Path Distort plug-in
Path Distort distorts an image in the shape of a path (or Bezier mask). Imagine creating a snake by using an 'S' shaped path and a rectangular texture of a snake skin. The texture will get distorted into the shape of the S. You can then animate the path or you can have the texture only take up a portion of the S path, then animate it along the S-shape. That is what Path Distort is all about.
Path Distort plug-in.
Warped Layer pop-up
Chooses the layer that will be distorted by the path. This allows you to apply the effect to any layer, like a New Solid, then distort any other layer. For example, in the snake example above it would have been unwieldy to apply the effect to the snake texture itself since it's so thin. You wouldn't have been able to fit the 'S' shaped path on it, or any path for that matter except a practically straight one.
Path pop-up
Selects the path you want to use. You can use any path that is on the layer that Path Distort is applied to. The paths can be opened, closed or animated and have any amount of points. You can not use paths that are applied to a different layer.
Warping Method pop-up
Sets the method of distortion.
Left to right, Linear and Bezier warping.
Output View
Gives three views of the distortion for setup and render purposes.
Expand Buffer checkbox
When turned on, a layer will render outside of its boundary. You can create a path of any size and still have it render, regardless of whether it goes off the edge of the layer or not. However, we still recommend that you use a layer that will fit the path you want to draw, since this is less likely to product unexpected results.
Combine With Original checkbox
Turned off by default, which means the warped layer is only applied to the path. Path Distort will generate an alpha channel and not render the original layer that it is applied to.
When turned on, the warped layer is combined with the original image, and the default alpha is ignored.
Stretch
Strrrretches the image out from the path. If you want to make the distorted image a little bit fatter, then increase the amount of Stretch.
Left to right, Stretch at 25 and 200. Our witch starts off cute and slim. After devouring far too many children and upping the Stretch value, she grows in the horizontal direction.
Percentage of Path
Determines how much of the path is taken up by the image. If you want to animate an image along the path, the image needs to only take up a certain percentage of the path, so it has room to move along the path. By setting Percentage to 30%, for instance, you leave plenty of room to move the image along the path.
Left to right, Percentage on Path at 10, 40 and 100. The surfboard only takes a percentage of the straight path and grows as Percentage of Path is increased.
Position On Path
Sets where the image is positioned along the path, which affects how it takes on the shape of the path. Of course, you can position any layer along a path normally in After Effects, but Path Distort makes it take the shape of the path. As you position the image along the path, the image bends and warps to take on the shape of the path. To use Position on Path, the layer must take up less than 100% of the path.
You can animate Position to use the path to guide the image. For instance, by moving Position from 0 to 100, the image transverses the path, taking on the path's shape as it moves.
NOTE: If you animate the shape of a path, you will probably change the length of the path. If you're increasing the length of the path faster than the image is traveling along it, the image may actually appear to start going backwards. Just something to keep in mind as you start creating complex animations.
Left to right, Position on Path at 0, 50 and 100.
Rotation pop-up
Rotates the layer by a specified number of degrees. Path Distort may not orient your layer correctly at first, which can improperly distort the image. If your image looks excessively warped, try a 90 degree rotation. Set to None, or no rotation, by default.
Horizontal Subdivision, Vertical Subdivision
Creates the resolution of the mesh that Path Distort uses when it is in Warping Method> Linear Warp mode. The higher these are set to, the longer Linear Warp will take to render. If you really crank these up, you might as well use Bezier Warp as it'll take just as long.
To minimize the performance hit, optimize your mesh. If you have a very long, thin distortion, then you will need more resolution along one axis than the other. For example, in the examples below, there is plenty of resolution along the horizontal axis, but not enough along the vertical. You can see the sharp edges in the turns. Increasing the number of Vertical Subdivisions will get a much smoother distortion.
NOTE: If Warping Method> Bezier Warp is active, these parameters have no effect.
Left to right, Vertical at 10, Horizontal at 20, Vertical at 20, Horizontal at 20.