For this section, we are going over a playlist of videos made by the Cavalry team, called One Minute Wonders. This series demonstrates how quickly you can assemble impressive animations in this software.
This time we are making a column of wavy lines.
Note that the video above is one of Cavalry’s first demonstrations, and so the process doesn’t really correlate with newer versions of the software. So, I will open a Demo Scene and deconstruct that.
Opt+Alt+Click on the Line tool to add a line shape. Go Basic Line > Shape and extend the Length. Change Divisions to 50.
The line. Duplicated.
Go to the Shelf and Opt/Alt+Click on the Duplicator button. Change Duplicator > Shape > Distribution to Linear. Change Duplicator > Shape > Distribution > Direction to Vertical. Adjust the Count and Size values to suit.
With waves added.
Go to Basic Line > Shape > Deformers > Oscillator. In the Oscillator attributes, change Minimum to -20 and Maximum to 20. Change Stagger to 0. Ensure Use Normals is checked – this is under Oscillator > Deformer > Use Normals.
Under Oscillator [Basic Line] > Deformer > Number of Waves, set this to 2.0. Then Right-click > Number of Waves > Add Behaviour > Stagger
Prior to flipping with the graph tool.
Go Stagger [Number of Waves] > Graph and click the Flip Horizontal button to mirror the graph line. This flips the animation to match the example file.
Pressing play now should give you a nice effect. Play with values under Oscillator [Basic Line] > Behaviour such as Strength, Minimum, Maximum, and Frequency to get the look you want. Note that having Time Scale at 1.0 means the animation will loop.
My final animation.
You can go back to the Basic Line layer at any point and edit the attributes of the stroke, such as width and colour.
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This post covers 1 Minute Wonder | Animate a column of wavy lines by the Cavalry Team
