Mastering Strokes In Adobe Ae: Secrets To Success

Adobe After Effects is a popular software for creating animations and motion graphics. One common text treatment in After Effects is animating the stroke of text or shapes, which can be achieved through various methods. One way is to create a shape layer and use the Create Shapes from Text feature, which allows you to modify the stroke's appearance and motion independently from the fill. Additionally, the Trim Paths tool can be used to animate the start and end of the stroke path, creating an appearing stroke effect. Another technique involves using the Gaussian Blur effect to blur the background, making the animated text or shapes more prominent. Furthermore, adding Trim Paths and playing with the taper or wave aspects of the stroke can further embellish the look. Additionally, there are plugins available, such as Thicc Stroke, that offer more customization options for stroke animations.

Using the Trim Paths tool to animate text strokes

Animating the stroke of text in After Effects is a common text treatment that offers a lot of creative options. This process involves using the Trim Paths tool to animate the illusion of text being drawn or painted onto the screen. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to achieve this effect:

Step 1: Create a Text Layer

Begin by creating a new text layer in your composition. Ensure that you position and style the text to your liking, paying attention to the size, movement, typeface, and letter spacing.

Step 2: Create a Shape Layer

Right-click on the layers panel and create a new shape layer. Rename this layer to something like "Text Trim Path Mask" to keep things organised. This shape layer needs to be positioned above the text layer in the layer hierarchy.

Step 3: Trace the Text with the Pen Tool

With the shape layer selected, use the pen tool (keyboard shortcut "G") to trace over your text. Start from the left and move your way to the right, replicating the natural movements a hand makes when writing. You may need to create separate layers for more complex letters, such as crossing Ts.

Step 4: Adjust the Path

Increase the stroke gradually until you find a balance where the path does not overlap with other letters but fully covers the text. Change the Line Cap to "Round Cap" and the Line Join to "Round Join" for a smoother appearance. Ensure that none of the text in the underlying layer is visible.

Step 5: Add Trim Paths

On your shape layer, navigate to "Contents" and click on the "Add" button. Select "Trim Paths" from the menu. This will add a new collapsed selector with the same name to your layer.

Step 6: Add Keyframes to the Trim Path

Scrub forward to your desired start time on the timeline, and then twirl down on the Trim Paths selector in your shape layer. You will see three attributes: Start, End, and Offset. These attributes represent the "completeness" of a path's line as a percentage. You can keyframe these attributes to animate the stroke. Be sure to add Easy Ease onto the keyframes for smoother movement.

Step 7: Set up the Track Matte

Switch your shape layer to be an alpha-inverted track matte. You can do this by selecting the text layer below it and setting the Track Matte mode to "Alpha Inverted". This will hide your shape layer, and only the pixels that are not included in the non-transparent parts of the shape layer will be visible.

Additional Tips:

• If you plan on keyframing the text, be sure to parent your mask to the text so that they move together.
• Consider adding motion blur to your layers with keyframes for a more dynamic appearance.

By following these steps, you can create an engaging animation that reveals your text with a stroke effect, simulating the text being drawn onto the screen.

How to create an inner stroke on a circle shape

To create an inner stroke on a circle shape in After Effects, you can follow these steps:

Firstly, create a shape layer. On the left side of your timeline window, open up the Shape layer. In the same line as "Contents", you will see a menu that says "Add". Click on "Add" and select "Stroke" from the menu. Here, you can adjust the settings of each stroke to your liking. It is important to note that using Overlay on the first stroke will blend anything inside the second stroke with the fill, so it won't look like there are three strokes.

Additionally, the order of the layers within the group can impact the appearance of your stroke. If you are experiencing unexpected results, try rearranging the layers to see if that resolves the issue.

To create an inner stroke that can be animated, avoid using layer styles. Instead, navigate to your shape group and add an "offset path" modifier. Then, alt-click the offset value to add an expression. Hold the pick-whip of the offset value and drag it to the stroke width value. Finally, type "/ -2" without the quotation marks. This divides the offset value by minus 2, resulting in the stroke appearing inside the shape.

The expression should resemble the following: content("stroke").strokeWidth/-2

Using the Gaussian Blur effect to enhance text

To get a stroke effect in After Effects, you must first create a text layer. Then, go to Layer > Create > Create Shapes from Text. This will create a new layer with your shape outlines. You will then need to turn off the fill for each layer, as you will only be dealing with the stroke.

Now, you can add a stroke and animate it. You will see several options that you can animate, such as stroke width, opacity, and color. You can also turn your stroke into dashes and animate them.

