[Andy Engelkemier]

I must not have been ultra clear. The actual comp you’re In, not a nested comp.

But I think it’s just there because you can dock the timeline anywhere you want. So it tells you that it is content. So I don’t think it’s possible. I want to change the color of the “tab” where there is a brown box and the composition name.

[Andy Engelkemier]

OH! I just noticed….

d1 length was 3.71
d2 length was 1.39

actual lengths were 3710 and 1391

so other than cases when your path begins with an Extreme, very small arc, then continues on, this should be almost exactly the the correct length in pixels, if you multiply by 1000.

Now if I can figure out how to adjust the key based on that ratio…lol
I’m still learning with expressions, which is why I asked for clarification. I hate Thinking I know something (when it’s actually wrong)

I just moved the end key based on the ratio I had.

For an expression, my guess is setting one key at zero, and that’s it. Then do the rest through expressions. But I’ve always failed miserably when it comes to expressions based on time. (also I’m bad at math)

[Andy Engelkemier]

So I Think this works? But I’d like to double check on my understanding on what is going on. Too bad they don’t just give you access to the arc length they refer to in the help file.

the PointOnPath command is giving you a point at a specific percentage of the total arc length at the current time (being only relevant if the length of the path changes over time?).
So you are getting a VERY small sample of the length based on percentage in order to solve for the path being not straight.

So it looks like you’re getting the length of 2 points on the path, at 0%, and .001%.

I plugged that into a slider control on two paths, and that does match the percentages that I changed it based on my total length measurements in illustrator, so that will definitely work. I just wanted to be sure I understood correctly.

Length will only give you the distance between two points in a straight line, correct? I assume that’s why you used an incredibly small distance.

[Andy Engelkemier]

Yes, I’m aware that you can use trim paths. But a percentage of two different paths of different lengths cause the “draw” to go at different speeds.
So if you want the path to draw on at the same rate, you have to calculate the path length because you have to adjust the start and finish times based on the path length.

In case that’s Still not clear.
I have two paths. One is 3000px long, the other is 6000px long. I start their animation both at 00;00;00. I would like them to go at the same speed, only, I don’t know how long they are (because AE doesn’t tell me). So when I start and finish them both at the same time, the path that is twice as long appears to animate on twice as fast. Instead, I would like to have the 3000px path move at the same rate, and finish in half the time.

So I’m copying and pasting these paths into Illustrator to find out the lengths, then adjusting the keys based on the percentage they are different. I have quite a few to do, so it’s a bit of a pain. I’d rather be able to keep things in AE with expressions.

[Andy Engelkemier]

Ah, yikes. Is there an example of this?

My issue is I’m animating several lines with different length. The “speed” all looks the same because it’s just moving the trim path, but that’s based on a percentage.

It’s a real shame that AE didn’t include a path length variable so you could use that in expressions without having to create the complicated math every time. At least, that’s what I’m finding.

So for me, if I half circle paths and one length is half the other, when I go to animate the trim path, I’d want one finishing in half the time as the other. I was just going to do it manually based on the path length, but I couldn’t find that.

So my solution? Ha, copy and paste the path into illustrator. Select a path and open up the Document Info window. Change, via the hamburger menu, to objects, and yay, it shows you the path length.

So I wrote those down, and that gave me the percentage to slow each animation down so all the trim animations were moving at the same rate.

So Adobe HAS math to calculate that already. It would just be lovely if they had it as an object you can call on within expressions.

[Andy Engelkemier]

Haha, I feel like a moron. Thank you. How have I been using AE for so many years without ever having this come up!?!?

Although, it does look like they changed it a bit. You don’t select control or command anymore. It auto switches to the select tool. Holding Ctrl is now the subtract pen.
Still, same thing. I kept trying to just select the path.

In my case it was more confusing as well because I have 2 shapes on my object. I have one path attached to the other with an expression so that they are the same. I’m using two different trim paths, so that’s why I couldn’t create this effect with only one shape. And when you have 2 shapes that are the same path, you can’t see which part of the path is selected.
I think that’s kind of a bug, but isn’t concerning enough for me to yell into the empty void that is adobe user voice.

[Andy Engelkemier]

Right? The price is right too. If you’re a Really frequent Illustrator user, Astute Graphics has some awesome tools, but they are Expensive, so you Really have to make good use of it on a daily basis.
This tool is cheap enough, you can use it once on a good sized project and still be happy about it.

Rubber Hose is one that I see frequently for bendy character animation. I haven’t seen really other examples of it to know what I might use it for, but I’d love it.

Particular became a necessity for a couple projects, but Wow it’s expensive. So I only buy it when a project absolutely calls for it, then I quote the job a bit higher because I’m usually out of practice at it.
It’s funny, the most common thing I do with it is draw a mask. No joke. It’s faster than writeon. So if you just need an object to leave a mask reveal behind, then have it drag a bunch of particles. I haven’t compared the speed of particle world lately though.

I’m going to keep following this, because I really want to see how you end up accomplishing this. I’d probably just say, F it, and do it in Blender. But that might not be what you’re after. And Blender has a wicked steep learning curve, even if you’re pretty good at another 3D package.

[Andy Engelkemier]

Oh boy. You should try that out yourself before you go suggesting it.

It’s AWFUL! It’ll work for like 2 seconds, sometimes. But it completely screws up your timeline. I mean, it’s terrible. It’s like they didn’t even test it out.

That also doesn’t solve my problem, because that assumes the keys are already in the composition. I have a composition already, then I have keys on the composition. The biggest problem with the responsive idea they have there, is it messes up time. So when you go to move keys, they “accelerate”. No joke. Make a short composition, then extend it to like 10 minutes. Then make a few position keys somewhere around 5 minutes. Go do something else, come back, and move the keys.
I’m not sure what they did, but they sure screwed it up, because the keys just fly off the page.

I had a whole project over 100 layers long with 30+ compositions. I used this technique to help me out. It has the added bonus of being able to move your animations (just like multiple time remaps) without even dropping down your time remap keys. You can see where they are too, because it shows up blue. It would be Super great…….if it worked. It just falls apart too frequently. So I had to undo all that. And you can’t easily undo it. You can remove the protected region, but it sort of stays? The time of your composition is still messed up. I think maybe you can fix it by adding time remap, then removing it? I can’t remember. I think in most cases I ended up dragging in the composition again, and just matching the settings manually. It took me hours to fix.

Adobe has a lot of work to do with the essential graphics. And they don’t recognize that it’s an issue. And yes, I reported it. And no, I didn’t get a response. Not sure why we pay more for the business version. Seriously, it’s an extra $20 per user, and you Really don’t get anything for it other than being able to assign people all in one management area.

[Andy Engelkemier]

An easy way? Not that I can think of.

My first thought would be to create an object for each line separating each composition. This would drive a mask for each one.
Then each composition would get scaled to fill that. So rather than using the scale tool, you would move the dividing lines, and the comps would scale.

This will require a fair amount of expressions, and a decent amount of math. So if you aren’t great at that, make friends with Dan Ebberts.

[Andy Engelkemier]

Check out Motion V3. You might need Midas, by the same people, but those tools might be built in now.
Also, you might also want Rubber Hose, but I haven’t used that one, so I can’t speak for it.

Mt Mograph has a youtube showing a few tools that will help you out though, the makers of Motion V2 and V3. I think V3 is a bit buggy, but it’s a lifetime license, so I’m sure you get both. I think it’s like $60. And I use it Constantly, for simple things.
From what I can tell, that’ll help you out quite a bit. It won’t do the work for you, but it should take care of the fake physics calculations.