Dynamically move shapes by their vertices instead of by anchor/position values

[rwagnes]

I have several shapes connected to one another edge to edge. They need to stay connected throughout the animation. I know I can base the position of one shape off the position of another shape, but some of the shapes are rotating along a diagonal axis which makes for some tricky movement.

Is there a way I can link a vertex of one shape to a vertex of another shape? I would need to link to vertices of each left shape to two vertices of each right shape as the movement of each vertex may be different.

Edit: It's similar in design to origami. In the attached image, the white triangles fold across each respective hypotenuse, and, in doing so, pull the trapezoid into position. The top right vertex of the trapezoid stays in place, while the bottom right vertex follows the right angle of the triangle. The image shows the original strip and the first two folds (The first fold has no trapezoid to the left and is a simple rotation.

Thanks!

[Rick Gerard]

You can use Parenting, expressions that lookAt() one layer's position, use trig functions. All of these require moving anchor points around and getting the layers to stick together. Without seeing a screenshot of your artwork before you start moving things around it's pretty hard to give you specific suggestions. Give us something to work with.

[rwagnes]

I was having trouble figuring out a 2d diagram. I added a more detailed description and an image. I hope that helps. Thanks!

[DigitalSpatula]

Remember that you can use the transform effect independently of the native position, scale, and rotation parameters. This mught give you some options that don't mess up your layer connectivity.

Steve