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How do I animate a vertical-split of a layer ?
Hello all,
I would be greatly indebted for any help in figuring out the
following effect, which I would like to use many times in the future.I have a 3D Layer ( an AVI clip ) shrunk to 60% of full-screen size,
and centered in the middle of the screen.What I would like to do is this . . . .
1. Apply some sort of effect that creates a jagged vertical-split, that
can be keyframed. The split would go from the center of the top of the clip,
( 12 o’clock ) and split down to the bottom center of the clip ( 6 o’clock).
(Something like you see in earthquake movies).2. We now have two ” pieces ” or halves. The right-hand half is to move
towards the right edge of the screen, and shatters before going off-screen.3. The left-hand half is to move towards the left edge of the screen, and
shatters before going off-screen.I thank you for helping me figure this out.
May I wish you all a very happy Easter.
And thanks for the help you give us all. -
4 Replies
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I think you might have to keyframe the crack by hand. Then, the frame before the halves move apart, switch the halves to individual layers. Then it’s all a matter of shatter from there.
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Ian,
What does ” keyframe the crack by hand ” mean ?
Also how do you put portions of a layer onto layers of their own ?Thanks
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Draw a mask down the center of your layer where you want the crack to be. Close the mask so it encompasses the whole half of the layer. Duplicate it (CTRL+D), then set the copy’s mask to Subtract. Your layer should look whole, but now you’re got two pieces, which you can easily move independently.
As far an animating the actual crack, you could simply move the layers’ anchor points to the bottom of the crack, then rotate them slightly away from each other. Or, you could apply a Stroke to one of the layer masks, and use it to sort of trace over the area of the mask that makes up the crack. I can think of about five other ways to do this, depending on what you’re actually wanting to do.
Once you’ve gotten your crack animated, simply keyframe the pieces moving away from each other, then use the Shatter filter when you want them to shatter.
Make sense?
Also, what Ian was referring to was splitting the layer at the time they actually separate. SHIFT+CTRL+D splits a layer. Then you’d duplicate that new later section of it, and do exactly what I said above. That’s the ideal way to do this, so your computer isn’t having to render both copies of the layer all along. Do as you please.
Kyle Hamrick
Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
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Hi Kyle,
Many thanks for your informative explanation. I will try everything you suggested.
With best regards
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