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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Creating a motion path from a mask….

  • Creating a motion path from a mask….

    Posted by Aza Allen on April 5, 2008 at 2:17 am

    So what I want to have (all 3d layers) is two photos positioned in front of my “camera”, and I want them to revolve around my camera (as if I was standing in a spinning vertical cylinder with these two images “painted” on the walls)

    So I am looking at the AE 7.0 Help Center and here’s what it says:

    ***

    “You can instantly create a motion path from any mask that you draw in After Effects (or from a path that you copy from Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop), by pasting the mask or path into a layer’s Position property, a layer’s Anchor Point property, or the effect point property of an effect. The assigned keyframes are set to rove in time, except for the first and last ones, to create a constant velocity along the mask or path. By default, After Effects assigns a duration of 2 seconds to the motion path. Adjust the default duration by dragging the first or last keyframe to a new point in time.

    1) Do one of the following:

    * Select a mask.

    or

    * Create and select a path from Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. (For information on creating paths in those products, see the respective product Help.)

    then:

    2) Copy the mask or path to the clipboard.

    3) In the Timeline panel, select the destination keyframe property.

    4) Paste the mask or path.”

    ***

    I have a camera created and the two images in 3d layers. I created a null object and rotated it on the x axis to lie flat, horizontally, perpendicular to the camera. I then created an elliptical mask on the Null object, large enough to encompass my camera, so the camera lies inside the ellipse..

    According to the above pasted advice, all I have to do is copy the elliptical mask to the clip board, select the ‘position’ property of one of the images and paste the mask into the position property, but when I do that, all it does is paste a new copy of the whole mask onto the image layer….

    please help…
    Thanks all,

    Aza

    Make sure to check out my Heroes Fan Film at http://www.myspace.com/ruesterprod

    Aza Allen replied 18 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Thorsten Miess

    April 5, 2008 at 9:13 am

    You have to select the Mask shape property, not the entire mask

  • Frank Thomas

    April 5, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    Wouldn’t it be easier just to position your photos equidistant in front and behind the camera (on the z axis), then rotate the camera?

  • Aza Allen

    April 5, 2008 at 7:33 pm

    Thanks for the responses.

    Frank: Yes, you are right, it might be. But still something I would like to know how to do.

    Thanks Thorsten!

    Side question, is there a way to create a cylinder from a solid? (as to be inside of and spin around) Or even a sphere?

    Make sure to check out my Heroes Fan Film at http://www.myspace.com/ruesterprod

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