• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Architectural / Blueprint

  Posted by Henry Gaunt on June 17, 2009 at 8:27 am

  Hello,

  I’m wanting to create a background of lines being drawn that look like car blueprints. However, I don’t have any blueprints to work with, nor can I draw!

  I have zero ability when it comes to expressions. I was just wondering if there is an expression/setup I can use, to random animate ‘blueprint’ looking lines slowly revealing?

  It’s only for movement in the background and will be about 50% opacity. It’s an 8 minute video, so randomness is key.

  Any suggestions would be helpful!

  Thanks.
  Henry

  Koby Goldberg replied 16 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Filip Vandueren

  June 17, 2009 at 1:56 pm

  I’d create some Shape layers with multiple straight lines, then add a stroke.
  You can add dotted line strokes which is also nice for a blueprint looks,
  Then add path offset, you can then animate the strokes very easily using start/end/offset.
  No expressions needed, just check the manual for shapes.

  And don’t rely on expressions to do everything magically for you, sometimes you do need to work to get results…
• 

  Koby Goldberg

  June 22, 2009 at 11:52 am

  Henry,
  You could actualy can do this using an expression, and the “CC Time Blend” effect…

  1. Create a new composition, create a Solid in it, and make a small
  round mask on that solid (i.e.: small circle on a transparent background). Make the size of the circle as your desired Blueprint line width .
  2. give that solid a wiggle position expression, something like:
  wiggle(0.1,300)
  so you will have this small circle moving on a random path.
  3. Insert this composition to your main comp,
  and give it the “CC Time Blend” effect, with Transfer = Add, Accumulation = 100%

  And that’s it !

  Play with the wiggle paramethers to achieve a different stroke path.

  p.s.: The “CC Time Blend” effect needs to be rendered always from the beginning of the timeline, so always before you make a RAM preview, clean the cache by Edit -> Purge -> All. (or else you could get strange results in the RAM preview)

  Koby.

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up