Ramp effect, Scribble effect – Adobe After Effects CS3 User Manual
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AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
435
Fade-in Time
Specifies the amount of time it takes the wave to fade into view. Fade-in Time is measured in seconds
and begins with 0 opacity at birth. For example, if the Lifespan is 3 seconds and Fade-in Time is 1 second, the stroke
is completely transparent at birth and fades smoothly to full opacity at 1 second.
Fade-out Time
Specifies the amount of time it takes the wave to fade out of view. Fade-out Time is measured
backward in time from the end of the Lifespan. If the Lifespan is 3 seconds and Fade-out Time is 1 second, the wave
begins to fade out at 2 seconds. If the sum of Fade-in Time and Fade-out Time is greater than the Lifespan value, the
intersection point of the two fades is calculated so that the wave doesn’t reach full transparency. If either Fade-in
Time or Fade-out Time is longer than the Lifespan, that amount is truncated to equal the Lifespan.
Start Width
Specifies the width of the shape at its birth. End Width specifies the width of the shape at the end of its
lifespan.
Ramp effect
The Ramp effect creates a color gradient. You can create linear or radial ramps, and vary the position and colors of
the ramp over time. Use the Start Of Ramp and End Of Ramp properties to specify the start and end positions. Use
the Ramp Scatter control to disperse the ramp colors and eliminate banding.
This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color.
Note: Ramps often don’t broadcast well; serious banding occurs because the broadcast chrominance signal doesn’t
contain sufficient resolution to reproduce the ramp smoothly. The Ramp Scatter control dithers the ramp colors, elimi-
nating the banding apparent to the human eye.
Scribble effect
The Scribble effect creates the appearance of hand-drawn artwork by filling or stroking a closed mask.
For example, the Scribble effect can simulate fills that look like marker, cross-hatching, or textiles. It fills a mask with
a single zigzagging line that crisscrosses the path. Some paths, because of their geometry, cannot be filled with a
single line. The Scribble effect breaks these paths into several simpler paths, each of which it then fills with a
zigzagged stroke.
Aharon Rabinowitz provides a tutorial that shows how to use Auto-trace with the Scribble effect to create a stylized
animated fill from video footage or from Illustrator graphics:
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This effect works with 8-bpc color.