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celiao30251906
Participant
February 4, 2023
Question

Help with Line animating methods ??

  • February 4, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 297 views
Hi all,
not sure if this is the place to ask - I'm stuck and would love some advice. I'm still fairly new to animation, and what i have done so far has been frame-by-frame animation using a digital tablet and Photoshop, and a tiiny bit of Aftereffects.
 
I've been asked to animate a map of a hike, so i'll be animating moving lines. Ideally, I'd like each new "section" of the path to appear on screen as if the map is being painted by hand, in real-time.
Initially, I was planning to avoid using paths/motion graphics in Ae, as i felt it would look too "digital" and regular. Then I thought i'd be able to use photoshop actions, since you can set it to record tools such as brushstrokes; but that reeeally doesn't seem like it'll work lol
 
So far, all i can think of is either a) "giving up" and using Ae paths, with a brush texture, and carefully imitate the "irregular" speed of a line being hand drawn or b) do it frame-by-frame in photoshop, making it as smooth as possible with high frame-rate, copy-pasting the previous line for each new frame.
 
Both solutions seem super time-consuming, and i feel like surely there must be a way to "screen-record" digital brushstrokes as they are being drawn, in a high enough quality that it can be integrated in my final project (movie will be in 4k).
 
Really hope this makes some sort of sense !! I'd love any ideas/suggestions you might have.
Cheeeeers
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2 replies

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 6, 2023

You have a couple of options using a stroked path on a shape layer with trim paths added. You can apply distortion effects, grain, and edge modifying effects to make the animated stroke look more organic.

 

You could also use a tablet with Adobe Fresco. There are export options that include timelapse recordings of your drawings. Check it out here: Publish & Export options in Adobe Fresco

 

If I get some time, I'll record a simple drawing with my iPad and share it here. That is one of the easiest ways I know of to get the hand-drawn look.

 

Here's a fancy example I found on YouTube with a quick Duck Duck Go search:

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
February 4, 2023
quote
 
i feel like surely there must be a way to "screen-record" digital brushstrokes as they are being drawn, in a high enough quality that it can be integrated in my final project (movie will be in 4k).

 

Sure. On a 4k screen on na extremely powerful PC with a commercial screen capture software liek Camtasia that can drop a snapshot every few miliseconds or a dedicated 4k recorder hardware liunked via your HDMI/ Thunderbolt. Otherwise you'll have to put up with those tedious workflows indeed or simply move on to greener pastures like Krita, Moho, ToonBoom, possible Animate. That's simply the crux of all computer graphics. The more you veer away from simple lines and other stuff that can be expressed matehamtically, the more complicated things become because you are working against how the computer "thinks". That said, if you provided and actual screenshot of your art style I'm sure we could advise at least on some tricks to streamline and simplify your workflow so the project doesn't get that laborious.

 

Mylenium

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