Curved Motion Paths in Edge

Is there a way to edit motion paths in Edge Animate as you can in Flash? I'm trying create a curved motion path and am wondering if that's possible to edit in the program or if there's a solution by editing the code outside of Edge (using Bezier curves, etc.).

Hi Colleen, there is currently no built-in way to have curved motion paths in Edge Animate.
There is a classic workaround for this however, which involves horizontal motion on a child symbol, and vertical motion on the parent symbol. When played at the same time, these 2 motions combine to create a curved path (kind of like how the curved line on an x,y graph in algebra math class works).
nested child symbol: moves horizontally
parent symbol: moves vertically
Falling leaf example:
http://www.timjaramillo.com/code/edge/curved_motion_path/test.html
Falling leaf source:
www.timjaramillo.com/code/edge/_source/curved_motion_path.zip

Similar Messages

How to animate a sequence of shapes on a motion path

Hi All.
I am trying to animate a moving line of dots on a curved motion path but can only do one at a time. What I need is a stream of dots moving along the line as I need to show something 'coming from here and going to there'. I've tried to get a particle emmitter to spit out dots that follow the path but no joy there. I can't do it with a replicator either. Will I just have to laboriously animate one dot then dupe it and offset tons of copies to get the effect? Seems a bit long-winded.
Any ideas would be very greatfully received.
Many thanks
Roger Harris
Quad G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Refer to specialcase's tutorial on drawing lines with the replicator, and you'll have the basics. It's a stellar explanaexplanation of the Sequence Replicator behavior and how it can be used to animate things. Ms. or Mr. Case rules.
http://www.motionsmarts.com/tutorials/drawinglines/drawinglines1.html
Beyond that:
- draw a dot
- draw a wavy line with the Bezier tool
- replicate the dot
- in the inspector under the replicator tab, change the shape to geometry, then drag your wavy line into the shape source well
- increase the number of points 'til they fill your line
- go to the behavior button and add the Sequence Replicator behavior to the replicator
- add opacity as the parameter and start mucking about
Here's the project -- 'dots.motn'
http://homepage.mac.com/longstrider/FileSharing7.html
Cheers

Keeping object perpendicular on motion path?

Hello:
I was wanting to see how to keep an object perpendicular to the motion path. I applied a curved motion path to a small photo and of course the photo travels on the path but always in the upright position. I would like the rotation to adjust to stay perpendicular to the path.
Suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Jeff in Palmetto, FL

You can use the Orient Along Path option.

Unable to see montion paths in Edge Animate (was: motion paths)

my motion path is not showing up! what am I doing wrong?? I am following every step in the Fundamentals of Edge Animate Video precisely... but the path does not show up... my object is selected, the toggle pin is moved, the "use motion paths" option is selected, I moved the object, but no path shows up! HELP!

Hi,
Please, look at the Edge lesson:
This is free and upgraded (Edge Animate CC 2014 1.1 or Edge 5.0.1).
If you don't succeed, you can post your file.

FCE HD, confused by Motion Path (I want to change the speed of movement)

I am a huge FCE noob, let's get that out of the way. I have also been a member here since May of last year, but for some reason it now shows that this is my first post. (????) Anyway, I have figured out how to use a motion path, including curving the path, but I can't figure out how to alter the speed that a "motion path" video enters, or leaves, the screen.
While I'm here, I also want to learn how to use shapes (as in a circle/triangle/custom shaped border to a video clip) and I have not been able to find that info. I have Lisa Brenneis's "Final Cut Express HD for Mac OS X" book and have not been able to find the answers to these two questions there.
Thanks in advance for your useful help!!
BILL

The first and last keframes can have Ease In/Ease Out applied to smooth the start or stop action.
Clicking between two keframes on a a motion path should give you Bezier Handles. There a four blue dots on them, the inner two will control speed. Dragging an inner dot along the handle either slows or speeds the action.
Al

