• Adobe After Effects

  Automate Shape to slide from one moving shape to another

  Posted by Jack Dombrowski on September 17, 2019 at 9:16 pm

  I am trying to animate a shape back and forth between two other shapes along a straight line. Is there a way to accomplish this while the two base shapes are moving around? I don’t think I can simply parent it because the two shapes have individual coordinates… Let me know if I need to explain further

  Jack Dombrowski replied 7 years ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Walter Soyka

  September 17, 2019 at 10:31 pm

  This is doable with expressions. I’ve put together a quick example:
  13728_shapes.aep.zip

  Basically, we need to get the positions of the two layers, then figure out a point on a straight line between them. All of this is illustrated on the solid layer at the top of the comp.

  For bonus points, I’ve also addressed rotation here (in 2D), but you could remove that expression if you didn’t want the shape to follow the angle.

  I’m sure you will have questions. Please feel free to ask!

  Walter Soyka
  Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
  Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
  @keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]
• 

  Jack Dombrowski

  September 18, 2019 at 12:38 am

  Thanks!! That worked actually. I’m not great at writing expressions but I reverse engineer them easy enough. Didn’t end up needing the rotation but I appreciate, I may still make use of it at some point.

  Thanks again!

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