Create Nulls from Path (string of lights) - Adobe After Effects tutorial

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We create a string of lights and learn how to use the Create Nulls from Path script. Create Nulls from paths is a powerful script that comes with After Effects and can give you access to the locations of points in 2d space, and any point and tangent on that path. It was a long requested feature and this has been a long overdue tutorial. Finally in 2019. I'm catching up... while probably still have my Christmas lights up.
If you have any questions just let me know in the comments.
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[@junaid.]

perhaps the most creative channel on after effects... so much knowledge in one video... come on you deserve more subscription and views..

[@JoeWillyArt]

And hilarious weird digressions and asides. I almost always watch his new videos as soon as they come out.

[@ECAbrams]

Well, thank you very much. I am surprised and grateful for how many the channel has. It always means a lot that people want the channel to do well.

[@alideep9656]

It's always magical with Evan 🌠

[@dreamnoobz]

wtfff omg you just saved me alot of time and frustration from selecting paths and getting irritated with it. thank you man

[@cessers]

Dang it, Abrams! I could have used this for a Christmas lights string animation last month. Thankfully you briefly covered Trace Paths in an Adobe live (I think) so I managed to get there in the end thanks to you anyway. Once again proving I owe my career to you.

[@chasewells9671]

I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who makes sound effects while making their AE videos.

[@TheJohnRowley]

You're a really great teacher Evan, so engaging and good at explaining succinctly and clearly what needs to be known not only to learn the desired skill but to understand how the skill works. Thank you as always.

[@EnriqShockwave]

Great as always Evan!

[@acemax5248]

Awesome, I was looking for this tutorial like several hours. thank you so mush.

[@LongerTomTV]

Awesome! Thank you, sir

[@michalbotor]

for anyone who doesn't like to keyframe everything manually, here's an inertial bounce expression that i've written that works well with this example (but it's written in a way that without any change you can use it to bounce any 1d property): let t1 = key(numKeys-1).time; if (time > t1) { let t2 = key(numKeys).time; let span = t2 - t1; let t = time - t1; let decayTime = 4 * span; let f = Math.exp(-t / decayTime) * Math.cos((Math.PI/2) * t / span); let val1 = thisProperty.valueAtTime(t1); let val2 = thisProperty.valueAtTime(t2); val2 + (val1 - val2) * f; } else { thisProperty.value; } and here's how you use it: *) make sure that your rope is at the rest position, i.e. it's not stretched yet, *) open the position property of the null controlling the middle point of the rope, *) move the playhead to a time you want your animation to start at (doesn't have to be time=0), *) create a position keyframe at this time, *) move the playhead to a later time at which you want the rope to stop streching, *) at this time move the null down to a point you want the middle of the rope to strech to (this will create a second position keyframe at this time), *) move the playhead to a yet later time at which you want the rope to return back to the rest position, *) copy the first position keyframe and paste it at this time, *) (keyframe1 -- 1 second -- keyframe2 -- 4 frames -- keyframe3 works really well in 24 fps animation), *) select all keyframes and make them easy ease, *) change the first keyframe's outgoing velocity to the influence of 25% and the second keyframe's incoming velocity to the influence of 75% (this will make it look like it's getting harder and harder to stretch it as you move away from the rest position), *) finally alt click the position stopwatch and paste there the above expression. *) if you want the rope to bounce more times make the 'decayTime' bigger, i.e. '6 * span', if you want the rope to bounce less times make the 'decayTime' smaller, i.e. '2 * span'. 'span' it the time between the second and the third keyframe btw.

[@niektenhagen560]

thank you very much for this tutorial!

[@knottt]

Easily to understand, wonderful tutorial to starter!

[@hakimgraphiks5903]

Thanks for sharing! Really awesome tips out there.

[@zomeraktiven]

Awesome tutorial!

[@harebear9934]

Very helpful tutorial, Many thanks!

[@sattarmenbari1807]

Awesome. Thanks

[@Precinoto]

i. am. SHOCKED. how the hell i have never heard of this native thing in AE omg i would have saved billions of hours of work thank you

[@ECAbrams]

I'm not sure the feature got a lot of press when it came out. It's a feature I had wanted for a long time so I was all about it when it dropped.

[@MotivationalCourtyard]

wow, just amazing.

[@nseriously2704]

Happy new year, Evan!!!!!!

[@ECAbrams]

Thank you very much. Same to you!

