[Greg Gesch]

Hi, that is clearer.
Go to the time when the stroke is completed – just before 10 seconds? – so that you can see it all.
Select the Shape layer – at the top of your screen you will see the word “Stroke” with a color swatch beside it.
Press on the word “Stroke” and a dropdown will appear – select the third box (Linear Gradient) – click OK.
In your layer the heading “Stroke1” will have changed to Gradient Stroke 1 – select it.
A blue shape, something like . _ _ _ _ _. will appear somewhere on your screen (it can be hard to see or find – zoom out if you need to).
Drag the first dot to the beginning of your stroke and then drag the last dot to the end of your stroke.
The beginning of your stroke should now be white and the end will be black.
Toggle open Gradient Stroke 1, next to the Colors heading press on “Edit Gradient”
A color editing box will appear (make sure the Preview box is ticked). At the top is a bar with a white square underneath at one end and a black square at the other.
Select the white box and then go down and select your red color (the white box will now go red and the gradient go from red to black).
Take your cursor under the bar where the red and black boxes are and left click – a new red box will appear – then move along a bit and left click again – another red box will appear.
With the third red box still selected go down and select your yellow color.
Now drag your yellow box carefully onto the top of the middle red box – you should now have a sharp line between the red and the yellow colours.
Watch your stroke layer (it will update) while you position the middle box and then the yellow box into the right position where the color should change.
Then repeat the process of making two more boxes, changing the color of the second, positioning and dragging them together .
This sounds more complicated than it is in practice.
Let me know if anything is unclear.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Sander. There are a few ways of doing this but we need further information.
“I’ve created a shape layer and a path for an animated stroke. ”
Is your shape layer only a line that the animated stroke is following (a shape that has no fill), or is it filled in like the example that you gave?
Are you using the Stroke Effect with its path on a separate layer?

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Richard, just double click the centre of the work area bar.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Benjamin, have you changed the null to 3D?

[Greg Gesch]

Yes what you are saying could be the way to go. If you transition by going through glass or a solid sign that gives you a little leeway in things not exactly matching. The principles in the tutorial with the shimmering effect could be the transition.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Jack, you could think about having the door closed and either going through the glass or a sign (or whatever) on the door front – this old VCP tutorial might give you some ideas:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/magic_glass/

You might even consider putting a green screen behind the door and using your DSLR footage (frozen first frame perhaps) to replace it, so the transition is smoother?

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Corbin, sorry to suggest that volume and lyrics aren’t necessarily going to coincide (you’ll rarely hear each word having a volume change – or a pause between each word). Also words with more than one syllable will usually be sung with a note for each syllable – so your ball may have to bounce several times on a single word. However the good news is that most songs repeat the same rhythm/melody for each verse, so once you have done one you may be able to copy/paste to the next verse and only have to do minor re-jigging?

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Nick. You could do this by using (overlapping) masks for each section of the text (all set to Add), then keyframe the individual Mask Opacity from 0 to 100.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Michael. Mask out the window (set the mask to Subtract), place/position/scale your live action footage under your spaceship layer so it’s seen through the window. Make your layers 3D then either: parent your layers to a null and scale etc. the null so that everything moves off in the Z direction – or create a camera and zoom/dolly with it.

[Greg Gesch]

Hi Erik, my instinct would be to two separate keys, one for the tinted window and the other for the clear view, keyframing a mask of the tinted one as it opens. Could be safer than over exposing??