Stroke taper should be unaffected by trim paths

Report · Dec 04, 2024

Helloooooo,

I'd like an update to how trim paths works please! Currently, if you apply a taper to a stroke, and animate a trim paths, the taper will scrunch up as if it is a percentage of the drawn stroke that is trimmed, NOT via the overall path length. This results in having to animate the too and trying to balance out the animation which isn't perfect and is a bit of a faff!

It would be great if the taper stayed constant and was unnaffected by the trim path, so this can just be animated cleanly with a single set of keyframes on the trima paths out.

I think that this should be made the default, as I cannot think of a case where you would want to have the current implementation. However it is always good to have options, so it would also be great if there was a little toggle on the trim paths effects to switch between the two.

Thanks

Report · Dec 05, 2024

If you add a simple expression that ties the taper value to the percentage of start or end in Trim Paths, you can easily make a path with a single taper look like it's being revealed.

For example, if you have a path that has Taper/Start Length set to 100%, this expression added to stroke width will reveal the path as if a track matte revealed it:

S = content("Shape 1").content("Trim Paths 1").end / 100;
S * value

Applying the same kind of transform to a path tapered on both ends requires a little more work and requires splitting the path at the halfway point, but it can be done.