Any tips on creating a globe with planes flying around leaving journey lines?

[Kevin Camp]

you can kind of create a line from the plane layer’s position by using a separate layer and an adjustment layer with the echo effect to create the line.

so you have a layer (call it ‘plane1’) with the position keyframed the way you want it. create a new layer (i’ll call ‘line1’), make it about the size you want the line thickness to be (say 10×10) and the color you want the line to be. then add a circular mask to the line1 layer (double click the circular mask icon to make it the same size as the layer, if needed you can use the scale property to adjust the size/thickness of the line later.

position the line1 layer to centered under the plane1 layer and parent line1 to plane1. now the line layer will move with the plane layer…

to create the drawing line effect, make sure the line1 layer underneath the plane1 layer in the comp timeline. then add an adjustment layer in between the plane and line layers. add the echo effect to the adjustment layer. your settings will vary based on the speed of the movement and the length and thickness of the line, but you should be able to create solid line by adjusting the echo time and number of echoes parameters.

since the line effect is created by an adjustment layer all layers below it will be effected, so as you create more plane layers, add new line layers below the adjustment layer.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Daniel Haskett]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your help, I think Ive just about got it working. Im having to have around 6000 echos so that the line stays on screen and doesnt disappear…is this the best way to do it? Also the adjustment layer method isnt working because my globe is underneath the adjustment layer and it seems to get completely bleached out when i add the echo effect…do yo have any idea why its doing this and if there is anyway of getting around it?

thanks!

dan

Animator/Illustrator
https://www.danhaskett.co.uk

[Mike Park]

are you trying to do a true 3d look with the planes and lines off the surface of the earth, or a simple 2d look.

Also, do you have trapcode particular?

[Kevin Camp]

yep, that sounds about right, the number of echoes would probably be pretty large depending on how long the line is on screen and the tightness of the ‘echo time’ sampling (which would probably need to be pretty tight depending on the speed of the move)…

as far as the ‘bleached out’ effect of the background image, that happens because of the ‘echo operator’ which is how the echo effect is compositing the samples. unfortunately, you will probably not be able to change that effect (you might try the ‘minimum’ or ‘maximum’ operator settings, but it will depend on the colors of the background and the lines). however, if the min or max settings don’t work, once you have the planes and lines the way you need them, you can simply pre-comp the plane, line and adjustment layers into a new pre-comp, leaving the background image in the main comp. that way you should get the planes and lines as a pre-comped layer over the background and the background will not be effected by the adjustment layer of the pre-comp (did that make any sense…?).

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Mike Park]

If you have trapcode particular, you can use a similar method to kevin’s without the described problems with the echo effect.
Simply create a null for each plane, animate the null, pickwip the plane position to the null, create a new solid and apply particular, pickwip the emitter position to the null, turn the velocity to 0 and change the particle life to however long you need. Then, you only need to adjust the particle amount until you get a solid line. This depends largely on the speed of the plane.

You can also do this in true 3d and have the planes fly around the globe. Although you might be limited by the 2d nature of the plane images you are using.

simply duplicate the layers and adjust the null and you have an easy way for multiple planes to have trails following them perfectly.

[Daniel Haskett]

i do have trapcode particular yes, and im probably gonna just go for the 2d look, unless 3d is possible in a relatively easy way?

cheers

dan

Animator/Illustrator
https://www.danhaskett.co.uk

[Daniel Haskett]

cool thanks mike, il definietly give that a go!

dan

Animator/Illustrator
https://www.danhaskett.co.uk

[Kevin Camp]

mike’s idea is good… you could also do something very similar with ae’s particle playground effect if you didn’t have particular, although it would be 2d only, but the method and settings would be similar.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Lauren Roundy]

There is a much more simple way to do this than what you are trying. All you have to do is apply the write on effect to a solid layer and copy and paste the position keyframes from you airplane layer to the brush position of the write on effect controls. The write on effect is very similar to the stroke effect, except it relies on position data to draw the line instead of a mask or path.

[Daniel Haskett]

Ok great, thanks, yeah it does seem that the solution was actually pretty straightforward after everything, a bit of a pick whip with write on seems to do a great job!

thanks everyone

dan

Animator/Illustrator
https://www.danhaskett.co.uk