Positioning Motion Paths

How can I set the x and y coordinates on a motion path so that the path ends at a precise location?
I have 3 objects on a slide that I want to move and left-align. I've been using the trial-and-error method of adjusting the motion path arrows, previewing, and then moving the arrows again, but that is tedious and unexact. It would be much better if I could just set the desired coordinates.
I thought maybe I could edit the xml file, but I'm a long ways from being advanced enough to understand what I'm looking at so I don't know if that's even possible.
I'm using CP 6.0, if that matters.
Thanks for your help.
Dan

I really want there would be an easy way...but there isn't. Either you have to plunge into the XML that defines each effect, also the motion path (most of them are relative to the present position of the object on the stage), or you find another way. I can only explain my way: in my templates I always have a crosshair, object group with a vertical and a horisontal line that I can position exactly using the Transform accordion. Motion paths are always referencing to the center point of the bounding box of the object, I drag the start or the end point of the path on the crosshair. Maybe a screenshot would explain better, but I have to switch the browser, forum doesn't allow posting images with Chrome for the moment.
Lilybiri

Similar Messages

Motion path changes gets larger when copied to Shape Position parameter

Hello There,
Richard Gerard has been helpful, and well as other people.
I have sorta figured out how get a stroke to follow a motion path.
I (so far) am unable to get a shape to follow the same motion path.
My shape is a small ellipse commonly known as a circle!
I have seen this post - http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/959085, which is interesting,
but does not work. My shape layer consists of name, "Blue Circle", and two properties below that:
Contents and Transform. If i copy the path into the Transform-Position property the path is about 2
times bigger than the path I want to use, and does not start at the correct spot.
After reviewing the post above - I added a "path" to the ellipse in the "Contents" area, I can see the path, it is the correct size,
but the circle does not follow this path. If I try to copy this path to one of the position properties, no dice,
the path completely displaces the shape to the wrong coordinates.
I must be missing something basic here, but have yet to find out.
Any tips will help.
Thanks,
eholz1

The position path is offset because your Black Solid with the mask isn't in the default position. Both Anchor Point and Position must be reset. Parenting can also foul this up. Here's how to fix it.
First of all, before you copy and paste the path remove parenting and return the solid with the mask to it's default position by resetting Anchoe Point and Position. Now when you paste the path to your Blue Ball it will exactly match the path on the solid layer. Once the path is set you can redo the parenting and reposition the layers but you must include the blue ball. If it were me I'd create a null and make that the parent of the Black Solid, the Blue Ball, and the Map. Now you can animate the position of the null to scroll across the map and the blue ball will follow.
To match the timing of the stroke to the blue ball you simply drag out the right most diamond keyframe on the blue ball position until it matches the last position of the stroke.. That's all there is it. Your timeline should look something like this:
One last question. You have a non-standard composition size. It may not render correctly. What is the reason for the odd size. NTSC D1 Widescreen should be 872 X 486, It's acceptable to also have a comp that's 872 X 480. MPEG compression requires an even number of pixels so your 853 dimension is very likely to cause problems or be automatically resized to a standard frame size.

Tween or Motion path for blank keynote with animated stars?

I create star particle effect from this tutorial: http://www.schoolofflash.com/2008/03/flash-cs3-particle-effect/ and got help from this discussion: http://forums.adobe.com/message/5518425 in order to get what I wanted. My code is:
var starsArray:Array = new Array();
var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(50);
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, addStars);
myTimer.start();
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, moveStars);
function addStars(e:TimerEvent):void
          var star:Stars = new Stars();
          star.x = stage.stageWidth / 2;
          star.y = stage.stageHeight / 2;
          star.alpha = Math.random() * .8 + .2;
          star.scaleX = star.scaleY = Math.random() * .8 + .2;
          star.xMovement = Math.random() * 10 - 5;
          star.yMovement = Math.random() * 10 - 5;
          starsArray.push(star);
          addChild(star);
          star.cacheAsBitmap = true;
function moveStars(e:Event):void
          for each (var star:MovieClip in starsArray)
                    star.x += star.xMovement;
                    star.y += star.yMovement;
                    star.alpha -= .01;
                    star.scaleX = star.scaleY -= .01;
                    if (star.scaleX <= 0)
                              kill(star);
function kill(star:MovieClip):void
          starsArray.splice(starsArray.indexOf(star), 1);
          removeChild(star);
However, I wanted to move the star particles around. The problem is that the star isn't on the screen, but is called in the actions in the blank keynote. I don't know what I should do next to get the result. I looked up online for tweens and motion paths but all i see is that they required the star to be right on the screen, I think? I also heard something about the compiled clip but I don't know how I should go about creating one and using it to move around the stars while it's animated with all the actionscript. All I wanted is for the star particles to float around the screen (on a path that I can draw out if possible).....

