[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Separate paths are separate paths. If you draw anything that is made from more than a single continuous line, you will get multiple paths.

I just don’t see how you would draw a complex shape like a ship with a single path.

What is it that you are trying to do with it in After Effects?

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Doesn’t work the same way in Illustrator.

There are smart guides that you can turn on that attempt to make it easier to draw and move things in relation to the dimensions of other objects by showing when you match a measurement elsewhere in the illustration.

To do what you are trying to do, you would have to draw another temporary object at the reference point, move both objects the same amount, then delete the extra temporary object you drew.

Also, Illustrator remembers the last transformation, so if you move one object a specific distance, you can select another object and press ctlr-D (transform again) and the selected object will move (or scale, skew, rotate etc.) the same amount as the last trasformation.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

3D text without plug-ins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s16qBpcOiYE

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[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

I guess it depends on how the graphics will be integrated, and whether they need to have room to move. Are you doing the editing yourself?

I would probably make the graphics the same pixel dimensions as the footage and use the same pixel aspect ratio in Photoshop, which can be picked in the new document dialog.

Other options undoubtedly exist, such as making the graphics significantly larger and scaling them down as needed in Premiere. Which might be a good idea if you don’t have a locked-down final size for the graphics: you won’t have to redo them if they’re needed larger for some reason.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Did something very similar here, although the boxes scaled along y-axis only:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/1065542

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

You don’t really need an expression, you can keyframe the motion to slow down and speed up along the path.

On the other hand, if you need an accurate result, you don’t need a motion path, you can do it with expressions only. Acceleration isn’t one of the most straightforward things to do with expressions, as it requires you to calculate all preceding frames up to the current time, but it can be done. Here’s the basic idea, perhaps you can modify it to suit your needs:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/227/12411

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Particular should be a viable option, but the bee can’t move around too much, otherwise it won’t stay on the “surface”. I would try tracking and stabilizing the overall motion of the bee, so that it mostly turns around in one location, but doesn’t move around.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Precompose the layer map (a second time inside the precomp) and add a “Levels (Individual Adjustment)” effect on it, make alpha white and black levels 127. This way everything under 50% alpha will disappear and everything over 50% will be 100%.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Here’s my approach:

Add a layer named “control” with two sliders, “ground” and “ease”. Set ground to the desired y coordinate for the ground plane and ease to how many pixels above the ground plane you want to start the transition.

Then use this for the Position value expression

yVelocity = 200; //pixels per second
oscFreq = 1.5; //oscillations per second
oscDepth = 35; //oscillation depth (pixels)
drift = 25; // drift (pixels per second: - = left, + = right)
ground = thisComp.layer("control").effect("ground")("Slider");
ease = thisComp.layer("control").effect("ease")("Slider");

y_origin = transform.position.valueAtTime(0)[1];
x_position = transform.position[0];
y_position = y_origin+yVelocity*time;
z_position = transform.position[2];

if (y_position>ground-ease && y_positionground){
y_position=ground;
oscDepth = 0;
}

y_distance = y_position-y_origin;

pos = [x_position+oscDepth*Math.sin(oscFreq*Math.PI*2*time) + drift*y_distance/100, y_position, z_position];
pos

and this for the Y Rotation


yVelocity = 200; //pixels per second
oscFreq = 1.5;
maxTilt = 15; //degrees
ground = thisComp.layer("control").effect("ground")("Slider");
ease = thisComp.layer("control").effect("ease")("Slider");

y_origin = transform.position.valueAtTime(0)[1];
y_position = y_origin+yVelocity*time;

if (y_position>ground-ease && y_positionground){
maxTilt = 0;
}

tilt=maxTilt*Math.cos(oscFreq*Math.PI*2*time);
tilt


Now the animation will smoothly stop at the ground place regardless of starting position.

If you duplicate this to multiple layers the oscillation and motion will be synchronized, so you’ll want to add other random values for some of the variables. Or change the settings for each layer.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

See:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/202/897593