Growing Line Effect - Picture Effect - Help

[alexf40329626]

Hi All,

Quite new to the video editing world, need to make a growing line effect or a border that grows around a video.

I have attached a sample below of what I'm after

Please refer to about 55 Seconds of the Video

http://www.adnews.com.au/campaigns/ray-white-launches-first-ever-brand-campaign

I want something similar to this but to go all the way around, and then for the logo to do the same kind of thing

Does anyone have a tutorial I can watch or can give me a step by step

[Brandon Loshe]

Hi alexf40329626,

Do you have the lines already made? There's countless ways to do this. Really quick and simple you could just apply the Crop effect to the lines and just animate that. If your lines are each a separate layer/track, then you can just animate the Crop effect for each line. If the yellow lines are only one file, then you may have to duplicate the yellow lines to three other layers and vary the cropping animation.

[alexf40329626]

No, Haven't made the lines yet, was watching a tutorial on drawing the lines in aftereffect but didn't work either

I was planning to just draw the lines in? or is there an easier way to do it?

I should also note, I've just downloaded after effects so I'm still very new using this product.

[Mike_Abbott · Accepted solution]

As Brandon says there are a multitude of ways to do this, but here's how I'd do it:

Have no layers selected.

Use the rectangle tool to draw a rectangle of the finished size you want with no fill and a stroke of the colour you want. This will give you a shape layer with a star icon in the timeline.

Twirl down that shape layer in the timeline and you'll see an "Add" menu on the right - a white circle with a black triangle. Select trim paths.

In the Trim paths secton you can then animate the start or end or offset properties to draw on the line as you require.

A more general tip:

AE is a complex program - so I'd strongly recommend you follow some of the getting started tutorials here:

Adobe After Effects Learn & Support

It's not the sort of software you can learn just by trial and error.

[alexf40329626]

This is great,

Still struggling with the animation part through

If for example, I have a 15 second to make the link extend, and then disappear, how would I go about this?

[Rick Gerard]

Just diving into something like the project you are describing without spending at least a couple of hours on the basics is usually a waste of time. Start Here: Basic AE

Open up the Tutorials section and at least watch "Get To Know After Effects" and then down the page  "Workspace basics." Don't skip "Get to know the basics of animation."

When you have spent about 20 minutes going over those tutorials type "trim paths" in the Search Help field in the top right corner of AE. Don't use the Help Menu, use Search Help and you'll find the section of the User Guide that covers animation shape layers and several articles that will help you understand the process.

The whole exercise will take you less time than you have probably spent trying to produce your growing line effect and you will be on your way to understanding After Effects. It takes study because AE is a lot more complicated than a NLE  and doesn't make much sense unless you have a firm foundation.

[imeilfx]

There is nothing more than Rick said. First you have to learn to use basic AE tools and how to work with it. Then as previous people said - you can do that in several ways:
- draw a shape of your liking with shape toll then trim path fuction, simple keyframing and voila
- you can also make those shapes in Photoshop or even MS Paint (if MS Paint can export files with transprency) and use Stroke/Write on effect

And so on... so please go to Adobe After Effects Learn & Support  and lear the basics and everything what we try to tell you will be clear as a day.