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Participant
February 6, 2022
Question

Moving type on a transforming path

  • February 6, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 108 views

Hi, I was wondering what the best way to go about this would be.

I want to create animated type on a path, essentially just a looping marquee of repeating text, but is it possible to have the path the type is on transform from a wavey path to a straight path, back and forth in a loop.

I would assume this would be something done in AE, which I haven't used too much. I have more experience in InDesign/PS/Illustrator/Premier with my line of work.

 

I hope this makes sense! Thank you!

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1 reply

Community Expert
February 6, 2022

All you have to do to make a text layer stick to a mask path is to add a mask path, expand the properties of the text layer and pick the mask path from the Path options.

 

The trick is creating a path that will loop. You'll need at least three keyframes. The first and last keyframes must be identical. Once you have the simple animated path hold down the Alt/Option key, click on the Mask Path stopwatch, and add this expression courtesy of Dan Ebberts:

if (numKeys >1 && time > key(numKeys).time){
  t1 = key(1).time;
  t2 = key(numKeys).time;
  span = t2 - t1;
  delta = time - t2;
  t = delta%span;
  valueAtTime(t1 + t)
}else
  value

If you need the text also to animate you can add any of the text animators. Most of them can be made to loop using a simple loopOut() expression. 

 

If you need any more help, please describe exactly what you want the text layer to do and give us screenshots if you can.