User Guide > Morphing > Morphing Rules

Morphing Rules

Animate follows a set of rules as it evaluates the shapes. Familiarize yourself with these basic morphing rules before you start morphing.

Related Topics 

Closest Similar Shape
Pencil Line to Pencil Line
Fill Shape to Fill Shape
Colour Swatch to Same Colour Swatch
Vanishing and Appearing
Colour Art to Colour Art and Line Art to Line Art

A colour, line shape or zone will morph with the closest similar one in the destination drawing. This means it will morph with the zone nearest to it, as long as that zone uses the same palette's colour swatch (Colour ID) and has the same vector properties (Central or Contour).

If you trace a shape using a pencil line such as the Ellipse , Rectangle , Polyline , Line or Pencil tool, you have to morph it with another pencil line. Make sure that both drawings are pencil shapes (central vector).

A pencil line will never morph with a brush stroke.

Pencil lines with thickness ARE SUPPORTED in morphing sequences. The thickness will morph according to the thickest and thinnest areas in the source and destination drawings.

If you have pencil lines in your source drawing, the same number of pencil lines must be present in the destination drawings. A pencil line will appear if it is not found in the destination drawing. It will pop out on the first or last frame depending on which one it is drawn.

When two pencil lines cross one another, they are considered to be two lines and not four lines anymore (as it was in previous versions of the application). In this case, you must have two pencil lines in your destination drawing for your morphing to work correctly.

If you have a brush line or a colour fill zone which are contour vectors, make sure that you morph it with another fill or brush line. Contour vectors will not morph with pencil lines (central vectors). A brush line can morph into a colour fill zone and vice versa.

Animate does not morph colours. If you want to perform a colour transition, you have to create the effect at the compositing level. A colour palette is composed of colour swatches. Each colour swatch has its own unique identification number, even if two colours pots are the same shade of red, they are identified independently. A colour zone or shape will morph with another one painted with the same colour swatch.

Vanishing and Appearing

If a colour zone does not find a match in the first or the second drawing, it will progressively appear or disappear.

In Animate, there is an advanced concept for painting your drawings called Line Art and Colour Art. Basically, an extra layer is added in your drawings so that you can fill the colour zones on a separate layer. The regular layer on which you are drawing is called Line Art and the extra layer under the Line Art is the Colour Art.

A shape drawn in Colour Art can only be morphed with another shape existing in the Colour Art.
A shape drawn in Line Art can only be morphed with another shape existing in the Line Art.
A shape created in Colour Art can never morph with a shape created in Line Art.

Related Topics 

Drawing with the Brush or the Pencil
Line Art and Colour Art Layers