Apple Motion: How to animate a single Bézier point with non-linear interpolation?

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Level 1

5 points

Apple Motion: How to animate a single Bézier point with non-linear interpolation?

Hello!

I am trying to animate a couple of waves in Apple Motion, and I am trying to move a single point and animate it from a custom shape I made with Bézier points.

Here's an image of one of the shapes:

I can move the entire shape with a Motion Path and have complete control over the interpolation of movement on my shape. However, I don't juts want to move the object. I also want to move individual points on the shape.

I can do this with keyframes. However, I am limited to only a linear interpolation. Here's an image of the movement of one point:

I cannot change the interpolation to anything but linear.

Why is this? How can I fix this? Is there another method of doing this?

I'm on a pretty urgent deadline, so any help would be very helpful.

Thanks! :)

MacBook, macOS 12.7

Posted on Feb 16, 2024 2:13 PM

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Answer 1

fox_m

Level 6

12,511 points

Feb 16, 2024 2:57 PM in response to joenaveau

You need to use Track Points and, you need to attach every point to a Track Points behavior in order to animate just one point otherwise, a singe Track Points will animate the entire shape's points. You can then animate the point by it's tracking object any way you like.

This example animates the middle point with an Overshoot behavior.

Typically, it is easiest to use the Crosshair Minute image which can be found in the Library. Apply one for each Point. You can see the crosshair images in the gif above. They don't need to be visible in order for the animation to work — once you get everything set up, just uncheck their visibilities.

For each Track Point, "assign" a crosshair for each point and move them near or on the point you want to attach the point to.

Set the Checkmark for the point being tracked, Click the Reset button, then go up and set Attach to Source (it defaults to Mimic Source.)

Keyframe or apply a behavior to the corresponding Crosshair image Position parameters.

HTH

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Answer 2

joenaveau Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 16, 2024 9:43 PM in response to fox_m

I got to work originally, but now I cannot figure it out.

Can you put it out in exact steps?

I have multiple Track Points and it still is not working.

Here's what I did:

1.) Created a three point Bézier curve.

2.) Added three crosshair images.

3.) Added three Track Point behaviors to the curve.

4.) Followed your directions with your image. I created an individual Track Point for each point and checked only one per Track Point, hit the reset arrow to align it, and selected "Attach to Source" — I then tried to move one of the crosshair images and animate it with keyframes or the record method. They both moved the entire object instead of just one point.

I'm getting a little frustrated as there has to be a simpler way. Why isn't this working?

EDIT:

If I animate the middle point, it kind of works? How can I make this work for every point. I need all movement of each point to be independent of each other.

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Answer 3

Feb 20, 2024 10:02 AM in response to fox_m

Best

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Apple Motion: How to animate a single Bézier point with non-linear interpolation?

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