Controls reference | Butthead Docs

Choose which strokes change

Selection in After Effects	Target
Whole shape layers	Every Stroke and Gradient Stroke inside them, including nested groups.
A Stroke or one of its properties	That Stroke only.
A shape group or Contents	Strokes within it, unless a more specific selected child determines the target.
Only a path property within a selected shape layer	The layer’s strokes. Selecting a path alone does not isolate its Stroke.
Non-shape layers	Ignored.
Locked shape layers	Skipped. If every target is locked, the action stops.

Butthead excludes its own arrowhead groups from stroke edits. The sample reads the first target stroke’s caps, joins, taper, and dash pattern. It shows the first arrowhead found for each end. A mixed selection has no separate mixed-state indicator, so inspect or select one stroke when you need an exact read.

The selection is read when the pointer enters Butthead, when the panel regains focus, and after an action. Dash and taper toggles also read it immediately before deciding what to toggle.

Main controls

Control	Action
Butt cap	Flat ending at the path endpoint.
Round cap	Rounded ending extending past the endpoint.
Square cap	Square ending extending past the endpoint.
Miter join	Sharp corners, limited by Miter limit.
Round join	Rounded corners.
Bevel join	Clipped corners.
Start, End	Add or cycle an arrowhead at that end. Drag horizontally to resize existing tips. See arrowhead behavior.
Taper	Toggle taper lengths or drag to pinch. See taper behavior.
Dash	Cycle the dash preset. See dash patterns and March.

In the sample layout, Start is the upper-left tip, End is the lower-right tip, Taper is the ring on the slope, and Dash is the straight segment. Hover these areas for their names and gestures. Hovering reads and highlights the controls; it does not apply an edit.

Main-control modifiers

Control	Shift	Alt/Option
Start, End click	Cycle styles backward.	Remove that end. Takes priority over Shift.
Taper click or drag	Change start only. Takes priority over Alt/Option.	Change end only.
Dash click	Cycle presets backward.	Toggle March. Takes priority over Shift.

Start, End, and Taper also accept Enter or Space when focused, with the same click modifiers. Caps and joins have no modifier variants. Cmd/Ctrl does not modify main-control actions.

Right-click controls

Right-click any main control to open the same menu. Click outside it or press Escape to close it.

The menu edits the current selection. It is separate from the tool’s saved settings. The arrowhead guide shows the menu.

In the Start and End rows, the icons are no arrowhead, Triangle, Chevron, Dot, Square, and Bar, in that order. The settings menu calls Chevron Open chevron.

Control	Range or choices	Reset value
Arrowhead Size, ×w mode	1–20 stroke widths, in 0.5 steps	4
Arrowhead Size, px mode	2–400 pixels, in 1-pixel steps	24
×w, px	Follow stroke width or use fixed size	Saved size is loaded when switching modes.
Remove arrowheads	Remove Butthead groups in the selection scope	None
Taper Start, End	0–100, shown as percentages	0
Taper Tip	0–100% of stroke width, applied to both tips	0%
Taper Ease	0–100%, applied to both ends	0%
Miter limit	1–100, in 0.5 steps	4
Dashes icons	Solid, Dotted, Dashed, Long dash	None
March	Enable or stop animated dash Offset	None

The numeric fields initially reflect the selection. Reset values are fixed values used by the gestures below, not the defaults you save in Settings. For taper length units, see compatibility.

Changing Miter limit does not switch join style. Choose Miter to see its effect.

Numeric gestures

Gesture on a numeric field	Result
Click or drag	Set a value across its range.
Cmd-drag on macOS, Ctrl-drag on Windows	Make fine adjustments from the current value.
Shift-drag	Snap to ten broad steps across the range. Fine adjustment takes priority if both are held.
Double-click	Type a value. Enter or clicking away applies it; Escape cancels the text entry.
Alt/Option-click	Reset to the value in the table above.
Right-click	Open Type a value…, Reset to default, Copy value, and Paste value. Paste is available after copying a numeric value within the panel.

Slot layouts

Butthead supports half and full widths. The normal layout keeps the sample above the six cap and join buttons. Smaller buttons can hide their labels; their tooltips still identify them.

Butthead in a half-width slot with the sample above six compact cap and join icons.

When there is too little height for the sample, ten tiles provide the same actions. The grid rearranges to fit. Extremely small slots scroll rather than dropping actions.

Status and undo

The sample starts with Select shape layers. Once it reads strokes, it shows their count. rides Trim Paths means a target path has a Trim Paths binding. Short slots can hide this status.

In larger slots, the sample draws on once after a successful action.

Successful actions show a count and a toast. An arrowhead count can include an existing opposite tip rewritten by the action. Skipped paths or locked layers are reported in the toast, with the first path’s reason. Skipped means no target could be changed. No comp, No strokes, Locked, and Not done are short failure badges. See Troubleshooting for the full messages.

Each change is one After Effects undo step. Caps, joins, taper, and dash values with existing keyframes are written at the current playhead; unkeyed values are set directly. Dash presets also replace dash slots, and arrowhead edits rebuild the generated tip’s contents.