is it possible to morph one shape into another shape in After Effects CS 5.5???

N

Nicholas Natteau

Veteran
I'm doing an animated map of World War II for a documentary. And I want to illustrate Germany's invasion of Russia with an animated shape. Now I know I could simply animate the shape, but that would be a little complex as the shape has many points and I would have to move each one.

If I create two shapes (1 and 2), can AE simply morph shape 1 into shape 2? Shape 1 being Nazi occupied Europe morphing into shape 2 (Nazi occupied Europe + Nazi-occupied USSR).

Can AE morph one shape into another? And if not, what other program might be able to do it?

The idea came to me after watching this animated map of the US civil war posted here on Vimeo:

http://www.vimeo.com/11449420




 
Create a solid. Then draw a mask on that solid for your starting shape and set a keyframe for your start point. Move to your endpoint on the timeline, and then adjust your mask shape to how you want to look at the end.
 
Tried it but unfortunately I'm getting terrible results. The first shape turns around 360 degrees as it grows into the second shape. I just wanted the first shape to grow into the second without rotating. And I never programmed it to rotate. Thanks for any further help anyone can offer on this.
 
I would think a mask would do it if you feather it out and adapt the size and so forth. You might have to motion track in ae or with mocha first. That might be why it's rotating.
 
Last edited:
Nich:

That job is best done over in Flash. Flash is actually a drawing tool with animation capabilities. You could use the two outlines of the map and create an animation that actually changes shape on the timeline. You can then export the file and drop it into AE. If you have AE in a CS then you have Flash.

MIke
 
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