How do I draw a rectangle or oval ?

Question

Level 1

121 points

How do I draw a rectangle or oval ?

Hi there,

How do I animate the process of drawing a rectangle or oval.

I use the line tools. I can draw a rectangle but how to keyframe the process of drawing the rectangle or oval ?

I mean how to show that it starts with nothing, then a dot and then as the dot moves it draws a horizontal line after which it moves up then turn left and then turn down again to meet its' original dot starting point, thus completing the rectangle ...

How to do animate the whole process ?

Thanks

15.4, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 27" iMac - 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 1GB ATI Radeon HD, i5 QuadCore

Posted on Mar 4, 2014 6:42 AM

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Answer 1

GFXZen

Level 4

1,997 points

Mar 4, 2014 7:48 AM in response to RyanManUtd

You can do the process using the rectangle tool or the circle tool. Draw out the shape in the canvas. Go to the inspector and then the shape tab. Turn off the fill and then turn on the outline. With the shape still selected, go to the behaviors and select the Shape group, then the Write On behavior.

If you press play this will animate the drawing on of the shape. You can change the speed by adjusting the lenght of the behavior in the timeline.

I would suggest you review the shapes and behaviors chapters in the user manual:

http://help.apple.com/motion/mac/5.0/en/motion/usermanual/#chapter=9%26section=0

http://help.apple.com/motion/mac/5.0/en/motion/usermanual/#chapter=20%26section= 0

There is a lot to learn and the documentation has tons of detail for finer control options, like rounding the line ends, or adjusting the the start points for the shape drawing, etc.

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Answer 2

RyanManUtd Author

Level 1

121 points

Mar 5, 2014 5:52 AM in response to GFXZen

Thanks GFXZen,

But that's too much text to digest ... is there a video tutorial to do this simple drawing ?

Thanks

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Answer 3

Mar 5, 2014 8:26 AM in response to RyanManUtd

Does this help?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55104577/write%20on.mov

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Answer 4

RyanManUtd Author

Level 1

121 points

Mar 7, 2014 8:47 AM in response to schmackhaft

Thanks a million schmackhaft,

But how do I get the background to be transparent ?

Thanks

schmackhaft wrote:

Does this help?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55104577/write%20on.mov

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Answer 5

Mar 7, 2014 11:40 AM in response to RyanManUtd

Select the project layer and then properties tab in the inspector. Then under General Background select Transparent in the popup menu. Export as Prores 4444 with color plus alpha to preserve the transparency in the Quicktime movie export.

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