Motion Effect: Leaving a trail behind an object?

Jim Brennan

Jim Brennan

VHS Member Old Skool
I am working on a project that has a map showing someone moving. I have the object I want to use to cross the map, but is there a simple way to leave a dashed line behind the object along its motion path?

Thanks
 
Is the object's path such that you can just draw the complete dashed line and then use crop or a matte to reveal it?


-Andrew
 
Well, I'm not sure I understand your question. But one thing I tried was to draw on a line by painting a stroke over time. It looks like crap. I want to drop a trail (preferably a dotted line) behind the object as it moves across the map to show the path it took. I've seen it a million times, so I'm thinking it has to be pretty simple. But I don't really know how to explain it better than that.

Sorry.
 
Yeah, sometimes the internet sucks for clear communication. ;)

Hypothetically let's say the object is moving in a straight line left to right. You can draw the path in Photoshop, save it as a PNG (so it has an Alpha channel), drop it onto the timeline in FCP and key frame the Crop attribute of the PNG to reveal the line as the object moves. If the object doesn't move in a straight line using a Matte instead of the Crop attribute might be required.


-Andrew
 
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