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trying to get a camera to follow a path in 3d using expressions
Hi,
Been trying to do this all day. I want to follow the outline of a letter ‘M’ which is the first letter in a logo I am working on. I have applied a stroke effect using keyframed end percentage which draws the letter. What I want to do is have a camera follow the line as its drawn but have the layer auto rotate as its doing it. So I will get a kind of effect as if using a jigsaw to cut something where the object being cut rotates rather than the saw.
Just being able to follow the line would be a start but i cant match the position (three parameters in 3d) with the stroke end percentage, I need the strokes position in 3d space some how. The look I am after is 2d logo spinning around the centre of the screen as its drawn whilst the ‘pen’ drawing it stays centre screen. Do I even need cameras? Am i best tracking an auto orientated null around the path. do i animate the anchor point to the stroke end position? if so how? Sorry bout long post..Any ideas would be real helpful. I dont know where to start.
Hope you know what I mean.
Thanks…
Barry. -
2 Replies
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Okay, I got as far as creating a mask in 2d, creating a null whose position keyframes are pasted in from the maskshape. Applying stroke to the mask shape. Creating a camera whose position follows the null’s so I have it drawing fine but its not rotating at the corners as I would like. Any ideas , I am almost there.
For example , say it was a basic square… They topside draws left to right, then the next side (the right side) draws top to bottom all the while the pen or cursor in my case stays dead centre as my cameras position and point of interest are linked to it.This means the squre moves while its being drawn…all fine this is what I want but I would prefer all lines drawn horizontally so that the square would have to rotate as its drawn. I can manually animate this but as my shapes are more complex I wondered if there was an easier way that I am overlookin. Thanks in advance.
Oh and if anyone can see that I have being doing any of the above the long way round please let me know, have to learn somehow eh?
Thanks.
Barry -
Just realised i could just animate the anchor point in 2d, being doing it for ages with images. Still cant get the rotation though so maybe keyframing is the way to go. Sorry for posting when I worked it out myself. any further advice appreciated though.
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