Animated lines

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dogsby
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:13 pm

Animated lines

Post by dogsby »

Hi

Does anyone know how to make a line grow during an animation. I have been trying to animate some graphs that look a bit like heart rates. Its quite easy with straight lines as they can be stretched in the frames. But how I make a cury line grow?

Anyone able to help?
Genete
Posts: 3483
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:27 pm
Location: España / Spain

Post by Genete »

Do you mean increase the overal dimensions of the shape (a shape is made with lines) or increase the thickness (witdh) of the lines?
For the first just move the control points and for the second use the Line width tool.
Maybe if you put an example (from other source) of what do you want to achieve we can help you more.
-G
dogsby
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:13 pm

Post by dogsby »

hi

Its hard to describe but if you imagine a graph with X and Y axis I want to draw the plot over a few seconds, so that it appears to be being drawn in real time. Similar what you would see on a heart rate monitor.[/img]
dogsby
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:13 pm

Post by dogsby »

Here is a similar figure

http://www.antonine-education.co.uk/phy ... ential.gif


Rather than presenting the complete graph I would like it to tobe drawn while something else is happening on the screen.
Genete
Posts: 3483
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:27 pm
Location: España / Spain

Post by Genete »

Hehe, you'll bounce in your chair. :wink:
viewtopic.php?t=7655
It is done using masking, though.
Also you can do it using other techniques like animating the line thickness. It would alloww to show or hide it during the timeline and control a little more the exposure.

Finally you can use a more complex technique that is following:

-Draw the line
-Using Crashcore menu scripts copy the current curve and paste it to layer motion. See Scripting section and go to macton's thread (it is sticky)
-Use Layer trail to create a animated line frame by frame. This script is brought with AS.

Good luck
-G
dogsby
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:13 pm

Post by dogsby »

Thanks for your speedy help
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