How to "trace" paths of an imported 3d object?

[bionicgirlny]

Hi,

I am wondering what's the best way of animating lines / paths of a 3D wireframe object in After Effects? Basically the object should animate in as if the paths it's made of are being drawn in...Is that something that could be done out of the box or would I need special plug-ins like Trapcode in order to achieve that?

Thank you!

[kirkeric]

Just curious but what is the wireframe object made from or in?  I think I get what you are asking, in simple terms if it were a cube, all of the lines forming the cube are animated in until the cube is fully revealed.

Without actually trying it, I'd have to at least guess that yes, you would need something that is not likely "out of the box", or from the standard plugins.  And that something has to at least recognize that it's a 3D object.

Is it an OBJ?  It has been a while by Trapcode Form I believe will recognize an OBJ file and that could be a good start.

Eric

[angie_taylor · Accepted solution]

You can do it but it will involve some prep work. Id advise taking the image into Illustrator and tracing the lines. This can be done manually, or with Image Trace. Id reccommend by hand as you will have more control. Keep in mind that the direction the lines will be drawn is dictated by the first vertex drawn, so if you want a line to draw from top to bottom, start drawing in in AI that way. You can change the first Vertex in AE but it will save you the bother.

id recommend drawing projections of the object on separate layers. Then, import this layered file into AE as a comp. convert the layers to shape layers, add your strokes (narrower at the “back”, fatter at the “front”).

Add the Trim Paths operator to the Shapes and then animate the End value feom 0  to 100%. Select Sequential as the mode to make them draw on one after the other.

alternatives include the Stroke effect on masks or Write on with positional data.

There’s also an autotrace function in AE that you could try but Illustrator offera more control.

[bionicgirlny]

Thanks so much for the elaborated answer! Very helpful!

[angie_taylor]

A pleasure, thank you

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Plexus will provide more control and options for OBJ files.