Excellent tutorial. One question. At the 4:05 mark you convert the Roving Keys to Position keys. What is the purpose of that? Everything works, I'm just trying to understand what's actually happening.
Curt Thurston Hi Curt, it's a bit difficult for me, a non mathematician, to explain. Roving keyframes smooth out motion so your object moves at a constant speed between the beginning position and end position (100%). If you don't convert them the head will move at a different speed to the shaft (which is percentage based and not using its whole 100%). Basically you are compensating for the two different ways the layers calculate time/position.
Short Tuts Thank you so much! I don't need to know the deep math (wouldn't understand it anyway). This is actually the explanation I was hoping for; something that lets me know what the basic purpose of doing it is. I have animated arrows once before and ran into the exact problem you discuss, the arrowheads not moving with the shaft. Thank you!
Hello Thank you for this tutorial. Quick question though, how can I make an arrow that follows a 3d path? So that I can also make it come closer or move further away from me.
+Dunga Sorry, shape layers are only 2D, you would need to use a 3D program for that. If you are on CC you have access to Cinema 4D which will do it - though it takes a while to learn the program of course.
Short Tuts I know they were 2D, I just stumbled upon a video that had arrows move more into the background, seemingly up walls and stuff. Creating a 3D like effect. This tutorial was still very helpful for me, sadly I use CS6 so I don't think I can do that 3D effect. Time for an upgrade perhaps :P Thank you for your quick reply, much appreciated.
Evan Mann Hi Evan. You will need to precompose the arrow (head and stem) and then time remap the precomp in your main comp: Select the precomp layer then Ctr+Alt+T (a Time Remap keyframe layer will automatically appear above your precomp's Transform settings). Set a keyframe at the time it comes to its stop, then convert that into an Easy Ease (F9).
When i hold alt to change the anchor points (making the arrow faster or slower) the arrow head seems to come out of sync with the line, how do i prevent this?
Hi. This is the first of a series of tutorials about arrows, the second is about getting dots and dashes: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZpnvVOyN5xQ.html
Hi, you can do these sorts of things: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N8-myOR8f84.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SVfx_-2yCMw.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DfJnLOdveRA.html If you want an actual image that distorts when/if the arrow bends then you would need to make it in a 3D program.
+Duc Nguyen Hi, I'm not sure what you mean. The pink arrow head has an outline only with no fill, the head sits on the first dot in the dotted line so the space behind it is the distance between the dots. If you want to make a dotted line this explains it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZpnvVOyN5xQ.html The pink arrow also has a layer style applied as explained here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N8-myOR8f84.html Is that what you needed?
+Short Tuts o.O I never thought I could have someone else replies me on youtube haha. I'm asking for this red arrow (i.imgur.com/AMBnYyL.png), not the arrow in the tutorial xD
+Duc Nguyen That arrow is part of the screen grabbing software that records the screen for the tutorials - Camtasia Studio. You could make something similar in After Effects by drawing two shape layers - curved head and stem - have them draw on like in the tutorial. Then add the Roughen Edges effect to both layers and play with its settings.
+Guillermo Ortíz Hi. As a general principle you will need to make each arrow separately and have them covering each other until they divide. There are so many possible looks and ways that an arrow could split I'm sorry I can't give a detailed answer for each, you would need to figure out a case by case solution. Also be aware that the timing will be an issue if one arrow is longer/shorter than the other - to work around this see my answer to Evan Mann, below.
