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Motion 5 - Marching ants / moving dotted line

Hi all,


Does anyone have an effective and hopefully simple technique for creating a 'marching ants' effect in Motion 5?


I have a Bezier line with a 'Dots' style applied to it. I can use the first point/last point offset to draw the dotted line onto the screen but I am looking to have the dots constantly move along the length of the line - the dots pass off the end of the line and more dots appear at the beginning.


The only rumours I've found is that there is a possible solution using the 'Ramp' or 'Oscillate' behaviours with the offset value but I can't figure out how this would work.


Anyone have a solution?


Thanks for any help.


I'm using Motion 5.4.1.

Posted on Jun 30, 2018 7:23 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jul 1, 2018 3:56 AM

You will need to reinvent the wheel a little bit.


Shape outlines are, fundamentally, emitters (set up Airbrush or Image Brush Types and play with Advanced > Dynamics or the Jitter controls in the Stroke section). After the Shape, the emitter can use a shape as a source for emitting particles (Geometry). Unfortunately, neither the shape or an emitter allows us to offset the points/particles used to render the shape. So basically, you need to convert your Bezier shape to a Replicator which also can use "Geometry" as the basis of outline replicated items.


Draw another small circle to use as your "brush". Type L to create a Replicator using the dot as your "brush".

For the Shape, select Geometry and to the Shape Source drop well add your Bezier line. Depending on the size of your "dot", set the number of points to around 512 (go higher if you need smoother) to start and adjust the Scale parameter in the Cell Controls.


Set the Color Mode to Over Pattern.


Create a Gradient that looks something like:


User uploaded file

How you do this is:

Select the leftmost color tab and set it to white. Look down the gradient parameter list for Interpolation and set it to Constant. Drag the rightmost tab over significantly and also set its interpolation to Constant. Now, any other tab you add will automatically set itself to Constant when added — but all you need to do is hold down the option key then click and drag the alternate color tabs to add/duplicate more tabs. Don't worry about alignment.


In the "gradient" created above, there are 21 tabs (an odd number is important to keep the light/dark coloring even across the line and the first and last are the same color).


When you've created the 21 tabs (or 19, 17, etc...) with alternating color (doesn't matter what the darker color is) there are two, very tiny icons on the right bottom corner of the gradient editor. Click the bottom one. All the tabs will be automatically distributed perfectly evenly across the range of colors. [The button over it will flip the gradient order "backwards" -- you won't want to do that here! You get the same two "buttons" for the Opacity gradient over the color gradient.]


To turn this to black and white, just drop a Filters > Color > Threshold filter on the Replicator.


Now, when you drag the Offset control back and forth, you will see the color pattern move. To automate this, right click on Offset and Add Parameter Behavior > Oscillate.


In the Oscillate behavior, set the Speed to a multiple of 3 (based on a project length evenly divisible by 5, typically 10 seconds for a default length project). I personally like 9 for this.



User uploaded file


HTH

2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jul 1, 2018 3:56 AM in response to FacePalm

You will need to reinvent the wheel a little bit.


Shape outlines are, fundamentally, emitters (set up Airbrush or Image Brush Types and play with Advanced > Dynamics or the Jitter controls in the Stroke section). After the Shape, the emitter can use a shape as a source for emitting particles (Geometry). Unfortunately, neither the shape or an emitter allows us to offset the points/particles used to render the shape. So basically, you need to convert your Bezier shape to a Replicator which also can use "Geometry" as the basis of outline replicated items.


Draw another small circle to use as your "brush". Type L to create a Replicator using the dot as your "brush".

For the Shape, select Geometry and to the Shape Source drop well add your Bezier line. Depending on the size of your "dot", set the number of points to around 512 (go higher if you need smoother) to start and adjust the Scale parameter in the Cell Controls.


Set the Color Mode to Over Pattern.


Create a Gradient that looks something like:


User uploaded file

How you do this is:

Select the leftmost color tab and set it to white. Look down the gradient parameter list for Interpolation and set it to Constant. Drag the rightmost tab over significantly and also set its interpolation to Constant. Now, any other tab you add will automatically set itself to Constant when added — but all you need to do is hold down the option key then click and drag the alternate color tabs to add/duplicate more tabs. Don't worry about alignment.


In the "gradient" created above, there are 21 tabs (an odd number is important to keep the light/dark coloring even across the line and the first and last are the same color).


When you've created the 21 tabs (or 19, 17, etc...) with alternating color (doesn't matter what the darker color is) there are two, very tiny icons on the right bottom corner of the gradient editor. Click the bottom one. All the tabs will be automatically distributed perfectly evenly across the range of colors. [The button over it will flip the gradient order "backwards" -- you won't want to do that here! You get the same two "buttons" for the Opacity gradient over the color gradient.]


To turn this to black and white, just drop a Filters > Color > Threshold filter on the Replicator.


Now, when you drag the Offset control back and forth, you will see the color pattern move. To automate this, right click on Offset and Add Parameter Behavior > Oscillate.


In the Oscillate behavior, set the Speed to a multiple of 3 (based on a project length evenly divisible by 5, typically 10 seconds for a default length project). I personally like 9 for this.



User uploaded file


HTH

Jul 1, 2018 4:07 AM in response to fox_m

Absolutely amazing!


Thank you for your time and such a detailed response. You also unwittinginly solved a secondary problem of mine which was once the dots were animated how to make them all different colours; the 'color gradient' solved that one - marvellous!


I spotted something as a possible addition to your solution: instead of creating a high odd number of coloured tabs I only created three and then altered the 'color repetitions' option until the bands correctly covered my dots.


Thanks again!

Motion 5 - Marching ants / moving dotted line

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