[Bryan Mcclurg]

To add, is there any kind of plugin that allows one to take a certain shaped mask, give it “3D layer” to move it back, forward, left, right, up or down, and wherever I move it I can leave a trail of its own shape?

Think about it like this: If you had a sparkler, but instead of a regular stick with one dot at the end that lights up, you had a sparkler designed in the shape of a triangle. The entire triangle is lit, and as you move it around, you leave the shape of that triangle in the air.

That is basically the kind of effect I’m looking for. I thought Particular effect might leave this trail, but I realize that it only goes from start to end point in one mask shape. I want the entire Particular to take a certain shape instead of follow a line, then leave a trail of that shape.

Sorry for repeating myself. I don’t mean to sound condescending toward anyone reading. I just want to be as concise as possible.

[Bryan Mcclurg]

Vishesh,

Thank you for the input, but this is not what I’m asking about.

To try and be a little more concise, I want a particular effect to take the shape of a star, and I want the star to leave a trail of its own shape, not follow or leave a line-shaped trail.

To repeat, a star passes the screen, and the shape of that star leaves a trails behind it *in its shape*, not simply a trail of one line.

Is this possible?

[Bryan Mcclurg]

Sorry if I’m getting this wrong, but can’t you simply highlight your entire mask shape with the common shape tool, thus bringing up a red mask-like square (you know, the red points that act as a way to click and drag selected objects) and drag it to change its size, height, width or length to your liking? You can highlight a video and drag it around to do this, and I’ve discovered you can do it with any shaped mask too, thus resizing it.

[Bryan Mcclurg]

First and foremost, thank you Mark, Chris, Emre for the incredibly helpful, solid feedback – and so fast! I really appreciate it.

Mark, I will definitely be looking into the financial side of the equation as that naturally makes sense. I just hope the numbers I come up with aren’t terribly wild for potential clientele, as this will be my main source of income! Also, I will make sure to look out for said fake lagniappe.

[Chris Tompkins] “With all that being said, have you looked into X-ray technician school?”

I’m very curious as to why you ask this, Chris. I never heard this approach before, or how it might benefit me.

[Bryan Mcclurg]

UPDATE: I found the solution.

For those interested, once the Position XY parameter of the Particular effect is pick-whipped to the motion sketched Null (so that it moves on that path), do NOT pick-whip the motion sketched Null to the Tracker Null. Instead, pick-whipping the Solid [that has the Particular effect] to the Tracker Null does the trick, and everything is aligned.

But thank you Vishesh for the input!

[Bryan Mcclurg]

Vishesh

As described in my first post, I already pick-whipped the Position XY parameter of my Particular effect to the motion sketched Null. When I do this, my Particular moves on the same path as my sketch, and everything works fine.

My problem is, I then pick-whip my motion sketched Null to the Tracker Null, in order to get my Particular to move with the video. When I attempt this, my Particular is moving on the correct sketch path, but now appears way off from where I want it. I don’t know what causes the position of my Particular to change.