AECC 2021 - how do I parent shape's moving position to push the path of a line across a map???

[ninose11]

Hello everyone, I'm trying to make squares move the path of a line across a map. This would be for a history documentary where I wish to show army units (squares) pushing a frontline across the map. I was hoping to do it using Nulls. The way I did it below is rough and clumsy. I was hoping to precisely anchor the shapes to the line and have the line move with the squares.

[Rick Gerard]

From what you are describing I would use the Create Nulls from Paths.jsx script that you can find at the bottom of the Window Menu. Choose Path follows Nulls. This will give you nulls that you can animate to change the shape of the path. Then all you have to do is parent each of the nulls for the path points to a square. Move the square, the null moves, and the path changes.

If you can't figure it out get back to us. The workflow is pretty easy for someone with a fair amount of experience.

[Mylenium]

Since this isn't the first question along those lines, at this point it really becomes a question of why you haven't bought Plexus yet. Would solve a ton of your problems in an elegant fashion. Otherwise there's simply no good workflow for this natively in AE outside the clunky Nulls linked with expressions.

Mylenium

[ninose11]

Thank you Rick and Mylenium for your help and feedback. Plexus sounds great but out of my budget at $249 for the time being. But thank you for the tip in any case.