How do I create and animate a teardrop?

[Subtle Sorrow]

ok, so for the final shot in a video I'm making right now I want the camera to zoom in on the characters face and a teardrop comes from his eye. How do I create this with After Effects?

[Zarxrax]

I've actually done this before.
Use a mask to create and animate the shape. Then apply some effect on it to give it some texture and color.

[HalOfBorg]

I did a simple snot bubble/trail once.
Simple round tipped mask, stretch it downward, brighten that area a bit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKgDW_dXjM8
At 2:04

[Mastamind]

Depends on what the anime's like. If it's very realistic, texture and smooth motion is key.
It usually takes me 3 layers to do this, using Sony Vegas. Take a white solid, then mask out a teardrop shape- first frame, make it look like it's about to spill from the eye, then keyframe it to drop down as you like. You might want to feather the outline outward a bit, or add a blur to it, and change the motion to every 2-3 frames. This layer serves as the outline for the teardrop, as a whitish outline is typical of anime tears. Next, copy-paste the footage of your character on a layer on top of this one, and give it the same masking keyframes as the white solid. Feather it inward a little bit. If you want a touch of realism, copy-paste the white solid event from the first layer to the top layer, and feather it in until it's blurry and looks somewhat like a reflection.

Should look something like the picture here:
http://www.akross.ru/pics/screens/ac200 ... ebut-3.jpg

(I didn't create those^ tears, but I did on multiple occasions in that video. Just too lazy to go through it and find the scenes where I did). Good luck

[shawnnm2]

A dot/oval shape and blur on it for a tear look and add keyframes with the shape reform it so it look like its falling down or some sort.