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Text on Path - Line and Circle like a Rollercoaster

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
February 3, 2024
5 replies
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It's probably simple, but I just want to make the text flow like it was a rollercoaster. I tried grouping the line and circle in the shape layer, then auto-traced the shape layer which then has two masks. I paste them into the text layer and select one for a path, I get a similar action, but it's going on a path I would like it too... is there an easier way, or some way to modify the mask to go around the way I want. Below marks the path I'd like it to go on, very simple. Cheers! 🙂

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Correct answer Rick Gerard

Here's the workflow from Illustrator to After Effects

Create a circular ellipse in the center of a comp-sized artboard in Illustrator with a stroke so you can see the path
Copy the ellipse (Ctrl/Cmnd + C), then paste a copy in front (Ctrl/Cmnd + f)
Turn off the bottom copy in the layer panel
Change to the Direct Selection tool (a) and delete the vertex at 12 and 3 o'clock, leaving only the bottom left quarter of the ellipse
Change to the Pen tool (p), click on the vertex at 6 o'clock, hold the shift key down, and then click to the right and back to the point to give you the ending part of the rollercoaster path
Turn off the top copy of the ellipse in the Layer panel and turn on the bottom
Add a new point using the Pen tool (p) at about 7 o'clock, then delete it, leaving 3/4 of the ellipse
Hold down shift and click on the vertex at 6 o'clock and then complete the path from the left side to the bottom vertex of the ellipse
Change to the Direct Selection tool (a) and drag a selection around the overlapping vertices at 9 o'clock
Right-click and select Join, or use the Object/Path/Join menu to combine the two paths into one
Copy the path
Return to After Effects, select the pen tool and start a mask on a text layer, then Paste (Ctrl/Cmnd + v)
Set the path options to use the new mask path
Animate the First Margin

That should get you what you need without too much trouble. If you were really proficient with Illustrator, you could draw the whole thing just using the pen tool, but this approach gives you a perfect circle.

When you get into After Effects, you can select the start or the end point of the Mask path by revealing and selecting the Mask Path in the timeline, selecting the selection tool (v), and then shift + drag the starting or ending point far enough to the left or right side of the comp panel to prevent the text from flipping upside down.

That should get you started. Maybe one day, there will be a 'join' option inside After Effects.

MyerPj

Author

Community Expert

Hey Rick, thank you very much! 🙂

I'm glad it wasn't as obvious as I thought, so I'm getting somewhere in AE. I wasn't doing anything with this, I just wanted to figure it out.

I was able to create that path in AI, and use it in PP, I had maybe 4 comps already in the .aep and it took me about 7 tries more and I was up to comp 11 when I got it. I added a rectangle mask (on subtract) in AE to put under it, so it just made the one loop. Then I started thinking how was it able to loop, and I got it first try, it was the clicking back on the bottom line to the vertex a 6 o'clock, so I left those off, and indeed it gave me the one loop! Thank again, your help on this forum is tremendous!

MP

A

Airweb_AE

Legend

Weird, we already did something similar last week using a shape path Expression object following path

I thought of using the same method, but it seems that we can't use a mask path expression to animate the text, it keeps using the drawing path, in my case, a single point.

Mask Path Expression used in the video:

radius = thisComp.height / 2 - sourceRectAtTime().height * 2;
h = thisComp.height / 2 - sourceRectAtTime().height * 2;
looping = 1;

tWidth = sourceRectAtTime().width;
nop = 90;
angle = 360 / nop;

points = [
  [-thisComp.width / 2 - tWidth, h],
  [0, h]
];

for (var i = 0; i < 360 * looping; i += angle) {
  x = Math.cos(degreesToRadians(-i % 360 + 90)) * radius;
  y = Math.sin(degreesToRadians(-i % 360 + 90)) * radius;
  points.push([x, y])
}
points.push(
  [0, h],
  [thisComp.width / 2 + tWidth, h]
)
createPath(points, [], [], false)

mask_path_expression.zip

R

Rick Gerard

Correct answer

Community Expert

Here's the workflow from Illustrator to After Effects

Create a circular ellipse in the center of a comp-sized artboard in Illustrator with a stroke so you can see the path
Copy the ellipse (Ctrl/Cmnd + C), then paste a copy in front (Ctrl/Cmnd + f)
Turn off the bottom copy in the layer panel
Change to the Direct Selection tool (a) and delete the vertex at 12 and 3 o'clock, leaving only the bottom left quarter of the ellipse
Change to the Pen tool (p), click on the vertex at 6 o'clock, hold the shift key down, and then click to the right and back to the point to give you the ending part of the rollercoaster path
Turn off the top copy of the ellipse in the Layer panel and turn on the bottom
Add a new point using the Pen tool (p) at about 7 o'clock, then delete it, leaving 3/4 of the ellipse
Hold down shift and click on the vertex at 6 o'clock and then complete the path from the left side to the bottom vertex of the ellipse
Change to the Direct Selection tool (a) and drag a selection around the overlapping vertices at 9 o'clock
Right-click and select Join, or use the Object/Path/Join menu to combine the two paths into one
Copy the path
Return to After Effects, select the pen tool and start a mask on a text layer, then Paste (Ctrl/Cmnd + v)
Set the path options to use the new mask path
Animate the First Margin

That should get you what you need without too much trouble. If you were really proficient with Illustrator, you could draw the whole thing just using the pen tool, but this approach gives you a perfect circle.

When you get into After Effects, you can select the start or the end point of the Mask path by revealing and selecting the Mask Path in the timeline, selecting the selection tool (v), and then shift + drag the starting or ending point far enough to the left or right side of the comp panel to prevent the text from flipping upside down.

That should get you started. Maybe one day, there will be a 'join' option inside After Effects.

MyerPj

Author

Community Expert

Thanks for the Reply Rick,

I'm getting the same sort of thing, so I must be missing a step.

I opened AI and created a 1920x1080 file using their presets, it doesn't say anything of Art Board, that might be equivalent to a project in AE/Pr?

Then I drew a circle using the Elipse tool, then a line using the pen tool under it

Then tried a bunch of things, as is, grouping, right-click Join, and they keep going into PP as two masks a circle and a line.

I'm also wondering how AE will know I want to start on the left on the line, moving right... around the circle and ending to the right on the line.. Any idea where I'm going wrong.

thanks very much.

MyerPj

Author

Community Expert

R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

You will need access to Adobe Illustrator. You can only combine multiple paths into one using Adobe Illustrator. Creating the path you want to use in Illustrator is also much easier. Start with a comp-sized Art Board in Pixels or Points, Draw the path, select the path in Illustrator, copy, then select the pen tool in After Effects (g), click anywhere on the text layer, and paste (Ctrl/Cmnd + v). That will get you the path you need.

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