Crazy Trim Paths Tricks in After Effects | Tutorial

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In this After Effects tutorial, I'll show you some crazy trim paths tricks. We'll cover the basics first, then get into some nerdy stuff.
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Content:
0:00 Intro
0:30 Trim Paths basics
1:06 Animating several strokes
1:44 Expressive typography in After Effects
2:16 Graphic explosions
3:03 Point along path using trim paths
4:10 Link an object to a point on a path
6:44 Arrow animation using trim paths
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If you have any further questions, let me know in the comments below. I do my best to answer all of them!
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#aftereffectstutorial #animation #motiondesign

[@simonzhang3D]

Why do i need to come back here every few months. Why is my brain not able to keep that information. Pls never delete this video

[@ManueldoesMotion]

I promise I won't delete it!:) You don't need to remember everything, that's what tutorials are for. I need to look a lot of stuff up again and again as well:)

[@TanuzJaramillo]

OMG Manuel!! I was looking for some tutorial like this, so I could add some extra movents to my Motion graphics homework for this week. Thank you!! :D

[@ManueldoesMotion]

That’s awesome! You’re so welcome!

[@cenkozmercan]

The arrow example is so smart. Some random little trick I use when I apply trimpaths to tapered strokes...The trim is applied as a percentage and especially at the beginning and ending of the trim animation, the line is too short, so it is tapered awkwardly - but for those parts where it becomes obvious, I animate the stroke width so starting and ending of the tapered & trimmed paths are nicer.

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks very much for that important tip! I really appreciate it! You’re right. At the beginning and end it looks weird. I usually just use the middle part of the path. But if you use the whole path you should animate the stroke width. Also if you want to animate the arrow in and out.

[@hasanmotiurrahman8105]

@@ManueldoesMotion How can I add the arrow to the end of the line or to the bottom of the line?

[@alexfreedomroad]

Thank you Manuel for providing us all these knowledge, your tutorials are really useful for me!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Glad to hear that! You're very welcome!

[@MSMotions]

one of the best After Effects tutorials I've ever seen. You're a hero man.

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Hey that’s awesome! Glad u like it!

[@richochet]

This is brilliant, one of my faves of yours! Thank you!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

That’s awesome! Gad u like it!

[@fernandolozano7376]

Clear, easy to understand and to the point, excellent tutorial!! Thanks!!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

That’s great to hear! You’re so welcome!

[@pauldenis5748]

Super tuto !! Merci beaucoup

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks! Glad u like it!

[@juaninxoxo]

It's so easy and practice, thank you for share your knowledge!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

You’re so welcome!

[@timmykwee]

such clear and straight forward tutorial! Thanks so much !

[@ManueldoesMotion]

You’re welcome!

[@quocthinh9481]

Mind blowing with arrow example, OMG thanks you so much !!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome! Glad you like it!

[@FeelVisualArt]

This is fantastic! Thank you very much 😄

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome! You’re so welcome!

[@JoshuaPerlson2010]

Excellent tutorial. Thanks!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Glad u like it! You're welcome!

[@HarryHollertheWolf]

Great video. It is concise, yet highly informative. Great time-value, with no fluff. Thanks, Manuel. Liked & subscribed! Keep 'em comin'!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome, thank you! So glad u liked it!

[@YennyChristiany]

so helpful! thank you so much 🙌🙌

[@ManueldoesMotion]

You're so welcome!

[@garvitmakkar]

I love to have great grasp on making cool stuff with basic tools Please make a video on Repeater extraordinary uses also🙂

[@ManueldoesMotion]

That’s awesome! I’ll think about it 😜

[@mrCetus]

I love to have great grasp on making cool stuff with basic tools Please make a video on Repeater extraordinary uses also

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Yes! I’ll definitely do more videos like this 👍🏻

[@vaughngaminghd]

Great tutorial, thanks so much!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome! You're welcome!

[@saurabhsingh-dr5mk]

Great job sir

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks!

[@KyleWoodard]

Great tutorial!! ☺️

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks so much! 😊

[@manuelsilva4931]

Hi Manuel! Thanks for the video!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Hey! You're so welcome!

[@S-I-T]

Great tutorial. Thank you.

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome! You’re welcome!

[@WiLDeveD]

Well done. Really Crazy staff. Thanks bro.

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome! You’re welcome!

[@quintusdiast3477]

Genius this is life saving!!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome!

[@edding3000fr]

hello thank you for your gum Road, very helpfull ! crazy stuff !

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome! Glad it helps!

[@-swag8743]

Thank you, very helpfull tutorial. Espacially the part about arrow.

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Glad it was helpful!

[@O2-studios]

Thank you Manuel! Question: How did you create those sweeping paths with varying stroke widths?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

You're welcome! I changed the taper settings in the stroke property of the paths.

[@constanzaruiz2333]

Thank you! this video is all I needed. Just a quick question, how can I do if I want the tail of the trim path to fade out with the background? Like it had a mask feather

[@ManueldoesMotion]

I would try and add an echo effect. You maybe have to use two layers then. One for the arrow head and one for the tail.

[@naturesoundup]

one of the best teacher

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks very much!

