I need to paint a line from a name to a person in a photograph. There are fifteen children in this photograph and they will each have their own name with a line drawn to them. Everything looks good but no line is drawn. Any suggestions?
Re: need to paint a line by Kevin Camp on Apr 17, 2008 at 2:50:48 pm
an easy way create lines and have them draw on is to create a line with the pen tool, then apply the stroke effect. the stroke effect has controls for color, line thickness and for control of start and end points. key framing, say, the end point from 0% to 100% will make it draw on.
i would normally create the line on a new solid and set it to draw on transparent.
if you already have you lines and they were draw a different way than using the pen/mask tool. you may be able to use the linear wipe effect to animate the line drawing on. again, you would animate the effect from 0% to 100% and adjust the angle as needed.
Re: need to paint a line by Christine Machado on Apr 17, 2008 at 8:05:25 pm
Thank you so much for responding. The problem I am having is when I use the pen or the paint brush NO color - what so ever - shows up on the screen. There must be some basic factor I am missing but I can't figure out what. Can you help?
Re: need to paint a line by Dave LaRonde on Apr 17, 2008 at 9:08:49 pm
Don't think "paint brush". There are other, better ways to do it.
Make a solid. Make its opacity about 50%. Using the PEN tool -- not a brush -- create a line from the name to the person. Click where you want the line to begin, and where you want the line to end. Then hit the v key on the keyboard. You've just made a variation of a mask, called a path in AE Speak, and you can use the Stroke effect to animate a line. No brushes needed!
You can see the lines you make with the Pen tool right in the comp window by clicking on the little icon at the bottom of the window that looks like a mask.
Then do like Kevin says: apply the Stroke effect to animate the lines.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: need to paint a line by Christine Machado on Apr 22, 2008 at 6:27:37 pm
Dave,
Thank you for helping. I don't know what my problem is but I just don't get anything but a 50% solid color over my picture. I draw the line but it disappears after it is no longer selected and doesn't effect the solid color at all. What am I doing wrong?
Re: need to paint a line by Matt Robinson on Apr 22, 2008 at 8:13:11 pm
Hi Dave.
I followed the thread on the stroke effect to create a line. I can actually see the path it will take, but I can't get my color to come up. I have my path set to my mask, I selected the color I want for my line and my paint style is set to "on transparent". Am I missing something?
Re: need to paint a line by Christine Machado on Apr 24, 2008 at 4:09:55 pm
Thank you so much for all your help, with it I have been able to draw the lines. The issue was 'over kill'. I would put an entire 'sheet' up instead of just altering the level I had with the name on it. Thanks again.