Motion path handles disappeared

I've been working in After Effects for a little while now and am having some of my motion path handles not appear when they should. I'm working on a slideshow and they seem to appear for all of my other pictures. What I do is go in between the start and end point of a path and move my picture away from the main (straight) motion path I created which usually creates a new keyframe on my timeline and inserts a point on my motion path with two handles I can adjust to make the path curved. This time it just creates the point on the motion path and keyframe, but doesn't allow me to make the path curved. It's really strange and has happened to me before. The way I solved it earlier was to remove the point where it wasn't working and insert a new one, and it would magically turn on, but that doesn't seem to work now.
I've only been able to find one other person that had a similar problem online, which was solved by going to view---->view options and enabling 'view handles'. This didn't solve my problem so I figured I would ask on here. Thanks in advance for the help.

That worked, although it's a few extra steps that I shouldn't have to take (and haven't prior to this). I held down alt by mistake at first and it only gave me one handle, but if I just tap alt and then click--->drag away from the point, it does provide me with a handle in each direction, which is what I was ultimately needing. Here is a screenshot of that layer although it's pretty standard.
When I selected a keyframe that was in between the beginning and end of the motion path, pressed G, and then hit alt it does exactly what I want it to, but usually it adds the handles automatically, and want it to always. This extra step is very annoying because I'm dealing with a lot of motion paths and plan to in the future as well.

Flash CS4 - motion paths

Hi,
Im confounded to why this is happening and when it looks so much like a program error, it is sold on the shelves as a final product.
My frustration at CS4 is that the new motion paths are already on the object, identified by a dotted line which you can edit to change the direction of the motion. When I want an object to go from A to B and then on to C, trying to select the object and position it to B is impossible. I always seem to select a bezier point. After attempting to mvoe it to B and then C, zooming in to take a close look at the path its a mess, overlapping in many points and jsut a MESS.
Am i doing something wrong?
To get round the problem I've copied the object in it's location and made another layer and continued the object motion on to B or C.
I'm animating a mouse curser over my visuals and I've now got multiple layers of the cursor object because of this pathing issue.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
thanking you

The above advice is good. It sounds like you have created some kind of motion path, and you are wanting to further edit it. There are many ways to edit, and some will work out better than others. Editing a motion path differs greatly depending on what kind of path you have.
1) If you started with a path where you have pasted, say, a stroke as your path (you drew something with the pencil or pen, and pasted it onto your tween), you will be dealing with a lot of auto-generated keyframes -- especially if you used a pencil line instead of a pen line. If you drag your object around, where those keyframes are will affect the resulting path. What to do: Try to modify the path using the Pen tools, or start with a pen drawn path. This way you have fewer keyframes to accomodate for. If you have a pencil-drawn path, try removing keyframes and then adjust the path using beziers. Alternatively, paste the motion path as a raw path on a new layer, adjust it by bending, and then repaste it onto the tween.
When you ask Flash to auto-keyframe a pasted path, there's really no way around this. Flash has to create keyframes for you, and isn't able to know how you may want to further edit it. So the above ways are necessary, and unfortunately it's a bit of work whatever way you go.
2) You may have a path that you have curved, but you want a linear path "down the road" (later on the tween). In this case, the motion tween is inserting curve property keyframes, because you have curved the path. To make the line straight, you need to convert the points to linear points. You can do this on the path or in the motion editor using the Convert Anchor point tool. Or, you can go in the motion editor, right-click the keyframes and choose "Corner point" or Linear Left/right as needed.
3) You applied an ease and you're dragging the instance on the Stage. This can be tricky. What you've asked Flash to do when applying an ease is for motion math to take over an animate the position of the instance in relation to values (the original path). The instance is controlled by the ease, and Flash accomodates each time you move it. Oftentimes you can't really tell what's going to happen, especially on the Stage (Flash is doing what's mathematically correct and necessary, but it might not be what you actually want!). In this case you probably want to turn off the ease, create your motion path, and then re-enable the ease and see how that affects the path. Adjusting your work in the motion editor might be easier, as you can see the dotted eased values in the graph, which tell you what's actually going to happen to the motion (the "real" value post-ease).
4) You used the transform panel or Free transform tool on the motion path, which gave wacky results and then you're moving the instance and things are getting worse. This is one area where motion paths can have less desirable results, as it's using a traditional tool not really designed for the new feature on a new feature. My recommendation is to avoid the transform panel, and use the Free Transform tool instead. In a nutshell, the Transform panel traditionally deals with shapes, and the motion path is not a traditional shape - so there are a lot of calculations swapping back and forth behind the scenes to try and give you what you want. Things can get wacky here, so if you already have something very complex (such as a pasted path with tons of keyframes), your transformations may not be what you actually wanted. Free Transform is better, or even better, manually adjust the beziers. Another alternative is to, again, copy the motion path as a static raw path, transform it and make your adjustments, and repaste it onto your tween.
Let me know if you need additional help, or are running into something else entirely.
Thanks,
Jen.

