Help with making a seed grow into a flower

[LCMacagno]

Hi,

I am trying to create an effect of a seed growing into a plant, and I have, with AI, drawn the 6 stages of growth I want to use. I have masked around each image, hoping I would be able to make the seed look like it is growing using interpolation masks. I cannot however get the different masks from different layers to interract with eachother, i.e. mask from image one morph into mask from image 2 etc. Any suggestions? Am I going about this the wrong way?

[Byron Cortez]

You could better use the Taper that is in the Shape Layers.

[Rick Gerard]

The magic transformations for something like this are easiest to create in Illustrator using the Blend, set the number of steps to correspond to the frames required for the animation, Blend>Expand, Release to Layers - Sequence workflow. Then import as a comp, retaining layer size, set in and out points for all layers so each layer is one frame long and sequence layers. I took the liberty of quickly kind of tracing the first two images in Illustrator and setting up this blend, then releasing to layers, then saving as a comp, then opening the comp and sequencing layers. Took about 10 minutes while I was waiting for a render. 

Step 1, set up your blend:

Step 2, line up the start and end images, Expand the blend, then Release to layers and move to the top of the layer stack and save.

Step 3, Import as a comp retaining layer size, set in and out points for all layers to 1 frame, sequence layers, adjust the in and out point of the starting and ending layer and you're done.

Here's an old tutorial that goes over the steps required. I would set up a separate AI file for each pair of images and you may have to draw a couple of intermediate images to get the movement to react the way you want it to. You'll get the hang of it and it's about a thousand times more efficient than trying to morph the shapes in AE.

If you try and convert your vector layers to shape layers you are going to end up with a mess and if there are any gradients or custom brushes it's all going to fall apart.