footprints on a path...
by craig hellen
on
Jul 11, 2008 at 11:46:38 am
hi all
Im doing a fun map animation and i have an idea to show some footprints walking around the map. I have already made the footprints as a vector in illustrator. i wanna be able to animate them along a path. I think that its doable using stroke on a path but I dont know where to start.
Re: footprints on a path... by Dave LaRonde on Jul 11, 2008 at 3:34:38 pm
If you're not talking about HUNDREDS of footprints, you'll probably save yourself a lot of time by simply positioning individual footprints in the desired pattern.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: footprints on a path... by Grant Swanson on Jul 11, 2008 at 4:12:48 pm
I would try using Motion Sketch, draw out your path, and parent the position of the footprints to the data from the motion sketch using auto-orient. Then you can animate the opacity of the footprints using hold keyframes, just create two to animate them on and off, and duplicate them as many times as you need.
Hope this helps!
Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex
videoapex.blogspot.com
Re: footprints on a path... by Kevin Camp on Jul 12, 2008 at 12:06:50 am
if you wanted to leave a trail of footprints (like tracks in snow), the easiest way might be to make it in illustrator...
illustrator has a decorative brush that is already footprints (human, animal and bird), it is in the borders-novelty, i think. just draw a path the way you need it with the pen tool, load the borders-novelty brush from the brush menu, then with the line selected choose the footprint brush.
now you have a line of footprints. select it and choose object>expand appearance (i think... i'm trying to do this from memory). ungroup the line a few times, you may want to remove the invisible path line, but you don't have to. make sure the footprints are ungrouped to the point where you can select each individual print, but not so much that you separate the toes.
now select all the prints and, from the layers palette, click the menu arrow button in the corner and choose 'separate to layers (build)'. this will separate all path groups on to separate layers in a way taht will 'build' the line. in the layers palette, select all the layers that are within the 'parent layer' and drag them above the parent, then delete the empty parent layer. now you basically have a cell animation in layers, just save the ai file with pdf compatibility.
now import that file into ae as a comp. open the comp, determine which layer is the first frame (it's usually the bottom layer), select it first then shift click to select all the other frames. advance one frame and then trim all the layers (the keyboard short cut escapes me, but it's something like 'alt-]'... i think my fingers know it better than my brain). then, with the layers selected, right click on a layer and choose keyframe assistant>sequence layers, no overlap.
ram preview and the footprints should 'write' on one by one. if you need to stretch the length (right now they are each one frame), take that comp into a new comp and use either time remapping or time stretch (time stretch is probably a bit easier).
it seems like quite a process, but it's really pretty easy after you've done it a couple times and you will have great control and precision creating the path in illustrator.
Re: footprints on a path... by craig hellen on Jul 12, 2008 at 12:30:47 pm
thats a briliant idea on how to do it, im at home now but when i get back in the office on monday ill be sure to try it! thanks a lot I love the COW and the professional responses!
I do try and contribute back on the beginners forum!
You guys never fail me!
Craig Hellen
http://bexmedia.net (the final comp will probably make its way onto there in the next few weeks!)
