Trim Paths not working as expected…

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

What do you want it to do instead? That is how a trim paths with fill works. The path origin is in a bit of an odd location, other than that the behavior is as expected. You are filling a shape that remains when you remove a certain length of the path.

Kalleheikki Kannisto
Senior Graphic Designer

[Joey Heaton]

I want the Trim Paths to do what one would expect it to do, i.e. trim along the line, without adding strange extra shapes that do not exist in the Illustrator file.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi, turn the Fill of your shape off.

[Joey Heaton]

Hi,

Doing that just causes it to disappear. It looks like I’m going to have to mask it manually?

Thanks.

[Michael Szalapski]

Not necessarily. Turn the fill off, but turn the stroke on and make sure you have a white stroke. I’m guessing that the shape isn’t a simple stroke in Illustrator but two circles that are kinda filled, but it’s just a guess.

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[Max Haller]

Its not doing what you’re expecting because the shape isn’t a stroke. Its probably a stroke in illustrator but its being treated as a solid shape. You can see that it’s trimming the path around the shape you thought was a stroke. See how it says Group 1 instead of shape, open that up and see if it’s multiple shapes that are merged or something.

It’s not making random shapes, the arcs that pop up is from the trim path drawing the objects in the group 1 and then your telling it to fill that group with white. If its a simple shape you’re better off just using the pen tool in after effects and setting the stroke width to however wide you want it. Remove the fill and use stroke color instead and then trim path should do what you’re imaging.