Custom speed not working in motion path behaviour of emitter

I am trying ot make a custom speed motion path along an open spline. Any amount of adjusting of keyframes and percentages produce no movement at all along the path. The emitter is stuck at the beginning of the path. All the other speed options work except for custom, in the motion path behaviour. What's going on here?

What's going on is a little complex.
When you first add a Motion Path and select Custom Speed, you get a "default" 0% - 100% over the life of the behavior [basically the same as Constant]. If you try to add keyframes in between, it can mess things up pretty good. The results you get can be unexpected.
If you "clear" the automatic default keyframing, then the Custom speed stays at 0% (there are no keyframes). If you move the playhead and change the Custom parameter, nothing "takes" since no original keyframe is set.
In order to make a Custom Speed on a path, you need to first, clear the default keyframing (on the right edge of the column, click on the disclosure triangle and select Reset Parameter). Then, set the position you want your object to start at and Set a keyframe. Then you can advance the playhead and move the Custom Speed control to position the object on the path.
HTH

How do you modify a motion path?

I'm going through the Motion manual, and am in the Behaviors chapter. I can apply a motion behavior to an object, but the instructions for creating a curve don't seem to work. I can't create any bezier points either by double-clicking or option-clicking anywhere on the motion path (i.e., in the canvas??) as the manual instructs. I have looked through the archives, and I see that someone has asked this before, but the responses don't seem to answer the question. It doesn't seem to matter which selection tool I use. I know I can keyframe this, but I want to learn to use the Behaviors. I'm sure this is simple but I'm darned if I can figure it out...
Thanks,
Steve S.

hi,
have you checked that the Handles option is on in the View pop up menu?
Also is the motion pth selected in the project? If so the tool mode changes automatically to an edit mode?
Hope this helps.
regards
adam
moojoose ltd

Motion Paths

when I create a motion path, Motion has this annoying habit of creating a default path that starts in the middle of the canvas and ends one canvas length away from its origin.
I'd like to have it so my path originates in the middle of the affected layer. How can I make this happen? Also, how can I add points to my motion path's bezier curve?

The motion path behavior's default path always begins at the layer's current position. That is typically the center of the layer (unless the layer is text or you've moved the layers anchor point).
You can always draw a bezier shape and then assign that as your "motion path" in the behavior parameters. When you create a bezier shape, you can right-click any point in the shape and assign it as your "start point"
Andy

Unable to set custom speed to motion path on Camera

This is a followup question to "Controlling speed along motion paths"
(Many thanks to Mark Spencer and specialcase for the their excellent insights getting me this far =)
After experimenting with motion paths and realizing they were indeed what I was looking for, I set up my project so that the camera would follow specific paths along 2d images. Everything worked perfectly until I tried to modify the speed along which the camera travels along those paths.
In the motion path, in the speed drop down menu, I can select Constant, Ease in etc.... all the way to Custom, but they work slightly differently than I expected: while before (ie. applying motion curves to objects as opposed to the camera) I was able to getting a diagonal line in the Keyframe Editor where I could modify keyframes using bezier curves to adjust the speed, now, choosing the various speed options appears to change the "Transform.Position.X" and "Transform.Position.Y" curves directly.
When I select "Custom", "Motion path" and Custom Speed" appear in the keyframe menu above the Camera drop down, but its curve appears only as a dotted, completely horizontal line in the graphing window. The "Transform.Position.X" and "Transform.Position.Y" curves also revert to horizontal dotted lines. If I try to add curves to the custom speed line, the X and Y curves remain horizontal and the camera does not move.
Is there some reason I cannot get custom speeds for cameras without losing my motion path data?
Is there some way to work around this?
Thanks again for all of your help,
Tim

