Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

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neeters_guy
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Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by neeters_guy »

Currently you cannot animate the Hide Edge property, as in this example:
Image

There are various workarounds to emulate this. Some suggestions can be found here: Animate Hide Edge?

It occurs to me with the addition of animated shape ordering in v.11, you could make the segments their own shape (naming them helps tremendously) and move them below a larger shape to hide them. This diagram shows it better than I can explain:
Image
NOTE: The bottom part is illustrating the shape order only. Shapes can share points, so this isn't 20 points (5 sets of 4 points), but only 4 points. Also, the base shape has a stroke with the same color as the fill.

To make this work, in the layer settings, under General, enable "Allow animated layer effects' and under Vectors, enable "Animated shape order".

Here's one example of how this might work in the shoulder area, using a smart bone actions in the upper arm:
Image

It's kind of an obvious thing really, but I hope this is helpful anyway.
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synthsin75
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by synthsin75 »

Good idea, and nice results. Sometimes animated point width just isn't the desired effect.
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neeters_guy
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by neeters_guy »

After playing around with this, one of the problems is that the hidden line shows artifacts due to antialiasing. Hmm... :oops:
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funksmaname
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by funksmaname »

what about stroke exposure? you can start it from either end using the alt key...
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neeters_guy
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by neeters_guy »

I didn't know about the alt-key. This opens up some possibilities. Thanks!
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neeters_guy
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by neeters_guy »

After some fiddling, this turned out to be easier that I thought. :) Being able to expose the line in two directions is really useful. Here's an example of a turning nose.

Image

It's basically a smart bone action using a combination of point motion, stroke exposure, and animated shape ordering.

Thanks, Funks!
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Greenlaw
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by Greenlaw »

Oh! I didn't know about the Alt key shortcut or even that you could click and drag directly on the artwork itself for the exposure effect. Well, maybe I knew at one time but totally forgot the other day when I was doing something similar and I had been dialing in the values manually. :P

Thanks for the tip! That's a big time saver for me.

@neeters_guy, the effect on the turning nose looks great!

G.
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funksmaname
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by funksmaname »

Agreed, the nose looks very nice! :)
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synthsin75
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by synthsin75 »

Great tip Danny, and great result Neeters.
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strider2000
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by strider2000 »

Cool. I didn't know about the alt key either :o (I guess for ASP, when in doubt press the alt key :o)
I've been wanting the stroke exposure, mainly for shoulder joints in body turns, but the best I could come up with was reference layers with different exposures on each. The shape ordering idea and the alt key are nice tools for the toolbox :)
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WatchMotion
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by WatchMotion »

I know this is an old threat but I was wondering if it was possible to change the start and end points for stroke exposure? I guess change to start/root point of the shape itself? Or perhaps offset the stroke like you can in After Effects with trim paths?

Nevermind found the solution thanks to this thread:
https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewto ... nt#p138948
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arglborps
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by arglborps »

funksmaname wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2015 5:27 am what about stroke exposure? you can start it from either end using the alt key...
Image
WHAAAAAT?!?!?!

OMG. You can even adjust the stroke exposure for both ends at the same time that way!
I had no idea. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Kilian Muster
Designer (day job), Animator/Creator (in the after hours)
PiXELBLAST Phungus & Mowld Production BlogYouTube Channel

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MrMiracle77
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by MrMiracle77 »

funksmaname wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2015 5:27 am what about stroke exposure? you can start it from either end using the alt key...
Image
My noses will never be the same...
- Dave

(As Your GM)
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funksmaname
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Re: Animate Hide Edge / Line (workaround)

Post by funksmaname »

MrMiracle77 wrote: Fri May 14, 2021 6:44 pm My noses will never be the same...
Hahaha :)
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