and any layer with masks. You can hook multiple path points across multiple paths at once.
Key Features
Selective parenting. Choose which path points to hook: vertices, in-tangents, out-tangents, or any combination. Hook them to separate layers or link multiple points to a single control layer.
Transform stability. Hooked points stay locked to their target layers regardless of rotation, scale, or skew applied to the parent shape or layer. The path adapts around them.
Auto-parenting option. Toggle automatic parenting of in-tangents and out-tangents to their vertex. Simplifies rigging when you want tangents to follow vertex movement.
Visual feedback panel. The interface shows which path points are currently hooked and their target layers. A coordinates tab lets you position points in composition or shape layer space.
Batch operations. Hook or unhook multiple path points simultaneously. Context menu provides alternate workflows for hooking points to selected layers.
Requires Bezier paths. Parametric shapes like rectangles and ellipses need conversion to Bezier paths first. Right-click the shape path and select Convert To Bezier Path.
Who It’s For
Motion designers rigging complex shape animations, especially character work or organic path movements where standard parenting doesn’t cut it. Useful for morphing effects, procedural animation, or any scenario where you need finer control than keyframing entire paths allows.
Pricing
Pay-what-you-want pricing. The suggested price is $15, but you can set your own amount. One-time purchase, no subscription.