I'm not sure if there is some setting I have wrong:
When I try this, while I am able to set keyframes, the motion path data is reset. (ie. the Transform X and Transform Y curves reset to 0).
In the Keyframe Editor, I can make new curves for the X and Y values and for Timing, but the camera does not follow the motion path, it follows the new x and y curves. Trying to get those curves to match the motion path exactly is a large hassle.
This might help:
If I apply the motion path to an shape rather than to the camera, everything works perfectly (the object moves along the motion path, and I am able to set keyframes for the Custom Speed curve with no problems whatsoever). If I then copy the motion path directly from the shape and paste it to the camera layer, the path appears as a red curve (as it should), but the camera does not move.
Is there some way I can upload the motion file so that you can see what exactly is going on?
Thanks again,
Tim

How to make a line follow a motion path

alright, i'm gonna try and explain this as best as possible. i want to do something like what apple did for the motion video, where lines follow a motion path. but my problem is that when the line hits a keyframe, the line stays straight and turns its axis (looking ********), unlike apple's vid where the line itself turns and curves around each keyframe.....alright does that make any sense? look at the picture below, see how the lines are curved to follow a path....my lines stay straight and look like the second pic.
http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/1269/picture59rh.png RIGHT WAY
[img=http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/1387/picture68sb.th.png] WRONG WAY
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Don't do it like that. Create a curved line and use a replicator on it...
Patrick

Animation with motion path like flash

Hi at all,
is it posible to animate an object in circle move like motion path in flash?

@resdesign
If you were right, the example below won't work ;-)
Rotation is rotating an object around its origin. If the origin is outside the object, it moves in a circle.
Here is the example: http://mcmm.com/edge/circular/circular.html
It has been done like in my description above.
All objects in the example are simply animated with rotation. The earth rotates around its origin and the planets do the same.
The only difference between earth and planets is that the earth has its origin untouched while the planets have their origin outside.

Controlling speed along motion paths

I have created a motion document in which still images are given keyframed motion paths (in 2 dimensions). I would like to vary the speed at which the images move along their paths in between those keyframes.
I tried to apply variable speed time remapping using bezier curves (with the same keyframe locations as those on the x and y motion curves), but it seems to have no effect whatsoever.
If I first render the animation and, in a new file, apply time remapping, variable time remapping works perfectly, but I am trying to do this before rendering.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Tim

Howdy,
This is where the Motion Path behavior really shines over traditional keyframing of position. If you use Motion Path to animate your object, you can set the behavior's Speed to 'Custom', which lets you set a single progress keyframe. This makes it ridiculously easy to control the speed, as well as do reversals, etc. You'll have a single velocity curve to animate in the Keyframe Editor.
Motion Path is one of Motion's biggest unsung heroes for animators.

Motion Path jitters

Hi guys,
I have a particle emitter running along a motion path to create a 3D stroke. It looks fine over a period of around 4 seconds, but when I shorten the behaviour the motion path becomes jittery and the smooth path becomes jagged. At first I thought this was due to the speed interpolation - I had it set to natural so it slowed on curves, but then I set the speed to constant and the jitters continued. Maybe I'm producing too many particles?
Have a look and tell me what you think.
[IMG]http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/mediababy/Picture2-2.png[/IMG]
Dan

Hi,
I've tried this and yes it does get smoother, but I don't want it to take longer. I want it to shoot across the screen in about a second, I have to bump it up to four seconds to get it to play smoothly. As mentioned I've tried changing the way it speeds up, but still no joy. I'll have another mess around with it today and see if I can fix it.
Dan

Curved Motion Paths in Edge

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