3D Paths • Connecting Points in Space with Paths

[FabianStock]

Hey Community,

I am working on a scene since 3 Days now and i am starting to get mad. Maybe some experts from the community can help.

I am trying to Animate a Scene in which my camera flies through a world cloud and the words are connecting with a path. 

It was quite some work to get the Paths in 3D Space Working, but with some help from chatGPT and Youtube Videos i got something working.

But i think its not it! The Paths i am now creating with expressions stick to the points in 3D Space, but only because "fromCompToSurface" converts them to 2D points. Thats why my paths are also only a 2D Layer in Space which therefore makes them either blurred by being "out of focus", or the stroke width "changes" because it looks very big when i am close to the object and slim when i am further away. Is there a way to make the shapelayer really 3D so the Path itself is also in Space and not only a layer. 

I would be veeery thankfull if someone could help me. This is my last resort and i dont know what to do next.

Peace and Love

Fabian

[Mylenium]

Not without plug-ins like Plexus or Trapcode TAO. It simply comes down to rendering order. Of course you can continue tom use your approach just as well, but it will simply require to animate a ton of parameters to keep the strokes consistent.

Mylenium 

[FabianStock]

I do have the trapcode Suite, but still cant do it. And i dont seem to find any tutorials explaining it to me. Im a newbie in trapcode tbh

[Rick Gerard]

I have done similar projects using 2D shape layers for the stroke by adding a taper to the stroke to simulate the perspective. I don't have time to show you an example right now, but a simple expression that looks at the distance between the points to control the stroke width and taper values makes the process fairly easy. 

If you shared a screenshot of one of the most complex or troublesome interactions between layers, I could probably make a more meaningful suggestion.