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andrewdraws
andrewdraws
Inspiring
November 25, 2020
Question

hand drawn line that follows path?

  • November 25, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 665 views

Hello! ... I'm trying to make a hand drawn (chalk) dotted line move along a path.  And I need the path to move gradually. 

 

What I have currently is one dash (a rough shape layer) moving along a path with "Echo" applied... so, a dotted line! So far so good. The problem is that I need to adjust the shape of the path over time. It doesn't work because if I add keyframes to the path with the Echo effect applied to it, it changes it along the whole timeline. 

 

Is there a better way to do this? thanks!

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2 replies

VFXbear
VFXbear
Inspiring
November 25, 2020

Very easy to simulate!
Draw your airwave paths as shapes. Animate the shape paths over time.
Apply a stroke. Set butt cap to Round. Add a Dash property, and animate the offset (using a time*150 expression i.e.).
To get the chalk look, add a Roughen Edges effect.
To add some turbulence to the animation, add a Turbulent Displace.

I've add an example comp here.  Enjoy!

Animated Chalk Line Example 

andrewdraws
andrewdrawsAuthor
Inspiring
November 25, 2020

Thanks VFXbear! ... great example!  and a fairly simple solution. Is there a way to keyframe (or speedup and slow down) the "time" expression ?

    VFXbear
    VFXbear
    Inspiring
    November 25, 2020

    You can manually keyframe the offset evolution as well, of course.

    Because you'll likely have lots of animated lines,  in these situations I usually link the time*x evolution for every layer via an expression to one single slider control in a controller layer, so that I only have to change the value of X and all my animations follow along.
    But yes, just setting 2 keyframes on every layer works just as well ...   😉

    Mylenium
    Mylenium
    Legend
    November 25, 2020

    You would rather elaborately have to rig it up with expressions to pin each dash to an underlying mask or motion path or use distortion effects to bend a longer segment into place. Otherwise this is a typical use case for particle systems/ clone array type plug-ins where you can assign a custom sprite texture/ shape. It would even be doable using AE's old Particle playground or Card Dance. It would just require quite a bit of understanding and tweaking the underlying parameter maps that control the particle motion and orientation.

     

    Mylenium

    andrewdraws
    andrewdrawsAuthor
    Inspiring
    November 25, 2020

    Thanks Mylenium! ... that sounds a bit complicated ... interesting, but complicated. I might try VFXbear's approach first. Big thanks!

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