To animate the full stroke, you will need to add Trim Paths, which will allow you to keyframe the start and end of the path. You can further embellish your look by adjusting the taper or wave aspects of the stroke.

As for enhancing text with the Gaussian Blur effect, this technique is often used to reduce image noise and detail, creating a smooth blur that makes the image appear as though it is being viewed through a translucent screen. This is particularly useful when laying text over an image, as the blur can soften the image so that the text stands out more clearly.

In product photography, the Gaussian Blur effect can be used to direct the viewer's eye to a specific part of the image by blurring all other parts. This naturally guides the viewer's gaze to the sharpest area of the image. This technique can also be used to hide features such as faces, license plates, or brand logos that you do not have permission to use.

Additionally, the Gaussian Blur effect can be employed to reduce chromatic aberration, which appears as colored fringes at high-contrast edges in an image. For instance, if you have taken a landscape photo of palm trees against a light blue sky, you may notice bright white or red lines along the edges of the palm fronds. Applying a Gaussian Blur will reduce the extremely bright pixels around the edges, eliminating these unsightly spots.

It is important to remember that increasing the blur intensity will result in decreased sharpness. However, you can add sharpness back into the image by decreasing the blur radius, which is measured in pixels. This adjustment determines how many neighboring pixels the Gaussian function will consider when calculating the blur.

Overall, the Gaussian Blur effect is a valuable tool for enhancing text and images in After Effects, allowing you to create visually appealing and focused compositions.

How to add a stroke to an object

Adding a stroke to an object in Adobe Illustrator can be done in several ways, depending on the desired effect. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to add a stroke to an object:

Step 1: Select the Object

Use the Selection Tool (V) to select the object you want to add a stroke to. If you are working with a Live Paint group, use the Live Paint Selection Tool (K).

Step 2: Open the Appearance Panel

Go to "Window" at the top menu and select "Appearance." The Appearance Panel allows you to add, modify, and duplicate strokes and fills, enabling you to create complex and layered appearances for your objects.

Step 3: Add a New Stroke

In the Appearance Panel, click on the "Add New Stroke" button, represented by a plus symbol. This will add an additional stroke to the selected object.

Step 4: Customize the Stroke

You can now customize the attributes of the new stroke, such as its colour, width, and style. The Stroke Panel (Window > Stroke) offers various options to specify whether the line is solid or dashed, the dash sequence and adjustments, stroke weight, alignment, arrowheads, and styles of line joins and caps.

Step 5: Create Variable Width Strokes (Optional)

If you want to create a variable-width stroke, use the Width Tool available in the toolbar. This allows you to adjust the stroke width by dragging the handles, moving the width point, or deleting/duplicating the width point. You can also create discontinuous width points by following the steps outlined in the Illustrator documentation.

Step 6: Create Dotted or Dashed Lines (Optional)

To create a dotted or dashed line, edit the object's stroke attributes in the Stroke Panel. Select "Dashed Line," and choose whether to align dashes to corners and path ends or preserve the exact dash and gap lengths. Specify the dash sequence by entering the lengths of dashes and gaps, and select a cap option to change the ends of the dashes.

Step 7: Change the Caps and Joins of a Line (Optional)

You can further customize your stroke by changing the caps and joins of a line. In the Stroke Panel, select a cap option (Butt Cap, Round Cap, or Projecting Cap) and a join option (Miter Join, Round Join, or Bevel Join).

Additional Tips:

• To create an inner stroke on a shape, go to the shape group and add an "offset path" modifier. Then, alt-click the offset value, hold the pick-whip, and drag it to the stroke width value, entering "/ -2" without the quotations.
• To add multiple strokes in Illustrator, duplicate your text, turn one of your Artboards into outlines, and merge them. Then, duplicate the outline and add strokes to the copies, adjusting their position and stroke attributes as needed.

By following these steps, you can add and customize strokes to objects in Illustrator, allowing you to create visually appealing designs with multiple layers and effects.

Using the Thicc Stroke plugin to create gradient-along-paths

Thicc Stroke is a free, infinitely customisable, variable-width stroke plugin for AE CS6 and above. It allows you to create fat curves and gradient-along-paths. It is compatible with Apple Silicon.

The plugin offers full trim path controls, which can optionally influence width and/or colour. It works on masks and shapes, and offers infinite width control points using the feather vertex tool. Butt and round cap styles are also available.

Thicc Stroke supports 2, 3, and 4-colour gradients with loopable colours. The gradients can be customised further with the custom gradient parameter for more than 4 colours.

The plugin is useful for creating a rainbow effect, as it can be done with a single line and a gradient stroke.

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