Animated wave shape

[David Bogie]

> I have tried many things from masks (as I mentioned), 3D stroke, etc. but haven’t achieved the proper look. < Those are what we'd probably suggest. You'd have to tell us exactly why none of those work for you. It's quite impossible to tell from the still image what it is you think you're trying to get the things to do or look like. Revealing objects with animated masks is quick and easy and even fun in AE so hard to tell what you found "tedious." bogiesan

[Jason Coursey]

Thanks for the response, Bogiesan.

Yea, I understand it may seem that animated masks are the best route, however, the time schedule I’m on is quite short. As you can see in the boards there would be many unique masks that would have to be created and animated.

Sure, I could make a bunch and duplicate, but I would like each to be somewhat unique. Also, trying to hand animate a number of points in a mask over time and achieve an organic and naturally fluid motion is more difficult than it may initially sound.

As for what exactly wasn’t working for me, well, I don’t like the standard feathered mask reveal across a shape, it just tends to look rather dull.

It may turn out that I do animate masks again, however, I am trying to explore new avenues, or ideas to achieve a more natural, rather than hand animated look.

Jason

[David Bogie]

Actually, I can’t see this at all. Remove the junk and show us the waves maybe.

[nextgear] “As you can see in the boards there would be many unique masks that would have to be created and animated.
“

> Sure, I could make a bunch and duplicate, but I would like each to be somewhat unique. Also, trying to hand animate a number of points in a mask over time and achieve an organic and naturally fluid motion is more difficult than it may initially sound. < I just don't see the issue. Your shape is two Bezier points and the mask shape can be animated with two keyframes. An Expression could easily refer to a single shape and apply several variations of speed of reveal, reshaping, gradient fills, scaling, and other movement. With CS3 you have that Brainstorm thing, it's cool. But try to have some patience. The Big Dog Wonks will be by in a few hours or tomorrow with plenty of other suggestions. bogiesan

[Joe Moya]

In general,

The simpliest approaches to achieving what I think you are trying to do are two fold:

1 You have the wave shaped mask above the wave/graphic and move the graphic layer under the mask.

Or,

2 You have the wave shaped mask as the top layer and move a stroke under the mask.

The simpliest methods are going have some variation of these two methods. What exactly you are looking to achieve should dictate which basic method would achieve your wanted results.

That being said… I can think of a method that would work (but not look that much different than using masks as I mentioned above)… but, that method would involve some serious rotoscoping and tracking (i.e., waaaaay time consuming).

Joe
Joe

[Rob Webster]

Hurray! Someone mentioned the brainstorming tool! I asked a question some time ago about the brainstorming tool, wondering how people anticipated using it. The only response I got was someone saying such tools can cheapen the creative process, leading people to use randomness instead of a clearer concept to begin with. While I understood the person’s point to a degree, I think this instance is exactly the kind I was thinking of – where you can use a tool like that to create randomness when needed, wanted, and planned. Congratulations on being the first one (in a post I’ve seen, at least) to mention the brainstorming function as a legit creative tool!

-Rob