Hi, I need to resize a laser beam of which the light beam will be blocked by objects. The only way I manage do this now is by creating the beam animation upside down, group it and then rotate the group 180º. Building it straight causes weird behaviour of objects, ‘running’ around the screen, not staying at the right place. I would like to know if anyone knows a better, easier solution for this. See attached project for an example. Thanks!
beam-test.zip (20.2 KB)
There are some issues with resizing rotated objects (math is hard); we have these on the radar to fix.
You’ll probably get better results if you use a vector shape element, and simply adjust the second anchor point.
(You may need the shape morph algorithm setting to “direct anchor point match” to make sure it doesn’t try to get too fancy with the animation)
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Thank you so much for your reply! Using a vector shape element is a good tip, thanks! That will definitely make the animation a bit easier to control. It doesn’t solve the rotation and ‘running around of elements’ problem though,
the strange thing is that if I create the animation horizontally mirrored - and in the end rotate the complete group 180º - it works wel. The problem seems to be that a resize action always starts from the top (which becomes the bottom after the 180º rotate). If it would be possible to choose to start resize from top or bottom (or left or right?) I think this problem would be mostly solved.
what about buying from Adobe ¿ 
The way I would do it is have a keyframe that is an instant transition to change the end point when it "hits" the box, and then instantly change back to the long line when it is done with the sweep.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this; the bounding size of the vector shape is always the max bounds of its animated size and should be stable. Mind sending a zip of the .hype doc? (note that with this technique you won't need to use any rotations, just change the end point within the vector shape itself).
Thanks for your reply! With my initial post I already sent the zipped hype doc. Thanks for your help!
Just to clarify, what I’m suggesting would not animate rotation or sizing, only the path:
beam-test 2.hype.zip (21.2 KB)
Thanks for the example! That could work, however the problem with this solution is that the timing / constant speed of the beam is much more complicated to set and/or change. Using the ‘upside down’ rotation, I can define the exact amount of degrees to rotate in a set time, so that the speed stays constant.
Yeah that is the small issue with the approach. I wasn’t exact in the animation that I made for the example but I’d imagine you could get it imperceptible with enough fine tuning. Note that you can also drag one keyframe on top of another to get tighter timing with the transition.
Yes I understand, but I have to be very precise with my animation, precise on the degree unfortunately.
One key frame on top of another: thanks! I didn’t try that yet, gonna do that.
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