HairLines plug-in> Lines With Ends group
Lines that are the length and width of the screen are great, but there's always a need for lines that are a bit smaller. This section lets you specify a line length and allow the lines to grow. This is quite different than their normal behavior, where the lines are simply present and distorted the ripples. Lines With Ends move, grow and behave the way you tell them to. Don't you wish everything in life was this easy? use these lines to simulate string cheese, wriggly sperm or even pickup sticks and make sure to check our Animation Presets.
Lines With Ends> Lines Have Ends checkbox
This checkbox activates the Lines With Ends section. The parameters in the Lines section will function normally, whether or not Lines Have Ends is turned on.
Use Lines With Ends to create flowing lines which grow to reach their maximum Length.
Lines With Ends> Lock Horizontal To Vertical checkbox
You will notice that many controls actually have two parameters: one for Vertical direction and one for Horizontal direction. This checkbox links all the Horizontal and Vertical controls. If change the Vertical value, you will affect the lines in both directions.
If you want Vertical lines to behave differently than Horizontal lines, leave this unchecked. You will then move both a Vertical and Horizontal slider for each attribute, like Length or P“osition.
Lines With Ends> Vertical/Horizontal Length, Randomness
Sets the length of the column lines (vertical) and row lines (horizontal). This is the max length. The lines will grow into this based on the Grow speed. Starting off life as a pixel and eventually growing to whatever length you've set. You can move the lines around at any time, regardless of whether they are full length or not.
Left to right, angular and smooth lines can have ends. We used the 'pickup sticks' and 'go-go-go' Animation Presets.
Lines With Ends> Vertical/Horizontal Starting Point, Randomness
These are the vertical and horizontal points from which the lines start growing.
The Vertical Starting Point only works along the Y-axis, and the Horizontal Starting Point only works along the X-axis. This is because while the lines aren't controlled by the grid, they are constrained to it. You can move Vertical lines up and down, but not left and right. If you want to move the vertical lines left and right, you will need to move the grid. Similarly, you can move Horizontal lines left and right, but not up and down.
When moving the Vertical Starting Point around, keep in mind that only the Y-axis value will be affected. Whatever value you enter into the X-axis will be ignored. The opposite is true for the Horizontal Starting Point; only the X-axis value matters, and the Y-axis is ignored.
Lines With Ends> Vertical/Horizontal Offset
Moves the lines by the amount in pixels. This provides an easy way to animate them. If Line Wrapping is turned on, the pixels will wrap to the other side of the screen when they get to an edge. For example, if the lines hit the top, and off set keeps animating, the lines will wrap around to the bottom and continue moving upwards.
Lines With Ends> Vertical/Horizontal Growth
Determines how fast the lines grow to their maximum length, measured in pixels. Set up the lines up the way you want them, set the Vertical or Horizontal Growth rate, and let the lines grow. The higher the Growth value, the faster the lines will grow, and the faster they will reach their maximum length. Lines are still affected by ripples while growing, so you end up with flowing, moving lines. This can produce some nice effects for hair or thread or, uh, stringcheese.
There's no way to pre-roll the growth rate, so if you want the lines to start life fully grown, you will need to move the layer backwards in time. Find the point in the Timeline that the lines are fully grown, and move the layer to that point to Time 00:00. If that fully grown point is at 2:15, then move the layer so that 2:15 on the layer lines up at Time 00:00.
When lines have ends, you can set a Growth rate for the lines to reach a maximum growth length.
Lines With Ends> Line Wrapping checkbox
Since this isn't a particle system, if you want lines to stay on the screen you'll need to use Line Wrapping. This makes sure your lines never disappear, unless you set opacity to 0 or something. This gives you a good way of getting repeating lines. If Line Wrapping is not turned on, the lines will proceed to go off the edge of the screen as the off set is cranked up.