[@minamccauley2248]

Wow, that animation arrow is genius 😮😮😮

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome! Glad u like it! :)

[@user-tg8tz8ro6b]

Thank you so much I really liked the last arrow animation it's brilliant ! If only you could explain the reason of each step and how it affects the end result :) (ex linking end to start and the other start and end to the 1st start )

[@ManueldoesMotion]

You’re welcome! I would recommend to play around with it and see what happens.

[@user-tg8tz8ro6b]

@@ManueldoesMotion Okay ^_^ Thanks for your reply

[@muhammedsabil]

Hey Manuel, Thank you for the amazing video, Can you help us with how can we make arrow disappear after coming to the screen

[@ManueldoesMotion]

If you want to let it disappear you could simply fade it out or animate the slider controls to scale the arrow down so that it disappears.

[@entidadalan4967]

Eres un Master de Masters. Gracias por enseñar cómo se hace. Very very very goooooooooooooooood! 🍀👍🏻❤

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks very much! You're welcome!

[@entidadalan4967]

@@ManueldoesMotion Y gracias también por responderme siempre. Eres muy amable, amigo.

[@UAM374]

u the man

[@jeffmcjeff9021]

Love the ironic pen spin at 3:05 😂

[@ManueldoesMotion]

😂 👍🏻

[@fixable]

Also there is built in script that allow you to make a null linked to path. Selecting path you can run "Create Nulls From Paths" and hit "Trace Path".

[@ManueldoesMotion]

I know but it's not the same. It's just links to the path itself not to an object somewhere on the path.

[@fixable]

@@ManueldoesMotion of course, I'm agree with you, it just should be mentioned. Some of your technics are new to me, thanks!

[@ShahKhan2091]

best tut❤❤❤

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks!!

[@andrewolivares4475]

This is amazing! I've been looking for a way to dynamically animate a point along a path. Would love to know if there's a way to automatically animate the circle at the in point of the path. I notice that if I move the slider fully to the right, the point disappears but not when I move it to the left, it just stays in place not going further past the in side of the path. Any way to make it so?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome! So happy it is helpful! Yes! You could animate the stroke width at the beginning and end to reveal the point and let it disappear again.

[@andrewolivares4475]

@@ManueldoesMotion I made another slider for stroke size and one for offset and now it is complete! This is awesome thank you so much, subscribed!

[@ManueldoesMotion]

@@andrewolivares4475 That's awesome! A great addition!

[@rs4gertsch]

Hi Mauel, is there a way to reverse the path direction @ 6:15? I'm trying to sweep a null along a star shaped path, but want it to run the other direction. Can't wuite figure it out though. Simply "reversing" the path direction via the button in the star shape path doesn't work unfortunately.

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Did you try and divide it by -100? Or you could precomp the layers, then turn the comp into a 3D layer and simply rotate it 180 degrees. That should change the direction as well.

[@garvitmakkar]

In graphic explosion part anchor Point is important for creating a circle from line using repeator? I am not getting a circle using repeator please guide me

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Yes, the anchor point of the shape layer needs to be in the centre of the composition.

[@mira-graphics]

Just an AWESOME

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks very much!

[@michaelwerner4539]

Hi. I want the paths to animate from end to end... i have a drawing of a cake and when I do the trim paths, it draws it out but it jumps all over the place. Is there a way to make the drawing pick up where the last drawn path stops..... without having to manually organize it to make it do so.... that would be a huge amount of work

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Unfortunately I don’t know of a way to do that. It depends very much on all the lines in your drawing, how and in which order your paths are animated. You need to do it path by path I guess.

[@MrPatashuri]

Hi Manuel, i wonder How to move both ends of a path in different directions. If one follows one shape, the other follows another. To explain more correctly, how to parent one end to one shape and the other to another. Sorry if that's not clear. I didn't see a similar video and did I miss it?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Hi, it depends on what you want to achieve exactly. An easy solution is to duplicate the shape and invert the direction of the movement. So you trace the path twice and change the direction for one path. The two objects move in different directions.

[@Grafixerskills]

Manuel Awesome Job Done ... What is the music at 4:10 on wards please?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks very much! I use music from www.artlist.io for all my videos.

[@sachinperera1900]

Actually I forgot the "trim path" and came back to memorize haha. Big thumbs up 👍👍

[@ManueldoesMotion]

:-D Thanks!

[@sonjavindjehier7840]

Great tutorial! My object follows my line (with trimpath). Unfortunately, my object starts somewhere halfway of the line, as the trimpath of my line has an offset of 189degrees. How do i adjust the start position of my object so it matches the start position of my trimpath?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks! Usually you adjust that position with the offset property.

[@andreas_triant]

I wonder how I could automate the Trim Path action. Like, one click on a stroke and it adds a trim path animation on "0 to 100 End" at once? :)

[@ManueldoesMotion]

You would have to write a script I guess?

[@idioteque5389]

when i create expression at 5:06 i have an error "object of type layer found where a number, arrow or property is needed". can you help me?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

It sounds like you forgot a semicolon at the end.

[@Fairy-Chess]

Please make some videos on map animation. There is only a few videos on KZbin. Please make a video.

[@cyklzycia8814]

How to simply loop animation like that by expression ? thansk

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Hitch animation do you mean?

[@T2Exile]

having trouble here :/ 2:14 technique im just not able to get a perfect rotation around the center anchor point when I add the repeater, put x-position to 0, then rotate the 40deg....mine just doesnt spiral perfectly like in the video for some reason

[@ManueldoesMotion]

It's probably the anchor point position of your shape. The y anchor point position needs to be 0 for the layer and the shape.

[@T2Exile]

@@ManueldoesMotion thanks I got it.

[@zakwells7152]

With the graph, how did you click and drag it? I keep getting stuck here

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Where in the video do you mean?

[@DaDoubleDee]

When I create a path with the pen tool, for some reason the start of the trim path is not at the beginning of where I started the path, it's the same as when I try it on a rectangle shape, any way to change the starting point?? edit: found my answer for anyone with the same problem ---> select the path layer, then pen tool, right click on a vertex point and go to mask and shape path then hit set first vertex point

[@ManueldoesMotion]

That's awesome! Thanks for the tip!

[@bhushanjoshi2216]

superrrr

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks!!!

[@deepdig8502]

Chuppy motion ! Could you do smoother motion ?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

What do you mean?

[@deepdig8502]

​@@ManueldoesMotion It's like in ticker text the same shape motion is chuppty ( kind of stuttering jittery motion ).

[@Peaky456]

hai sir can you make video how to make like Caylus (youtube) he use behind face cam footage some effect please make that how to doo

[@anjuupadhyay4775]

GEM>>>> cheers... more ... more....

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks! Try my best!:)

[@InfoCodex]

In this VIDEOOOOO...I learnt trim paths.

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Awesome!

[@brandinojam24]

I know how to make a line appear from the center out but how do I make that line disappear from the center out?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

You invert the animation. Time reverse keyframes.

[@brandinojam24]

@@ManueldoesMotionthanks but I made a mask in the center and animated mask expansion.

[@Marforaep]

hello!, I have a question, idk why my after effects don't have taper option in stroke?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

„Taper“ is included since After Effects CC 2017.1

[@Marforaep]

@@ManueldoesMotion I have 2020

[@ManueldoesMotion]

@@Marforaep Then it should be inside the "Stroke" property of your shape layer.

[@Marforaep]

@@ManueldoesMotion it’s not😭

[@ManueldoesMotion]

@@Marforaep Then you need to ask Adobe for advice.

[@westmanoliver]

Does anyone know a tutorial on this but for davinci?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Unfortunately I don’t know one

[@JuanDavid-bg4yz]

This is a bit too advanced for me :'( I've been hitting my head against the wall. I'm trying to create a progress bar that automatically adapts to the length of the video, and also to attach a logo to the progress bar. Your "Link an object to a point on a path" seems to be similar to what I am trying to do with the logo. Anyway, I can't even figure out how to make the progress bar automatically adapt to the time of the video. Can someone help me please?

[@ManueldoesMotion]

This one will probably help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/laG4lGt9aJ2LaJY

[@JuanDavid-bg4yz]

@@ManueldoesMotion Thank you. That's great. I was able to make the progress bar. However, the progress bar needs to be turned into a mogrt, and the bar has to adapt to the length of any video. Because, it's like a progress countdown of how long a video is. Is there an expression that helps me attach the progress to the time of any video? In this case, attach the slider control to the time of any video.

[@Evie_Ruby]

Why don't you explain about why you need to move the trim path out of the contents shape 1?

[@luri1232]

i dont know why my graph is different from your graph... instead of it being a straight line, it instantly appears in a zig zag shape even though i followed through every step of the tutorial at 0:31 to 1:00

[@ManueldoesMotion]

There is a speed graph and a value graph you can select in the bottom menu. Maybe the value graph is selected instead of the speed graph?

[@jaysonfontela5761]

💖

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks! 😊

[@Evie_Ruby]

6:51

[@azurev2258]

when all the c++ I learned finally has a purpose:

[@Evie_Ruby]

4:10

[@bilalahmed-cp1uk]

amazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks!!!!!!

[@janahimmel2294]

OMG Didn't realize Trim Paths existed before this video, I did a whole animation where I used masks instead... 🤦‍♀

[@ManueldoesMotion]

It is soooooo usefull! Glad you know it now ;-)

[@shotoru07]

why my trim path is different😭😭😭😭

[@ManueldoesMotion]

It must be the same everywhere.

[@umarsajjad9459]

very usable but project file is not free

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Thanks and yes it is free.

[@vahidamini1863]

✌...

[@memos106]

Is their any other easy way to do this😢

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Once you understand the principle, I don’t think it’s that difficult.

[@Tortvkarmane]

Hello! There are no subtitles in Russian on the course. So I would buy. Sad

[@kysersoze4218]

How the f**k did you rename the shape names?😅

[@ManueldoesMotion]

Select the layer and press Enter. Then type in the new name.

[@kysersoze4218]

Thank man. ❤

[@Shereka2007]

SLOW DOWN PLEASE