[@bush9686]

Thank you)

[@gaston.]

good one Mr Abrams, thank you.. opens up a lot of creativity

[@michalbotor]

sound effects, as always, are top notch! but seriously this is a fantastic tutorial. so much power!

[@ECAbrams]

All the best motion designers make sound FX while they work ;)

[@pendalink]

Awesome video!

[@thenewcoder5592]

You are just awesome Sir 😊👌👍👍👍

[@user-tt9tr4vx1n]

Thank you

[@TheCemeteryDetective]

Great. Going to spend my Saturday evening with this tutorial. :-)

[@ECAbrams]

best Saturday night I can think of :)

[@FrazNinja]

another great video!! :D thank you!

[@cajschloerike]

I agree with you. Thank you a lot!!!! Your descriptions are so God imaginable and so on point so I'm not Stil copy and paste everything I understand haw it goes and can transfer it into other projects or can realize other ideas. Thanks for this!!

[@ECAbrams]

Excellent! The channel is working as intended :)

[@ahmadluai5889]

Amazing tutorial 👌💪🏻

[@praditya6akseldiah]

So cool, thank u!

[@barbiegraphics8057]

I've learnt plenty from you throughout the years Evan. Very clear and thorough tutorial as always. Thank you!

[@ECAbrams]

Great to hear!

[@sushingyo]

Your videos are wonderful as your voice. Thank you so much !!!

[@DenisKhromykh]

zaebis! thnx

[@jiyadachorona8684]

thank you evan! it is so easy to understand !!!

[@wiewiorka_ojoj4167]

fantastic tutorial, thank U :*

[@gaston.]

thanks Evan.. the Value at Time lag can be really useful for secondary animation.

[@nekosan86]

Good voice for tutorial ! Nice tips ! Thanks !

[@darwinmatias4977]

You'e an AE monster @ECAbrams. your work is simply superb!

[@purgebs101]

HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS FEATURE BEFORE? GAAAH! I googled for basically the same thing a few weeks ago but found nothing and had to use a workaround. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@ECAbrams]

It really flew under the radar for a while for sure.

[@ahmadsy4421]

thanks

[@eugeniasaldana8714]

Super ! Gracias

[@rajeshm2407]

You’re just awesome

[@andreafranco6857]

Very beautiful and useful tutorial

[@ECAbrams]

well thanks, I'm glad you enjoy it.

[@stefanieandersen]

This was such a thorough and helpful breakdown! I'd be curious to see a video about the other option, Nulls Follow Points. I can think of several ways to use Points Follow Nulls, but I'm having a hard time imagining use cases for Nulls Follow Points. Thanks for the awesome tutorial!

[@Miro-kw5xp]

Hey Evan, great tutorial as usual. Curious, how would you make a different starting point for objects to rotate in full circle? Trace Path Progress is changing the starting point but it's not giving you full circle rotation.

[@ECAbrams]

hmmm, good question. Basically, you're looking to apply the trace path to a circle right? But you want to control where on the circle is considered 0% right?

[@Mographics]

As always great stuff Mr.Abrams :) Small question, you know that we can link both text layer's "Source Texts" so that they both write exactly the same thing which works perfectly. The problem is when you change the font/typeface this doesn't transfer over. Do you know of any script/expression fixing this problem something that can link both the Character Styles and Paragraph Styles to the other text layer?

[@ECAbrams]

I'm not sure if there is a way. Would you be able to get around this trouble by precomposing your text layer so you're working with two duplicates of a single source?

[@Mographics]

@@ECAbrams Thanks Abrams for replaying back :) No I'm afraid precomposing won't work. There was a way where you would write a script that can copy and paste the exact text to the other text layer but i don't know how to write that code. It's not important but i was just wondering if there is a smart way to do this. Thanks again for the reply back I do appreciate it :) keep up the great work, can't wait to learn more from you Master!

[@ghazalbeizavinejad7273]

Would you please give a tutorial on how a jellyfish moves?? A kind of jellyfish that has long strings attached to its head and the strings wave as the head contracts and expands. I'd really appreciate it.

[@thisisminiman]

Do you have a video related to the glow effect on these bulbs as shown in the intro? Is it an effect to the main comp or something you did on the bulb comp?

[@ECAbrams]

It's actually just a copy of the wire, set to be red, thick, blurred with an effect, and set to be less transparent behind everything. Have not made a video on it. But there are many explorations of glows out there in the wild. I may get some videos on it though :)

[@thisisminiman]

@@ECAbrams that's perfect! After futzing around a bit, that's what I wound up doing as well. Been working on branching into more After Effects work as my normal market of videography is drying up a bit. So your videos have been an awesome jumping off point for more animations. Needs work, but made a proof of concept from this idea with a Christmas tree. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r3zcnICrbsycfbc You've been a massive help in catching up on the last few years of AE updates and deepening my understanding of AE in general. Thank you!

