How to avoid stroke track matte intersections

[Paul84]

I'm trying to create a stroke with trim paths that will reveal a logo. Essentially animating the logo so it looks like it's being drawn. However, obviously when it comes to the intersections of the logo, and the stroke width having to br wide enough to cover the logo, when the path draws it revels the intersections of the logo rather than a smooth single line. 

this is the only way I can think of doing it but I would really appreciate any help, or alternative suggestions on how to activate the effect. Thanks!

[Ko.Maruyama]

Unfortunately, unless your logo line value lines up with the shape layer, there's no simple answer.  Creating different elements in photoshop to re-create areas of overlapping artwork is really the most effective (especially when you want to create irregular edges on the revealed logo artwork strokes). Use different layers to reveal different components of the logo at different times with your trim paths' animation. 
If the artwork has a linear edge, animated masking can help to effectively conceal/reveal the instersection at different times during your TRIM animation, but you'll still have to choreograph multiple keyframes to reveal the logo nicely.

[Rick Gerard]

I'm just wrapping up a tutorial on that kind of workflow. You need to create a separate layer that you can use to clean up the intersections and a duplicate of the Trim Paths layer that you can use to remove the matte when the stroke passes. It's pretty easy. This is what it looks like:

Here is a screenshot of the modified properties of the key layers:

I will post the tutorial when it is finished. I hope this gets you started.

Tying the Intersections Matte/Trim Paths/End to the Matte/Trim Paths/Start with a simple pickwhip expression, then adding Set Matte/Intersections to the original layer so that the funky intersection is hidden is the key to easily making this work. When I first started doing this kind of write-on effect, I was animating the intersection mattes by hand, and it was a mess. Using this workflow will cut down the total time required for the project.

I have included a couple of project files for you to look at.

[Paul84]

Hey Rick,

This is excellent! I'll see if I can reproduce this. Please do share they tutorial once you have finsished. Thanks for your help!