Shape Layers – grow stroke along path?

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Yes, Shape layers can do everything the Stroke effect does and a million things more.
In this case, you want to add the Trim Paths effect (in the “Add” fly-out menu) to the shape group. It has the usual start/end/offset parameters. You will want to turn off the fill, and leave stroke on, otherwise Trim Paths will trim both fill and stroke.

If you wanted to have both stroke and fill, but only animate stroke, duplicate the shape group. Turn off fill in one, turn off stroke in the other. Add Trim Paths inside the shape group which has the stroke turned on.

Note that the stroke property group in shape layer has other interesting options, like dashes (which you can animte), caps/joins, etc.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Tim West]

Perfect – thankyou!

Just one more question – is there any way of adding an arrowhead to this path so it follows the animation? (similar to adding arrowheads to a stroke in illustrator?)

Any help appreciated!

Tim

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Not in a direct way.
I think that would make an excellent feature request.

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Bradley Tangonan]

Adolfo–you are a life-saver. Thanks for the awesome tip!

A related question: Is there a straightforward way to add an arrowhead to the growing stroke on the shape layer path?

I’m messing around with copying the shape path and pasting it into the keyframed position property of an arrowhead shape in the same shape layer. However I just can’t seem to get the arrowhead to animate properly.

[Sergio Pecanha]

Tim,
If you found out an answer to your question, could you share? Thanks!
S

[Paula Lavalle]

I found this super helpful video on how to add an object that follows a growing stroke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DJB8LHjQCg&feature=channel&list=UL

Unfortunately you’ll have to ditch your shape layer and use the Stroke effect as mentioned in the original post, but thankfully using a mask path will allow you to have an arrowhead follow the path… according to everything I’ve found, anyway. 🙁

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