Speed up/down along a mask path

[Cassius Marques]

Usually is by pre-composing and enabling time remap. But it will be almost the same as creating keyframes at times and giving them influence. Its easier because with time remmap you can just say “I want the two-second mark’s position now” by creating a keyframe and typing 02;00.

Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com

[Walter Soyka]

Precomposing as Cassius mentions is a great option.

I also sometimes use an expression to give me progress along the motion path. Add a Slider Control effect to your layer, and rename it “Progress”. Then Alt+click the stopwatch and paste the following expression:

valueAtTime(linear(effect("Progress")("Slider"), 0, 100, key(1).time, key(numKeys).time));

That gives you a single slider representing the completion percentage across the motion path that you can animate and ease from 0 to 100.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Dave Green]

This script looks perfect but it seems to be cut short. Is there any chance you could add the rest ☺ many thanks in advance, Dave.

[Walter Soyka]

Hi Dave,

The whole expression is there — it’s just one line — but because of the way CreativeCOW handles formatting for code, it scrolls horizontally. You should be able to select the whole thing, either by triple-clicking it or by drag-selecting from left to right.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Dave Green]

Hi Walter, thanks for your reply ☺ I did figure that out just after hitting the post button, and felt kinda silly, and I really wanted to delete the post but because i’m A newbie here my post wasn’t uploaded straight away, so I couldn’t .
Could you clarify for me where the slider (with the expression) needs to go, should it be on the layer with the animated object? Or should it be applied to a precomp holding the animated object (with a time remap added) or somewhere else? i’ve Tried both add I get the error that there is no keyframe 1.
Many thanks in advance, Dave

[Walter Soyka]

The slider should be added to the layer you wish to control. Once you’ve done that, you can select it in the Effects Control Panel and hit Enter to rename it “Progress”.

The expression should be added to the position property that has the motion path on it. With the layer selected, press P to reveal the Position property, then Alt+click its stopwatch and paste the expression.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Dave Green]

Genius!! That worked perfectly. Many thanks, and have a great day.

[Adam Mall]

I’ve tried this expression on the position of my motion path, but I am getting an error: function effect is undefined. I’ve added the slider to the layer that is moving … not sure why this happening

[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Adam, make sure you renamed the slider to ‘Progress’.

Find out more:
After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
Boxer – Dynamic Text Boxes Template with a Live Preview

[Adam Mall]

unfortunately still not working …

I have a shape layer as my object (a planet) moving around the motion path (elliptical orbit) .. in order for the object to move around the motion path I pick whipped the position of the object to the motion path position… could that have something to do with it ?

I added the slider to the shape layer planet .. renamed it Progress ..then I added the expression to the motion path .. still same error. I know it has to be something relatively simple I’ve done wrong 🙁