You Recorded Your Screen, But How Do You Track That Pesky Mouse Cursor in After Effects?

Two Main Paths to Cursor-Tracking Glory

1. The "From Scratch" Method using Motion Sketch: This is your go-to when you want to create a cursor animation from the ground up. You’ll literally record your own mouse movements in real-time to generate the animation. It's perfect for when you need a super custom, fluid path or when you didn't have a cursor in your original recording.
2. The "I Already Have a Recording" Method using Motion Tracking: This is for when you have a screen recording that already has a cursor in it, but you want to replace it with a different graphic, or maybe just stabilize it. After Effects will analyze the movement of the original cursor & let you apply that data to a new layer.

Part 1: The "From Scratch" Method with Motion Sketch

Step 1: First, You Need a Cursor

1. Create a New Shape Layer: Go to
   1 Layer > New > Shape Layer
   .
2. Draw the Pointer: Make sure no layer is selected in your timeline. Grab the Pen Tool (G) & draw a classic arrow cursor shape. Don't worry about making it perfect on the first try.
3. Combine Shapes (if needed): A typical cursor is a combination of a triangle & a thin rectangle. You can draw these separately as paths within the same shape layer. Tutkit.com has a neat trick for this: after creating your two shapes (like a rectangle & a 3-sided polygon), you can add a 'Compound Path' to merge them so that effects like strokes apply to the combined shape.
4. Set the Anchor Point: This is SUPER important. You want the anchor point to be at the very tip of the cursor. Select your shape layer, press 'Y' to get the Pan-Behind (Anchor Point) tool, & move the anchor point to the tip of your arrow. This ensures it pivots & points correctly.

Step 2: Let's Get Sketching!

1. Open Motion Sketch: With your cursor shape layer selected, go to
   1 Window > Motion Sketch
   . A new panel will pop up.
2. Understand the Settings:
   • Capture Speed: This is a percentage of the real-time speed. 100% means it records as is. If you set it to 50%, the recorded animation will play back twice as fast. I'd recommend starting at 100%.
   • Smoothing: This will automatically try to smooth out your shaky hand movements. Start with a low value, like 1 or 2. We can smooth it more later.
   • Background: Make sure this is checked! It lets you see your composition while you're recording, which is pretty essential.
3. Start the Capture: Move your playhead to the beginning of your timeline. Hit the "Start Capture" button in the Motion Sketch panel. Now, click & drag your mouse around the composition viewer. You'll see the playhead moving along the timeline as you do.
4. Perform Your Moves: Move your fake cursor just like you would a real one. Hover over buttons, slide across the screen, pause for a second. When you're done, just let go of the mouse button.

Step 3: Refining the Raw Animation

1. The Smoother Tool: This is your best friend. With all the position keyframes on your cursor layer selected, go to
   1 Window > Smoother
   .
2. Apply Smoothing: The key setting here is "Tolerance." A higher value will remove more keyframes & make the path smoother, but you might lose some of the subtle nuances of your movement. A good starting point is a Tolerance of 10 or 20. Hit "Apply" & see how it looks. You can always undo & try a different value.
3. Manual Keyframe Adjustments: Sometimes the Smoother is too aggressive. You can manually delete keyframes that look off. You can also adjust the timing. To slow down or speed up a section, select a group of keyframes, hold down the
   1 Alt
   (or
   1 Option
   on Mac) key, & drag the first or last keyframe in the selection. This will stretch or compress the keyframes proportionally.

Part 2: Tracking an Existing Cursor in a Screen Recording

Step 1: Prep Your Workspace

1. Import Your Footage: Bring your screen recording into your After Effects project.
2. Create Your New Cursor: Just like in Part 1, create or import the new cursor graphic you want to use. Place it in the composition, but don't worry about its position yet.
3. Open the Tracker: Go to
   1 Window > Tracker
   . This will open the tracking panel.

Step 2: The Tracking Process

1. Select Your Footage: In your timeline, select the screen recording layer.
2. Choose "Stabilize Motion": In the Tracker panel, click "Stabilize Motion". You'll see a "Track Point" appear on your screen. This track point has two boxes & a small crosshair.
3. Position the Track Point:
   • Inner Box (Feature Region): Drag the track point & place the crosshair directly on the mouse cursor in your footage. Resize the inner box to tightly fit around the cursor. This tells After Effects exactly what to look for.
   • Outer Box (Search Region): Resize the outer box to define the area where After Effects should search for the cursor in the next frame. Make it large enough to account for the cursor's movement.
4. Set Tracker Options: Before you start, click the "Options..." button in the Tracker panel. A great tip is to set "Stop Tracking" if confidence is below 80%. This prevents the tracker from going haywire if it loses the object.
5. Analyze the Motion: Click the "Analyze Forward" (play) button. After Effects will now go through your video, frame by frame, following the cursor. If it stops, it's because it lost confidence. Just reposition the track point on the cursor & hit "Analyze Forward" again to continue.
6. Apply the Data: Once the analysis is done, click "Apply". A pop-up will ask for the dimensions (X and Y). Click OK.

Step 3: Connecting Your New Cursor

1. Create a Null Object: Go to
   1 Layer > New > Null Object
   . A null is an invisible layer that's great for holding animation data.
2. Parent the New Cursor to the Null: In your timeline, find your new cursor layer. Use the "pick-whip" (the little spiral icon) & drag it to the Null Object layer. Now, the cursor will follow the null.
3. Copy/Paste the Tracking Data: This is the key step. On your stabilized screen recording layer, press 'P' to reveal the Position keyframes created by the tracker. Select all of them & copy (
   1 Ctrl+C
   or
   1 Cmd+C
   ). Now, select your Null Object & paste (
   1 Ctrl+V
   or
   1 Cmd+V
   ) those keyframes onto its Position property.
4. Reset the Screen Recording: Finally, go back to your screen recording layer & remove the stabilization effect, or just reset its Position property.

Part 3: Advanced Techniques & Common Headaches

The Cursor That Changes Shape

• Try Mocha AE: A Reddit thread on this exact topic suggested using Mocha AE, which is a powerful planar tracker that comes bundled with After Effects. Instead of tracking a single point, it can track a surface. This can sometimes be more robust, but it has a steeper learning curve.
• The Re-Recording Trick: Another great suggestion is to re-record your screen capture, but this time use a tool like OBS to replace your system cursor with a custom one—like a bright green circle. A simple, high-contrast shape is MUCH easier for After Effects to track.
• Animate it Manually: Sometimes, the path of least resistance is to just manually animate the cursor for the few frames where it's giving you trouble. It's not ideal, but it's better than fighting with the tracker for an hour.

Fast-Moving or Blurry Cursors

• Increase the Search Region: Give the tracker a larger outer box (the search region) so it has a better chance of finding the cursor in the next frame.
• Add Motion Blur to Your New Cursor: To make your replacement cursor look like it belongs, make sure you enable motion blur for that layer & for your composition. It adds a ton of realism.

The Case of the Disappearing Cursor

Part 4: Tools to Make Your Life Easier

• CursorKit: This is a neat script that helps you quickly create cursor elements & animate clicks, drags, & even typewriter effects with just a few clicks. It's a real time-saver for UI/UX work.
• Cursor Recorder (GitHub): For the more technically inclined, there's a project on GitHub called "cursor-recorder" that includes a Python script to record your mouse movements to a data file & a corresponding After Effects script to import that data. This gives you a really precise workflow, especially if you sync it with OBS.

Tying It All Together