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Illustrator Masks in AE
Hallo,
in Illustrator I create 2 Masks. With copy and paste I put them one after the other into AE on a solid. So, I have in the mask path 2 keyframes and one mask should morph into the other. But it looks chaotic because upper points morph to lower points and vice versa. Of course I use the “set first vertex” function, but it doesn’t change anything. Where is my fault? I hope there is somebody out there who can help me.
Thanks a lot,
Jens -
6 Replies
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it may be the order that the points were created in illustrator…
say you made a 3 point shape in illustrator, the first point was added as the top of the shape, the second to the left and the third at the bottom.
then created another 3 point shape, first point again at the top, but the second at the bottom, and the third to the left.
your first vertices would be the top points, but the other vertices would not be in the same order.
what you might try in illustrator, is select the point that you want to be the second vertex and send it to front. then select the point that you want to be the first vertex and do the same. do this for each shape. then copy/paste into ae and see if the morph works any better.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
Thank you Kevin,
unfortunately it works not better. I guess the problem is, that the second mask have more vertices than the first. So maybe AE does not know how to interpolate the vertices in the right way. But is there a way to fix that?
Jens
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you can try to add more points to the mask that has fewer points. i’d do this in illustrator with the pen tool.
also, when you add points, try to add them where they’d seem to match the other mask’s points… if that makes sense….
say you only need to add 2 points to one mask, if you have a section of that mask that has 3 points, and you want it to morph into a section of the other mask that has 5 points, add the 2 points to that section, rather than just adding them any ol’ place in the mask…
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
Yes, that works fine. Thanks a lot.
Jens
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There’s also the “Mask Interpolation” panel in After Effects. This is not often used, but has some ways to make more specific choices about how a mask animates. However, when you apply the options in this dialog it will create a keyframe on every frame between the two selected mask path keyframes.
Darby Edelen
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Mask Interpolation panel works well for this as Darby says. Another easy workaround is to apply the free transform box to the Mask and reverse Scale it, this will swap the points around so it moves in the correct direction.
Hope this helps!
cheers,
Angie
Angie Taylor animation & illustration for television, film, web and devices
https://www.angietaylor.co.uk
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