morphing from one letter to another using shape layers?

[Kevin Camp]

i don’t know of a way to morph paths/masks/shapes in ae, but you can do it easily in illustrator, then import those paths as frames and thus create a morph between letters, or any other shape…

here’s a tutorial that does just that…

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Isabella La rocca]

update: it was as simple as setting a keyframe in the “E” shape layer path, and then creating a second keyframe by pasting the outlines from the “G” shape layer. now it morphs but the interpolation is ugly. which is what Smart Mask Interpolation is for, but when i try to apply SMI to the path keyframes, it gives me a message that says:

After Effects: AEGP Plugin Smart Mask Interpolation: Please select 2 consecutive Mask Shape keyframes to interpolate between.

So SMI doesn’t work on shape layers?!? how annoying is that?

any work arounds?

[Ron Coy]

make sure the masks have the same amount of points, which I believe will help with the interpolation.

I’ve never attempted this before, so take all I offer with a grain of salt, but I believe the mask interpolation will benefit from making the points all bezier points and making the angular points stay angular by adjusting the bezier handles, that way they can smoothly make the curves happen in the morph.

unless I’m way off on that…