Animating mask, is it possible to only animate 1 anchor point without keyframing the others?

[Chortorn]

You ‘could’ do that with a script, but that would be quite troublesome – otherwise – yes, it is really that bad.

chortorn

[Mike Clasby]

If you’re moving just one vertex, and it’s simple, do as Dave suggests, Move only the desired vertex, set a Mask Shape keyframe, etc, pretty straight forward.

The Script for controlling Mask vertices independently isn’t that complicated. It was created for roto work with the Motion Tracker, so it controls the mask vertices with Track Point keyframes. But the keyframes can generated by any means; manually, expressions converted to keyframes, motion sketch, or the Motion Tracker keyframes.

If you wanted to move just one vertex, I think I would create a small solid and set keyframes for it’s movement as needed for your animation of the vertex. Then you can visually see the solid’s (and vertex to follow) movement over time. Then select and Copy those keyframes. We’ll paste these keyframes into the Track Point’s “Attach Point” stopwatch as needed for the script.

Run the Script, File>Run Script>RotAE.jsx. Then select the mask, and in the panel that pops up, click “Apply Tracker”, now you have a “Motion Tracker 1” with a Track Point for each vertex of the mask. Track Point 1 is the First Vertex (the first one you applied with the Pen Tool, the bigger square) and goes counter-clockwise, Track Point 2, etc. So for ease in animating, you might want to change the first vertex to that mask vertex you want to animate. Right click the vertex you want to animate and choose “Set First Vertex”.

So now select the Track Point that controls the vertex you want to animate, Track Point 1 if you’re animating the First Vertex. Into the “Attach Point” and Paste.

Now, select the Mask and the Tracker (above the Track Points) and in the Script’s Panel, click the Apply Mask button.

Turn off the eyeball for the white solid or delete the layer.

Done.

The roto script is here:

https://del.icio.us/escruz/Rotoscope

[Christopher R. green]

Also, take a look at the Connect_Vertex_to_Point script on my AE scripts page:

https://www.crgreen.com/aescripts

[Mike Clasby]

I hadn’t used your script, but just rried it and it works well, especially in this situation where he wants one vertex to be animated. Thanks for the link.

[Mike Clasby]

Very nice for expressions too, without converting to keyframes. Thanks again.

[Christopher R. green]

You’re welcome! Glad you like it. Haven’t updated the site in a long while. Just too dang busy with other things. I was going to write a new script recently, but realized the functionality already existed in someone else’. Don’t that just figure.

(incidentally, the script I was mulling over was a rounded rectangle creation palette, but I realized that the redefinery’s rd_Slicer script can do this by setting the slices to 1 by 1. There must be something else I can get excited about … )

[Eric Öhman]

thank you for all good replies. i will try this in the weekend.
talking about expressions, does someone know any good resource or article on the web that explains the workflow of parent layers while dealing with expressions. like, “follow the leader” things.

[Mike Clasby]

https://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/follow-the-leader.html

[Thehardmenpath]

Hi yikesmikes, I just wanted to point out that there’s a 1.1 version of the script, check the aenhancers thread.

I’m glad you enjoy it. There’s a chance I make a version 2.0 in the future with some interesting new features. This is, if the new AE version coming doesn’t have all this by default.