Each star is created in the addStars function. Its position is set in the first two lines:
     star.x = stage.stageWidth / 2;
     star.y = stage.stageHeight / 2;
So, to move each star to a new location when it appears on the stage, you'll need to change the x and y property values for each star. One simple way to do that is to use that same Math.random() function.
Try changing those first two line to:
          star.x = Math.random() * stage.stageWidth;
          star.y = Math.random() * stage.stageHeight;

Motion Path Madness

More specifically, the start and end points of the motion path. They are driving me crazy. Maybe I am overlooking something that is so ridiculously basic I am not finding it, but here's my issue. I've got a motion path on an object. The start point has a position of X: -77, Y: 16. I'd like the end point to be X: - 77, Y: 50, but everytime I try to move the end point, it ends up moving the X axis to something ridiculous like -77.78, clearly and visibly making my path something other than a straight line. Is there a way to get around this? I experience this issue quite a bit and have been unable to successfully find an answer. Perhaps I am just not using the right search terms? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hey Q*bert,
Thanks for the tip. I've also found that if you hold the Option key while dragging a point it seems to keep the coordinates at whole numbers. I was getting my problem with the snapping turned on as well, though I wasn't always at the beginning of the timeline when attempting a move.
I haven't been using keyframes just because I haven't really thought about it since getting Motion. The behaviors are just so much nicer to work with and the ability to scale and move them without worrying about the keyframe position is nice.

Sometimes Circles -- Sometimes Bowen Knots: Motion paths made in Illustrator

I am doing a very meticulous animation in after effects CS6. To execute this project I made all paths in illustrator CS6. Think of the shape as being the Earth, and the motion path as being Earth’s orbit around the sun. I parented the shape (the shape that will follow the motion path; Earth) with a null object, the shape parented by a null object will then be parented by another null object (the path I created in illustrator CS6, at this point I paste the shape (motion path; Earth’s orbit) into Transform: Position.
The problem:
Some motion paths go around the originally made circle, in a perfect cyclical motion. This is what I want. Some motion paths go around the four paths in a square direction, resembling the command symbol on a mac keyboard, also know as the Bowen knot. I do not want this.
My questions:
How do I make every motion path (the perfect circle I made in Illustrator) to function cohesively and dissimilar to the original circle, and not like the command symbol? Why is the conversion doing this to some, but not all shapes?
Best,
Chris

Everyone – thank you to all who responded.
A personal thank you to Rick for spending time and executing a visual explanation.
It turns out my video wasn't published originally, if you need more information click: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1dba60_a-letter-1_creation
To answer your questions: the Earth's orbit refrence is a simile.
I understand the process seems irrational; I being with illustrator because I’m trying to find the exact angle to the center point, in addition to the size of the circle. In other words, a circle has four points, turn the circle the correct amount of degrees and one point starts on the center point (the black dot), the other half ends on the colored dot. The only way I know how to do that is by using a plug-in with illustrator (to get the angle from the colored dot to the center point, and the size of the circle), an analog of this plug-in is not offered in after effects.
My original question: why when I paste the circles (that are already made in illustrator) into the null: position in after effects, some give me a perfect circle, some give me a Bowen knot? I appreciate the suggestions about only in after effects, unfortunately the circle paths were already made in illustrator.
Best,
Chris

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.

Motion path on rotated ellipse?

Hi, I'm an experienced animator (with Flash) but relative newbie to Motion, and so finding some things very frustrating but also empowering. I've got a series of ellipses kind of like an atomic symbol which I'm trying to rotate small objects (spheres) around in 2D - pretty basic - just three orbits. At first I tried drawing a path and then attaching to the sphere graphic (as in Flash) but then found Add Behaviour > Basic Motion > Motion path which was actually much easier and powerful than Flash. But now I have an 'angled' ellipse (45 degrees) but I can find no way to rotate the motion path to match the angle. I can adjust each of the circular path's axis, but no way to rotate about a central point. All I want is an angled elliptical path! Is there any easy (or difficult) way to do this? Thanks for any help.
Chris

You're going to love how easy this is:
Add Behavior/Basic Motion/Motion Path to your sphere. In the behaviors tab, change the path shape to Geometry. Drag the elipse layer into the Shape Source well and make sure the Attach to Shape button is checked.
Now the sphere will follow around the elipse no matter how it's positioned. And if you change the shape of the elipse, it'll update in the motion of the sphere.
Also, in the behavior you'll see areas to change the interpolation of the motion, as well as a Looping parameter for multiple orbits.
Hope this helps.
Andy

See all motion paths at once

I have a slide that has multiple elements moving around. It would be super-helpful if I could see all the motion paths at one time to adjust positions and alignment. Is this possible?

