Crazy Trim Paths Tricks in After Effects | Tutorial

in this after effects tutorial i'll show you some crazy trim path tricks hi guys my name is we'll cover some basics first then get into the crazy stuff so let's get started the basics we add a simple stroke using the pen tool and add trim paths right here in the add menu let's open the trim path property so trim paths lets you animate the start and end of your stroke and the offset let's quickly animate the start from 0 to 100 with two keyframes same with the end 0 and 100 we see nothing because the animations cancel each other out so let's offset the end animation and select all keyframes open the graph editor to edit the speed graph then slow down the beginning and the end of the animations and as quickly as that we created an organic line animation if there are several strokes in one shape layer you could either add trim path to one of the shapes to animate just that shape or you could add it to the whole group which animates all strokes at once or one after the other always starting with the top one so you might have to change the order of your shapes if you right click on your text layer and create shapes from it it works for tile animations as well add trim paths and animate the shapes individually to get a text reveal let's take a quick moment and check out an amazing in-depth animation course by domestica in this course you'll learn how to create expressive typography in motion with after effects design letter forms in illustrator and animate them in after effects start with research and references color then design a lettered phrase in illustrator in after effects animate it using kinetic typography i've added the link to the chorus in the description and even better use the code manual as motion 10 for an extra 10 percent off alright we have an animated path here going from right of the center further to the right then once again we go to the add menu and this time we add a repeater set copies to 9 then open the transform property of the repeater and position back to 0. instead we rotate the lines around the center 40 degrees and we just created a nice little graphic explosion you can change between simultaneously and individually as well of course and nothing happens because in this case the repeater needs to be above the trim path property it's 9 copies which then are animated one after the other check out the free project file for all these explosions now let's do some of the nerdy stuff i know you've been waiting for again there's a simple line and we want to move a point along the line so first of all we duplicate the layer then the new one point set the stroke width to 120 pixels then we go into the stroke property and set line cap to round cap again we add trim paths let's move it out of the shape and this time we link the endpoint to the start point which equals them but we open the expression field and if we add plus 0.1 to the end of the endpoint expression we have a round shape magic no we simply added 0.1 to the end value which is awesome because if we now animate the start value the end value follows along always adding 0.1 percent let's quickly do this using two keyframes and let's quickly smooth the animation adjusting the speed curve so let's take it one step further let's say we want to link another object to this point the create knots from pulse script doesn't work because the points stay at the same position we need to read out the position of the start property and link another object to that first of all let's add a null object then let's add an expression control to it a slider control and link the start value to the slider control [Music] we delete the start keyframes and are now able to use the slider to animate the point awesome we add an expression to the position property of the now to link the noun to our point let's add an expression first of all let's define where the information comes from a layer is the name of the variable equals we link the layer to it semicolon in the end next we need the path property of the point layer we ignore this error b path is the second variable equals we link the path to it where the information comes from semicolon in the end then let's read out the position value meaning we read out the number of the slider control and turn it into position values for the null object and the two comp expression does exactly that a layer dot to comp and in parenthesis we need to add a value why do we find that value somewhere on the path so in parentheses we add be path dot point on path parenthesis and this expression expects a percentage value luckily we have one the slider control so let's link the slider to the expression we need to divide it by 100 though 0.5 is read as 50 for example the error message is gone and here we go when now follows along easy to link some more elements to it now simply by linking them to the null you might ask yourself why not simply animate an object along a path by copying the path and adding it to the position property of the object much easier yeah maybe but if you want the object to be flexible and bend in curves it doesn't work which brings me to the next crazy trick i recently did a short about animating arrows so this is an improved version using the pen tool we draw the path we want the arrow to move along then let's name the shape arrow [Music] we open the contents property and add trim paths directly to the shape then we duplicate the shape let's name the top one arrow head the bottom one arrow next we open both path properties and link the bottom parts to the top one so whenever we change the path we actually change both in the arrowhead trim path property we link the end to the store then in the error shape we link the start to the upper start and the end to the upper start as well it's all zero so first of all let's add plus eight maybe to the end of the arrow head all right next let's go into the stroke and increase the stroke width and then you taper depending on the direction you want the arrow to point to we set the start or end length to 100 percent let's close some of the properties and here's the first part of the arrow let's get to the second part we subtract -20 from the end this time and you might see this tiny gap here to be sure it looks fine we add plus one to the start and again in stroke we adjust the stroke width in taper we set the start length to 100 and add some start width [Music] all that's left is to animate the start point with two keyframes [Music] check out the links in the description on the left side of edit some videos you might like subscribe to my channel on the right side and hit the bell because you don't want to miss my next video thanks for watching this one see you in the next one bye [Music]

Channel: Manuel does Motion

Views: 278,550

Keywords: trim paths after effects, trim paths tricks in after effects, using trim paths in after effects, advanced trim paths in after effects, move point along a path using trim paths, after effects tutorial, after effects, adobe after effects, learn after effects, manuel does motion

Id: 748l7DIU4bQ

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Wed May 11 2022