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Max8132
Known Participant
July 28, 2022
Answered

Merge Paths Causing Ellipses to Disappear in Shape Layer

  • July 28, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 1365 views

Hey there,

 

I'm attempting to follow this tutorial for the "Circle Splode" section starting at 4:54. I've created two elipses that have their scale keyframed to increase from 0 -> 100 with "Elipse 2" set to occur slightly later than "Elipse 1". According to the tutorial, I should add a merge paths to below the two elipsis and above the stroke/ fill (the stroke is disabled) and set the merge paths to "Subtract". Doing so however causes my shapes to completely dissapear.

 

I'm trying to create a bubble pop effect where a filled elipse expands, and then dissapears from the center outwards - like the hole of a donut expanding until the donut dissapears. 

 

With Merge Path's subtract enabled:

Disabled:

 

Let me know what you think!

 

Thank you.

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Mylenium

If youi really just need a ring, you can always try the legacy Circle or the Ellipse effect, which in fact would even be more elegant than building stuff with shape layers.

 

Mylenium

3 replies

Mylenium
MyleniumCorrect answer
Brainiac
July 29, 2022

If youi really just need a ring, you can always try the legacy Circle or the Ellipse effect, which in fact would even be more elegant than building stuff with shape layers.

 

Mylenium

    M
    Max8132Author
    Known Participant
    July 29, 2022

    Hey Mylenium,

     

    I actually didn't know either of these effects existed, and they're way simpler to work with than what I was trying to attempt. I was looking for the shape to start out as a ring, where the hole got larger until the entire shape dissapeared, and I can achieve that with these effects too way easier.

     

    Thank you!

    R
    Rick Gerard
    Community Expert
    July 29, 2022

    You are not showing the modified properties of the shape layer, but I think you have the layer order fouled up. The larger ellipse must be above the smaller one if you want to poke a hole in it.

     

      M
      Max8132Author
      Known Participant
      July 29, 2022

      Hey Rick, 

       

      This worked! As long as the circle that is the larger at a given keyframe is on top, the merge paths subtract function works.

       

      Thank you! 

      Mylenium
      Mylenium
      Brainiac
      July 28, 2022

      Could be as trivial as a display problem. The structure looks just fine. check your hardware acceleration settings and the comp renderer settings. Revert to software-only rendering as a test.

       

      Mylenium

        M
        Max8132Author
        Known Participant
        July 28, 2022

        Hey Mylenium,

         

        Thank you for the response!

         

        I've tried purging my memory and cache, setting the hardware acceleration to Mercury only instead of GPU acceleration, and changing the composition 3D renderer to Cinema 4D instead of Classic 3D with no change in the error. 


        Any other reccomendations?


        Thank you.

        M
        Max8132Author
        Known Participant
        July 28, 2022

        Alternatively, another way to generate the desired effect would work well, too!

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