Tracing and Animation

[monicaw73787342]

Hello After Effects Community,

Could someone direct me to the easiest way to trace and animate lines in an image so that they appear on the screen sequentially?

Wondering if I should create paths in Illustrator first or if I can do everything in After Effects.

Thanks so much!

[DigitalSpatula · Accepted solution]

Hi Monica

I would import the movie into photoshop, then make a layer to draw on for each frame. You can bring that layered photoshop file into AE for sequencing the frames out as a movie.

Hope this helps,

Steve

[monicaw73787342]

Hi Steve,

Thanks! So when I trace in Photoshop using the pen tool After Effects and then what do I do to make them look drawn onto the screen again? I haven't used AE in a while and I"m rusty!

[P.M.B]

You could also use AE paint tool/effect in write on mode. Using write on mode creates start and end keyframes for each stroke which you can adjust after the fact.

You could also draw the paint strokes in constant mode and then paste each stroke's path information onto a shape layer which you can then apply trim paths to.  The advantage to this method is shapes that look truly hand draw...because they actually are.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Use masks directly on the image or on a Solid. Then, apply Effect>Generate>Stroke and choose the options there to suit your needs. Another option is to draw the paths on a Shape Layer and use the Shape Layer Operator, Trim Paths.

[monicaw73787342]

Hello Everyone!

Both responses were incredibly helpful, thanks so much! Still playing with this, but will post when finished.

Thanks so much!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi MonicaW,

Did you complete this effect yet? What did you end up doing?

Thanks,
Kevin