[@NStoyanov]

Great tutorial! Is there a solution to making the Trace Path a 3d layer?

[@ECAbrams]

In what way? We can make any layer 3d by toggling the layer's 3d switch, but I suspect you need more from the layer than that? Let me know more details and I'll try to help out.

[@manueldavid8520]

Hi! I have a problem with this. The program creates nulls but not in the right place. It creates them in the corner of the composition, away from the path. How could I fix this problem?

[@TheDanGoldstein]

This is great! However, for 3D if say I want to make a simple 3d arrow using trim paths going off into the distance... when I try to do this with create nulls from path and then try to attach an arrow head I cant get either the null attached to the trim path or the arrow head to stay directly on the path in 3D. 3D is checked on for the line layer, the null layer and the arrow head layer. Its position is always way off base, even if I zero everything out first. Is there a way to get this to work being 3D in AE? Thanks!

[@ECAbrams]

Well, the first thing to understand is that a path wouldn't have 3d information right? Shape layer and mask paths are expressed as 2d info. So how are you orienting these things in 3d space specifically? That might be the best place to start.

[@TheDanGoldstein]

@@ECAbrams Thanks for the response! So I'm basically just trying to make a 3D arrow pointing in the z direction, where it starts in the foreground and shoots off into the distance and then arcs downward. I started off with the Easy Arrows script but then couldn't add extrusion thickness to the arrow head. So I creating my own with a simple line path, trim paths and the Create Nulls from Path script. Then gave the path and arrow head extrusion with 3D turned on. Is there a way for this to work or a script needed?

[@ahmeterzurumlu9116]

The way he says "out"

[@crokis372]

Hi, Evan. So, this script doesn't work with AE CC 2014? :(

[@divyaddev]

How is the cane blend with the string? With one side in front, and the other behind ?

[@ECAbrams]

I made a copy of the cane, parented it to the original cane, so they move together, then placed one copy in front and one behind for when the hook needs to go behind the string. It's a trick!

[@divyaddev]

Thank you so much. It worked well. I’ll soon finish my animation and share with you. Awesome lesson.

[@roboboro]

Thanks! Evan what if I have a line curving to one direction but once I move the null I want the curve to change direction? rotating the null doesnt do the work

[@ECAbrams]

you're going to want to get your hands on Nulls from Path Extended: crunchycreatives.com/create-nulls-from-paths-extended/ hope that helps

[@roboboro]

@@ECAbrams It worked perfectly! Thanks, Evan :)

[@aimiliosgkalipis3694]

you should be a voice actor as well xD

[@ECAbrams]

I do have some pretty great efforts. Maybe it'll be a new side hustle for me ;)

[@RahulKashyap-zd8ho]

When I turning off the expression button the effect also is getting turn off. but not yours.. so that's why i am unable to curve the line help me, I am using AE 2020

[@joseruiz10287]

I have a problem with the procedure. When I click on "Nulls follow points" the nulls go outside the drawing. I've been tolt it's beacuse of a transform I made, but I didn't touch the drawing at all.

[@ivanferencak1298]

This may be a silly n00b question, but why does normal parenting not work, and shift+parent does the trick?

[@ECAbrams]

When you parent, two layers become linked from where and when you make the link. Shift + Parent moves the child to the parent, like calling it to hold your hand. They are linked in the same way, but the child snaps to the parent. Is that the difference that's not fitting for you?

[@ferro2401]

Y para cs6?, intenté hacerlo funcionar en cs6 pero no sirve...alguna otra solución

[@ECAbrams]

The feature described here does not work in Cs6. I'm not sure of a way to access the same data in the same ways using older versions.

[@ferro2401]

@@ECAbrams thanks!

[@Sari36YT]

AE is so unintuitive and complex :/

[@VinodKumar-ec8yr]

sir my bulb does not snap to null while parent like u plzsuggess

[@ECAbrams]

You'll need to hold down the snap shortcut while you drag. It might not be the same for you, but on my computer it's the command button. If you click and hold the shortcut key and don't see a feature of the layer with a square, you might not have clicked close enough to the feature. It's also worth knowing that that this feature was not always part of After Effects. If you're on a significantly older version you may not be able to use this feature. I hope that helps.