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reveal vectors in After effects
Hello,
I am currently creating some line drawings of buildings, and I was wondering if there was a method in After effects which can reveal a vector line automatically without messing with masks?given that the vector is a mathematical path that can be followed, I was wondering if there was an expression that would reveal along the path – 10%, 20% 30% etc. starting at one end and finish at the other that functioned more like an expression.
Of course I know that I can use a layer mask, or the write on effect, however I feel that these methods are very cumbersome and time consuming, but a vector based expression should be easy to implement, if it existed.
does anyone have any suggestions or tips?
Thanks
Alex
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4 Replies
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so, are you saying you want to use a set of coördinates that define your line in straight segments ?
something like [100,100],[200,100],[200,200],[100,200],[100,100] to draw a 100*100 square ?
That’s not that hard to do with expressions, but again, that’s an expression that would be applied to a Write-on effect. so not truly Vector.
Alternatively, a script could create a mask from coördinates like this.
But I’m not sure I’m understanding you correctly
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hey there,
umm, I think I should try to explain better,I have a vector line object, drawn in illustrator, no fills, just the path.
because it is a path, that a machine can read, I was wondering if there is an effect/plugin that can read the path and follow it.
My intention is to reveal the line, so it draws on. But without the hassle of manually keyframing it.
Similar to when you can animate type in after effects, because the type is machine vectors, you can make type appear without manually masking out each letter.
is this any clearer?
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- open your graphic in Illustrator,
- select and copy the paths you want.
- create a solid in after effects
- paste, if your masks are visible, you’ll see the paths as masks on your solid
- run the rd_MasksToShapes script: https://www.redefinery.com/ae/view.php?item=rd_MasksToShapes
voila, you now have a shape layer containing just the ‘vectors’.
You can now add shape strokes/fills, gradienst, whatever to your hearts content.Explore the shapes-section of the manual. I think there’s still a lot of people who don’t use shapes, while they are so much more powerfull (and more ‘true vector’) than solids with fills/masks/strokes.
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I’m actually in search of the same thing as Alexander. Filip, what are the next steps to take that vector shape and have it automatically draw on (or off) from the first point to the last? Alternatively, could one create their line with the pen tool and have that draw on/off automatically.
I’m confused by how difficult this seems to achieve in After Effects, when it’s such a simple procedure in Apple’s Motion program with the vector paint tool. Thanks.
cbauer@mac.com
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