How to create linear motion trails more effectively?

[mudigov]

Look at the trails that follow the little sphere at 6s on this video, guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faacIELjUeI

I'm trying to recreate this concept (shapes that leave a thin line trail on movement) and I'm currently doing it by pasting the line's path into the shape's position (so that both have the same path) and then animating the trim paths of the line accordingly to my shape's position keyframes. It works relatively well, but thinking a longer sample with more interactions and animations I wonder if there's a more automatic way to create linear trails parented to the trajectory of an object.

I'm avoiding particle trails (such as mr mercury or other generators), since I want a really sharp thin line.

Do you guys have any tips or tutorials that I can watch in terms of making this effect?
Thanks a lot!

[P.M.B]

Check out this free preset.  You can remove the arrow head and the taper & It works with text so you can make it follow mask paths.

The link to where you download it is in the description

[mudigov]

Thanks, but that preset is a bit too similar to my current process. Don't think this would help me that much in time.

Thanks anyways, really

[P.M.B · Accepted solution]

There's an easier way though.  The echo effect.

Just also create a tiny cube or sphere and paste the path info to it as well, so bothe the ball and the cube are moving along the path together.

Then apply the echo effect to the cube & crank up the number of echoes to however long you need paly with blending modes and decay /

[mudigov]

yep! went with this. working just fine this far! thanks a lot!

[P.M.B]

Glad it worked out.  I've been playing with it the last day..when you start throwing other effects on top of it you can get some pretty cool results.  I know you're goin for clean lines but Pre comped with a light bevel & some roughen edges and maybe a little glow looks pretty cool. 

[Joolsd]

You shouldn't rule out a particle system (something like Trapcode Particular). You can create a pure straight line by using a light as an emitter. I think you'd have to turn the velocity down so that the particles don't flow everywhere. To create the separated dots that come away from the pure straight line just duplicate the whole effect and offset the keyframes a bit. Then turn down the particles a second.

[Rick Gerard]

The hardest part of the animation is animating the path because the vertices always try to move in a straight line.  If you just want to bend lines you can use Trapcode 3D Stroke | 3D Lines Plugin for After Effects. There are also a bunch of great scripts for bending paths over at AE Scripts. Hooker is one possibility. I really like it. Wave-o-Matic is another one you might want to look at. There are a bunch of options over there. Try searching just Path.