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How to make a paint stroke connect 2 objects in 3D space?
I’ve got 2 objects floating in 3D space, both of them offset from each other by a large distance in Z-space (and also a bit in X and Y), so I get a nice dramatic camera move from one to the other using the framing behaviour.
I now want to animate a paint stroke that connects one to the other along the camera’s motion path, so it will look like the camera is following the stroke as it draws itself to connect the two objects.
My problem is finding a quick and easy way of drawing the stroke to ensure that its start point is precisely located on object 1 and its end point is precisely located on object 2. Can anyone recommend any approaches to this?
I’ve been flailing around trying to achieve it using trial and error and a huge amount of very boring fiddling around with different camera views, but there has to be a more intelligent way 🙂
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4 Replies
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The main problem is that strokes are 2D by nature. Probably the best solution would be to use an emitter as your stroke since emitters can be 3D. Then animate the emitter along the same motion path as the camera (you could just duplicate the behavior for the emitter if you want and then offset it a bit).
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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[Andy Neil] “The main problem is that strokes are 2D by nature
I thought that they could be made 3D in some way, hence the “local 3D” button in the Advanced tab of the paint stroke controls?
[Andy Neil] animate the emitter along the same motion path as the camera (you could just duplicate the behavior for the emitter if you want and then offset it a bit).”
The camera is getting its motion from a framing behaviour. How can I take that motion path and apply it to something else?
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The local 3D control button allows the paint dabs to face the camera to give the appearance of 3D. Unfortunately Local 3D does not allow for true 3D orientation. In other words, a paint stroke will always appear in front of a layer that it’s above in the layers tab without respect to that layers 3D position.
I missed that you were animating with the framing behavior. With the emitter though, you can animate it with a Motion Path behavior where the start point is the position of your first layer and the end point is the position of your second layer. Motion paths can be adjusted in 3D space more easily than paint strokes.
However, if you want to stick with a paint stroke, you need draw it first and then rotate it 90 degrees and position it. But as you’ve already discovered, it’s kind of difficult to get it in a proper position because you only have XY coordinates for the shape and not XYZ.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Thanks Andy, will give an emitter a try.
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