I totally understand what you mean, but AFAIK that is not possible

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

Motion paths not wholly visible

I'm trying to simply move a solid with a motion path. I copy/pasted a mask path into the Position property of the solid layer.
Initially everything looks right after I paste the path -- however if I move the position keyframes apart (to make the motion slower) the motion path is no longer visible from beginning to end. As I scrub the time slider the solid is sliding along the path correctly, however I only see about 20% of the path at any one time. It's almost like the anchor point is providing 'light' and I can only see about 10% of the path in front and behind of my current location.
I don't get it.

> It certainly doesn't help that After Effects help file makes NO mention of it on the motion path pages.
"Show motion path controls"

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

Multiple motion paths for my 3 photos

I’ve been trying to use key frames and motion paths to create a particular effect, but am not really getting anywhere.
This is what I’m TRYING to achieve using 3 different photos.
(Step1) Photo 1 appears full screen, zooms out as it reduces in size. Ends up at a position occupying left third of screen.
(Step2) Cut to Photo 2 full screen, does the same thing – zooms out – reduces in size (in the process revealing small Photo 1 on left). Ends up in middle third of screen.
(Step3) Cut to Photo 3 full screen – does the same thing – zooms out – reduces in size (in the process revealing small Photo1 on left and small Photo 2 in middle). Ends up on right hand third of screen.
However, although I have been able to complete these as individual moves on each of the 3 photos, they remain as 3 separate clips in the timeline.
I can never get the small Photo 1 to be revealed under Photo 2 as it zooms out, or in turn the small Photos 1 & 2 to be revealed under Photo 3 as it zooms out. After a day on this, I’m obviously doing it quite wrong. Maybe it can’t be done in FCP5.
Any advice appreciated.
Robert

Are you putting them on three different tracks?
Yes, on V1, V2, V3 – but no matter where I put them or how I staggered them in relation to each other, it doesn’t work. Each track totally covers the others up – no “transparency”.
Before I possibly went crazy I decided to start fresh.
First, I trashed all my FCP preferences, double checked everything in FCP, and repaired permissions. In FCP I created a new clean “test” project with just the 3 video tracks as before. I also got a friend a little bit familiar with FCP to watch exactly what I was doing. I re-did the three motion paths. Same 3 photos, same moves in each.
It worked perfectly!
I don’t know what’s happened. My first attempt was obviously quite wrong somewhere. My old G4 has been a bit cantankerous lately with FCP. It's all very weird.
Andy - I’m giving you the points, because you forced me to seriously forget about trying to do a fix - instead, redo the whole thing. I’ve lost a day, but it’s been worth it.
Regards
Robert

Motion Paths In After Effects CS6?

Hello,
I was wondering if you could draw a motion path for objects to follow. I have multiple objects(12) that all need to follow on the same path. Do I have to animate all of them individually, or can I draw a path? These objects are NOT masks. They are text imported from Illustrator(CS6).
If Microsoft Powerpoint can do it, then surely Adobe can...
Thanks,
Jack Reynolds
Reynolds Films 2014

You can do this in several ways. The easiest is with Parenting. Next would be to tie position of one layer to position of another layer with an expression. You can also draw a mask path on a layer, select the mask in the timeline, reveal the position property of another layer, set a new keyframe for position to guarantee the mask path will be used as a motion path, and paste.
See this thread for details and a screenshot.
http://forums.adobe.com/message/6084453#6084453
These are AE basics. You can also find more information by using the Search Help field at the top right corner of AE.

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

Making a balloon deflate and follow a motion path?

So I drew a balloon in Motion... I applied the wriggle parameter to the rotation and position to make it look a little like it's floating in place (though I do find the movement a little too sharp)... Anyhow that's not really the problem I am facing...
Next I drew a path with the paintbrush tool... To the balloon group, I added the Motion Path behavior (changed the shape to Geometry and applied the path I drew to the well) and then Snap alignment to Motion behavior...
However, my balloon is now horizontal rather than starting off vertically...
Anyhow, this is just not working....
Any ideas or tips on how to get it to work so it actually looks like a balloon that is deflating?
Thanks

Here is what I ended up with... balloons are at the beginning and the end... (hope you don't mind it's in Spanish)
http://youtu.be/8qQBYM6dg3M
Ah, and I did use my handy dandy "How to Cheat in Motion" book... I used some of the techniques from the Bubbles tutorial (Random Motion & Gravity)

Positioning Motion Paths

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