a clever dotted line
by alex dinnin
on
Jul 13, 2008 at 8:45:09 am
Morning,
I have to make a map, showing the route a traveller is taking.
He uses various forms of transport. I need to depict these forms of transport on his route. for instance over sea, a blue dashed line and on a train, small dashes over the line to show a train track.
At the moment I am using AE stroke, then drawing loads of rectangular masks on a solid, and using it as alpha matte. However this is really long winded.. Can anyone think of a better way to do this ?
I suppose I could do the paths in illustrator.. and then import.. but I would much rather do everything in AE..
Re: a clever dotted line by Aharon Rabinowitz on Jul 14, 2008 at 2:53:01 am
I have a tutorial on this for August, but it pretty much follows the advice you've seen here. CS3 has added a lot of great stuff including the use of shape layers and the dashes option.
Re: a clever dotted line by david bogie on Jul 14, 2008 at 2:53:14 pm
I also recommend looking at different ways of applying your lines. For instance, I regularly use CC Sphere or Cylinder to apply flight lines to a map.
Also, don't overlook the chance to use animation with your dashes: cycling colors, pulsing glows, miniature steaming locomotives, punched tickets, stamped passports; whatever might add something interesting to the piece.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: "For crying out loud, read the freakin' manual."
Re: a clever dotted line by Aharon Rabinowitz on Jul 14, 2008 at 2:55:12 pm
While we're already talking about trying different things - try different blending modes to to see how your line blends with the map. It can create some nice effects where the line seems more integrated with the shot.
