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Subject: Re: [AE] White Board effect
From: Chris Zwar <chris@chriszwar.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-5304045@media-motion.tv>
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2013 20:42:38 +1100
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Message-Id: <E870561D-A0C5-4F99-9C4F-FEC17196FA58@chriszwar.com>
References: <list-5304045@media-motion.tv>
To: "After Effects Mail List" <AE-List@media-motion.tv>

> This appears to be much more automated than some of the others=92 I=92ve=
 seen. Any idea if this is the case, and how they=92re pulling it off?

I've done a load of these recently, and I've started a tutorial on how =
to do it - unfortunately it's not ready yet.  It's in the pile with =
about 5 others that are in various states waiting for me to get the time =
to finish and upload them.

Basically, Rob's suggestion is how you go about it.  The basic steps are =
-

- reveal your artwork using mask paths and the stroke effect if it isn't =
vector to begin with.

- if it is vector, you can convert vector artwork to masks in AE (then =
use the stroke effect to reveal)

- convert all text to paths (a feature built into AE) and also reveal =
with stroke effect

- sequence all the masks and keyframes until you are happy with the =
reveal.

- copy the mask paths to the position of the hand / pencil / brush =
layer.  The mask paths will come in with 2 seconds duration, and roving =
keyframes in the middle.  Copy and paste the masks in sequence - =
beginning each new letter the next keyframe after the previous one.  You =
have to do this one at a time - quite tedious if there are lots of =
masks.

- convert ALL position keyframes (except the first and last) to roving =
keyframes.  Move the first keyframe to the start of the first layer =
reveal, and the last to the very end i.e. you are matching up the =
start/end position keyframes with the 0 - 100% keyframes of the stroke =
effect.  The hand will now follow the reveal of the text / artwork - not =
100% perfectly but close enough.

You can also get very good results using the 'scribble' effect - again =
you can use AE to convert text to masks, then apply the scribble effect =
and animate the end value just as you do with the stroke effect.
This is a very rushed overview - I'll try to finish off the video =
tutorial and get it up soon.
Two things to note:

- firstly, the effect works best when it's very quick. =20
- I have also worked on a few where we have recorded an artist doing it =
for real.  There has always been quite a lot of post-processing needed =
to fix up the end result - shadows, paper movement, and so on.  It's not =
necessarily easy just to video someone, although the end results can =
look more natural.


-Chris=