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Follow and zoom in on object.
So I’m very new at after effects and I am trying to create the typical ship moving across a map as dotted lines come from behind it effect. So far I used a shape layer and stroke with “trimmed paths” to keyframe the movement. I put a ship image on top of that and drew a path to match the stroke.
QUESTION 1: Is there a way of connecting the ship to the end point of the stroke path so I don’t have to basically redraw the path with the ship’s motion? If so how?
Now that I have this. I want the camera to start in a zoomed out position (as seen on the image attached) and as the ship moves up along the path I want the camera to zoom in onto the ship and track it as it gets to the full zoom I want. I imagine I do this by using a null object and a camera? But every time I use a null object (again having to redraw another path to follow the ship), the path gets all messed up when in 3D..and that’s pretty much as far as I’ve been able to get.
QUESTION 2: How the heck to do I get the camera to zoom into and on the moving ship?
Thank you much!
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3 Replies
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[Charles Wickware] “QUESTION 1: Is there a way of connecting the ship to the end point of the stroke path so I don’t have to basically redraw the path with the ship’s motion? If so how?
“There are several methods. Here’s one:
Select the path property in the shape layer and click on the word Path and copy.
Now click on the Position property for the ship and paste.
You’ll now have what are known as Roving keyframes for the ships position. There will be 2 diamond shaped keyframe icons, move either of these diamond shaped icons to adjust the timing. These are linear keyframes.
You may need to select the ship and choose Layer > Transform > Auto-Orient to make the ship face the path.
[Charles Wickware] “QUESTION 2: How the heck to do I get the camera to zoom into and on the moving ship?
“Look up nested compositions or if you are really using a camera, then look up controlling a camera with a null object.
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Thanks, that worked for the ship and stroke! So I looked into the nested comps and got pretty close to what I was looking for but it was by zooming in and keyframing the position manually about the ship. The only problem is that it’s not as smooth as if I were able to somehow attach the nested comp to say a null that has the same path as the ship. I tried this by copy and pasting the movement from the original comp to a null in the nested comp so it follows the ship and key framing a scale but it didn’t quite work. When would I use a camera? FInally, one other problem. I’m trying to make the stroke style into Multiply but no matter which variable I change it just stays solid red. You can see on the pic that I have it changed but nothing. Am I missing something here?
Thanks!
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Your timeline is set to view Switches – hit F4 to toggle between Switches and Blending Modes view. In Blending Modes view, use one the Overlay Blending Mode as a starting point as it sounds like what you want is best accomplished with said Blending Mode.
Your layers are now 2D layers. AE’s camera will only interact with 3D layers. There are lots of COW tutorials on how to use AE’s camera. Watch a few and then come back if you have specific camera issues.
HTH
RoRKIntensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations
Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE
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