Can shape paths copied and welded / joined / disconnected ?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 14, 2023
2 replies
612 views

How do i draw a shape layer with exact symmetric proportions. Example a butterfly logo. I can draw one half of the butterfly and then.....how do you mirror a shape and fuse/weld the ends together ?
I tried using Merge Paths by making 2 shapes on the same layer but hat doesnt work, it doesnt consider each shape on the same layer as separate objects i guess. Then i tried duplicating the same shape layer and giving it a horizontal flip. But theres no way to rasterize/bake them or merge them into 1 path or shape to make a full butterfly shape. I know we can just do a sketch thing....when that style works its fine. What when its a logo and it should be mathematically the same butterfly wing shape and size on both sides....a perfect mirror image.

How to

This topic has been closed for replies.

R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

Duplicate a shape, invert the Shape/Transform Shape/Scale to -100, 100, tie a few things together with expressions, apply merge paths, clean out the unused fill and stroke properties, and end up with something like this:

I shared a file if you care to take a look. I do this kind of thing all the time with shape layers for charts, graphs, and sometimes animations.

butterfly.zip

S

StonehedgeAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Thanks.... This imperatively needs expressions to work is it ? Thanks for the screen capture....its exactly what i want....but i dont need the live update thing (where your tuning the beziers and the opp side is mimicking it). Can what i want be done without expressions ? Like where i just draw the left half and being able to copy it and flip horizontal and then make those 2 into one shape ?

R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

I put in the expressions to allow editing of the path. Open the project file and check the structure. I outlined the steps. Create a Shape. Duplicate the shape, Scale the duplicate -100, 100%, adjust the Shape 2/ Transform Shape 2/Position, apply Merge paths to the two shapes, and delete the unused stroke and fill properties. If you want to be able to easily move around your mirrored shape, Group everything by selecting everything under contents, right-clicking, then choose Group.

Mylenium

Legend

That's what Illustrator is for. Nothing you can do in AE. Prep your artwork over on the dark side... 😉

Mylenium

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded