after effects and illustrator path issues

[davidh30368302]

Hello all,

I am trying to use an illustrator path to animate into an object using trim paths in after effects. I keep having this issue of the trim paths doing a stroke fill initially and then removing it after 50% or so of the trim path. I tried using a mask to cover the hoped for negative space with no luck.

this is the shape i want to animate with three paths, in white with a black background in after effects

this is one of three paths created to extend from center to draw the shape

but it keeps looking something like this as I try to use trim paths (approx 40% of trim path effect)

I have tried precomposing the shape layer and then masking over the top with no luck. I have tried making this a native shape in after effects with poor corners. not sure what else to do.

Thanks for any help!

[Roei Tzoref]

I am trying to use an illustrator path to animate into an object using trim paths in after effects.

if you want to successfully use the trim path operator you need to make sure that your illustrator path has made the transition into a shape as a stroke path and not a fill outline.

you want a thin path in the middle of the shape, not an outline on both of it's sides. if you have an illustrator art then make sure you are using a regular brush and a constant width stroke. this way when you create shape from vector layer, it will be a shape with a stroke path and not a fill path. if you made it initially with fill outline, you would have to rebuild it as stroke path. now when you trim the path it will be predictable.

[davidh30368302]

Thanks for getting back to me. What is weird is it is already a stroke path in illustrator, using a uniform line. Any thoughts for porting in to after effects to maybe make it easier?

[Roei Tzoref]

it has to be uniform and regular brush like this

it will convert to a shape retaining the same path

now when I trim path it will behave as expected

if you are experiencing anything different please share the file here? upload it to any legit cloud service.

[davidh30368302 · Accepted solution]

Ok i see the error, I used a round brush. What I ended up doing was using the object fill layer as a template on a new shape layer to make a stroke fill, which worked out well enough. If i would have used your method, can I easily adjust the end cap and joint settings within after effects i.e. round the corners?

[Roei Tzoref]

Yes. Under the stroke options in the shape layer you can set it to a round join same as Ai. If you create this as such in Ai it will convert to the same thing.