Project Notes
Tapered strokes in Adobe Illustrator CS4? WHAT!?
Apparently, there is this thing called Custom Taper Profiles in Illustrator CS4. This is the old method for creating custom tapered strokes in CS4 before the advent of Variable Stroke Widths.
But wait, why not just create the dashed line in After Effects? Well, at the time of production, there was no way to create variable/tapered strokes in After Effects (without 3rd party plugins).
Using raster effects (eg; warp) to shape layers
may result in glitchy animation
may result in glitchy animation
I found the best way to get around this problem is to either;
A. rasterize the graphic.
B. pre-render the animation and apply the effect.
A. rasterize the graphic.
B. pre-render the animation and apply the effect.
Dashed line animation control
The dashed line following the text "to the" is a static graphic with a series of shapes masking each dash. The timing of the animation is controlled by a slider control, which is keyframed to suit the timing of the reveal. Each mask piece has an expression that references the slider control null.
Each mask layer is checking to see if it the dash time control is less than or equal to its layer index. If so, it stays put in its offset position, which is off-screen. Otherwise, the mask layer is repositioned back to its original coordinates, thus revealing the portion of the dashed line.
Project Details
Approx. project length: 2 weeks, part-time
Illustrator CC/CS4
Photoshop
After Effects
Illustrator CC/CS4
Photoshop
After Effects