Attaching a line to a nulls?

[Kevin Camp]

the beam effect will draw a line between 2 points, you can use expressions to connect each end point of the beam effect to a 3d null to effectively create a line between them.

here’s a link to dan ebbert’s site that explains how it work (his example uses the corner pin effect, but it’s basically the same):

https://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/threeD-corner-pin.html

all you need to do is create a new solid and add an expression for an end point of the beam (alt(pc)/option(mac)-click the stopwatch for a beam endpoint property) then paste this into the expression field:

target = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”);
fromComp(target.toComp(target.anchorPoint));

change the name of ‘target’ to one of your nulls. then do the same procedure for the other endpoint (attaching it to the other null).

that should create a line between them (you may need to set the beam effect to draw on transparent — i’m rendering right now so i can’t double check that)

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Diana Cimino]

Thank you Kevin, this is exactly what I was looking for!