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Dots and distance
I’ve created a dotted, curved line using the spline tool. It has X number of dots.
If I adjust the curve the line changes length, which creates more dots.
But is there a way to keep the number of dots consistent irrespective of the line’s length?
Basically, if the line gets longer the *spacing* between the dots would increase, not the number of dots themselves.
(I need to create an effect where it feels like dots are pinned to a curved line, sort of like what you’d get if you drew dots on a rubber band and then stretched the rubber band. Right now everything I’m finding that generates dots on a spline, which is the spline tool and Trapcode’s 3D Stroke, treat the number of dots as a function of the spline length. There might be a way to do this with a function that adjusts the gap based on the length of the line but I can’t find it or figure it out.)
Any ideas?
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1 Reply
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After Effects added expression access to path properties in Ae CC v15.0 (2018). With that, we can use expressions to position shape layers at specific points on the path. We can get those points by percentage with
maskPath.pointOnPath(), which makes this sort of stretchy ribbon effect pretty straightforward:
[image]Here’s a sample project:
13326_dotsonapath.aep.zipWalter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn]
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