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Zipper Effect
Hi all,
I’m trying to make a zipper animation, but I’m having trouble getting the individual teeth to orient perpendicular to the line
I have;
1) made a white solid and masked it to create the zipper shape, then precomposed
2)used the following expression to distribute it along the line
spacing = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
pos = linear (index, 0, spacing,0,1);
thisComp.layer(“Black Solid 1”).mask(“Mask 1”).maskPath.pointOnPath(percentage = pos, t = time);Any ideas?
Or am I making this all to complicated and there’s a better way?
Cheers
Thanks
Markus
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2 Replies
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You can use the tangentOnPath() method to follow the curve and align the teeth the zipper line. See the attached AEP for a sample.
Math reference:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Math/atan2Sample code:
var x = effect("Slider Control")("Slider")/100;
var l = thisComp.layer("Line");
var p = l.content("Shape 1").content("Path 1").path;
radiansToDegrees(Math.atan2(p.tangentOnPath(x)[1], p.tangentOnPath(x)[0]));
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Text on a Path is the easier way if you can find (or make) a font that has the right shape for you.
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