Duplicate layer on path

Moderators: Disciple, zlovatt

Post Reply
salvazalvi
Posts: 36
Joined: September 21st, 2004, 7:29 am

Hi,

I'll try to explain myself : I would like to define a layer as a stroke "element" and have it oriented along the path and multiplied as needed to have the whole path covered (Am I clear ? This is an easy thing to do on illustrator, with vector brushes. By the way, my layer has to be a vector shape). What I'm trying to do is to change the shape of the mask and have the shape follow that shape without having to warp my shape loosing at the same time the clean vector look.

Any idea ?

Thanks,

Salvador
salvazalvi
Posts: 36
Joined: September 21st, 2004, 7:29 am

Basically, what I want could be done with a motion trail expression on n similar layers without animating the "travel" parameter along the path. But my problem is that I want the path to be animated, and that doesn't seem to work with a trail expression.

In other words, I'm looking for a "static" motion trail expression, with layers oriented along a path that evolves along time : that would be the same as using a layer as a brush on a paint program, or am I wrong ?

By the way, this would avoid the creation of new "brush elements" when the path's shape changes.
byronnash
Posts: 321
Joined: July 7th, 2004, 2:30 pm
Location: Charlotte, NC
Contact:

I wonder if you couldn't write an expression on a bunch of layers that use valueAtTime(). You could tell each layer to take a master layer's position at a n absolute point in time. If I get a chance, I'll see if I can get a working expression of what I'm talking about.
salvazalvi
Posts: 36
Joined: September 21st, 2004, 7:29 am

I could use this expression found on http://www.motionscript.com :

Code: Select all

start = 0; //start time of template motion
end = 4.0; //end time of template motion

t = thisComp.layer("template");
offset = (t.effect("offset")("Slider")/100)*(index -1);
travel = linear(t.effect("travel")("Slider")/100,start,end);
t.position.valueAtTime(travel - offset)
And for orientation this works fine :

Code: Select all

start = 0; //start time of template motion
end = 4.0; //end time of template motion

t = thisComp.layer("template");
offset = (t.effect("offset")("Slider")/100)*(index -1);
travel = linear(t.effect("travel")("Slider")/100,start,end);
if (travel <= offset){
  vect = t.position.velocityAtTime(0);
}else{
  vect = t.position.velocityAtTime(travel - offset);
}
lookAt(position, position + vect)

But how can I change the path shape, that's the question ?
Post Reply