• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Convert mask vertices to text…

  Posted by Barend Onneweer on June 21, 2012 at 6:41 pm

  Hi,

  As part of a script I’m creating I’d like the script to draw a path on a solid or a shapelayer. Do do this I need to specify the vertices. I can easily draw a square or an ellipse but anything beyond becomes a rather tedious task. So ideally I’d prepare my shape in illustrator, paste it into After Effects and then somehow get the vertex data in text from the path…

  Is such a thing possible? Or should I just stick to a circle…

  Barend

  Raamw3rk – independent colourist and visual effects artist

  Barend Onneweer replied 13 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  Barend Onneweer

  June 21, 2012 at 6:52 pm

  Hmmm… I can of course paste the path into the position property to get an array of coordinates… but when I paste the position keyframes into a text file there’s no tangent information.

  Raamw3rk – independent colourist and visual effects artist
• 

  Dan Ebberts

  June 21, 2012 at 7:23 pm

  That should work. Your script should be able to harvest the tangent arrays.

  Dan
• 

  Barend Onneweer

  June 24, 2012 at 7:39 pm

  Hi Dan,

  So… a little later I actually ‘got my nerd on’ and managed to get the full vertex data including tangents to a text file.

  Now I’m stuck getting the script to draw the shape as a shape layer.

  I found examples for generic built-in Ellipses etc, but I can’t figure out where exactly to put my vertex data… This must be one of the least travelled areas of AE scripting…

  This is what I got for drawing a generic Ellipse:

  var myEllipseSize = [100,200];
var myStrokeColor = [1,0,0];

  var myShapeLayer= thisComp.layers.addShape();

  var myShapeLayerContents = myShapeLayer.property("ADBE Root Vectors Group");
var myShapeGroup = myShapeLayerContents.addProperty("ADBE Vector Group");
myShapeGroup.name = "Circle";
var myEllipse = focusShapeGroup.property("ADBE Vectors Group").addProperty("ADBE Vector Shape - Ellipse");
myEllipse.property("ADBE Vector Ellipse Size").setValue(myEllipseSize);


  And I get that I need to take out the Ellipse bits, but I’m missing something somewhere…

  Any pointers would once again be much appreciated!

  Raamw3rk – independent colourist and visual effects artist
• 

  Dan Ebberts

  June 24, 2012 at 9:23 pm

  The shape stuff is pretty tricky. This should draw a squished oval:

  var myVertices = [[0,-150],[-30,0],[0,150],[30,0]];
  var myInTangents = [[145,0],[0,-60],[-145,0],[0,60]];
  var myOutTangents = [[-145,0],[0,60],[145,0],[0,-60]];

  var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
  var myShapeLayer = myComp.layers.addShape();
  var myShapeLayerContents = myShapeLayer.property(“ADBE Root Vectors Group”);
  var myShapeGroup = myShapeLayerContents.addProperty(“ADBE Vector Group”);
  var myShapeContents = myShapeGroup.addProperty(“ADBE Vectors Group”);
  var myPathGroup = myShapeContents.addProperty(“ADBE Vector Shape – Group”);
  var myPathObject = myPathGroup.property(“ADBE Vector Shape”);

  var myPath = myPathObject.value;
  myPath.vertices = myVertices;
  myPath.inTangents = myInTangents;
  myPath.outTangents = myOutTangents;
  myPath.closed = true;
  myPathObject.setValue(myPath)

  Good luck. 🙂

  Dan
• 

  Barend Onneweer

  June 25, 2012 at 6:43 am

  That works! Thanks so much!

  Raamw3rk – independent colourist and visual effects artist

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