How would I go about trimming a stroke?

[prinn]

Hello, I'm very new to Illustrator so sorry if this is a stupid question.

What I'm trying to do is have a path with two strokes, one white and one black stroke, where only a portion of the white stroke is over the black stroke--something like the circled area here. Is there something in Illustrator that functions similar to Trim Paths in After Effects for Strokes?

[ScooterD76]

Looks like a dashed stroke over a solid stroke... unless im missing something...

[prinn]

I should have been more clear. What I'm looking to do is shorten a stroke from either end and control the placement of that stroke. The circled area is what I wanted to achieve without the other white dashes. The example that I gave is a dashed line because that's what I was fooling around when I took that picture , but the circled area is what I'm looking to get.

The only way I can describe what I'm looking to get is trim paths in After Effects. It allows you to shorten a stroke from either the beginning or end of the path as well as offset the stroke.

[tromboniator]

If I say it can't be done, then assuredly someone will come along and prove me wrong, but I'm not coming up with a way to do that with a single path.

[prinn]

Someone on reddit had mentioned to duplicate the path and then use a clipping mask on the white path to get exactly what I want. This does give me exactly what I want, but now I have 2 paths since I had to duplicate the path. Is there a way to either combine the paths or Export it as a single stroke? I ultimately need After Effects to see it as a single stroke.

[Jacob Bugge]

prinn,

Probably far too silly to count as anything remotely counting against what Peter said:

For one or more portions of white between black portions, you may use a calculation that brings you from actual portion lengths to percentages of the entire path, then create a black/white/black (etc if more than one white portion) gradient along the path with sharp stops made by placing the first white stop right on top of the second black stop, and the third black stop right on top of the second white one (etc if more than one white portion).

In the unlikely case that it is a matter of a rectangle with white corner portions, it should be possible to add a white stroke on top of the black one and with that selected use dashes with the right combination of dash and gap.

[prinn]

I didn't even think of using a gradient.

So I tried using a gradient and it actually worked out perfectly for me... until I brought it into After Effects to convert. Supposedly when you convert an Illustrator file into a shape layer that has a gradient, it turns into a grey layer since supposedly it doesn't carry the gradient information into the shape.

[Monika Gause]

prinn  schrieb

I ultimately need After Effects to see it as a single stroke.

So when you export it to After Effects you need this to be a single stroke (not converted to a shape)? I don't think that's possitble. All the stuff you might be able to create in Illustrator, will then somehow be expanded in the exported PDF (although you import an AI into After Effects, it still uses the embedded PDF).

So if this is possible to create in After Effects why not create it there in the first place?

[prinn]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Monika+Gause  wrote

So when you export it to After Effects you need this to be a single stroke (not converted to a shape)? I don't think that's possitble. All the stuff you might be able to create in Illustrator, will then somehow be expanded in the exported PDF (although you import an AI into After Effects, it still uses the embedded PDF).

So if this is possible to create in After Effects why not create it there in the first place?

I originally tried creating it in After Effects, but trim paths seems to only work on an entire shape layer. So If I apply a trim paths to a shape layer with two strokes, it modifies both strokes at the same time. I'm sure there's a way to do it in AE, but unfortunately I'm not smart or skilled enough to find it

[Kurt Gold]

In After Effects you can apply trimming at the shape layer level, but you don't have to do that. You can also trim single paths independently. You just have to select the appropriate items in the Comp/Rendering list.

Apart from that, in Illustrator you may be able to somehow mimic After Effect's path trimming by creating Shaper Groups, but you don't mention which version of Illustrator you are using, so probably Shaper Groups aren't available in your Illustrator version.

[prinn]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Kurt+Gold  wrote

In After Effects you can apply trimming at the shape layer level, but you don't have to do that. You can also trim single paths independently. You just have to select the appropriate items in the Comp/Rendering list.

Are you talking about taking the path and resizing it? The thing is that I have one path with two strokes using the same path. One thing that I tried doing was putting the two strokes into their own groups with the same path in both groups like below.

This allowed me to achieve the result I wanted by allowing me to associate a trim path with each stroke, but then I couldn't trim the path as a whole after putting the two strokes into their own groups. What I would like to do is animate this path as a whole to shoot out with trim paths and be able to use the graph editor to give it an ease in at the end.

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Kurt+Gold  wrote

you may be able to somehow mimic After Effect's path trimming by creating Shaper Groups, but you don't mention which version of Illustrator you are using, so probably Shaper Groups aren't available in your Illustrator version.

I'm using Illustrator CC 2018. I've never heard of shaper groups before, but I'll have to look into it. Is it like shape builder?