Moho Forum

I have a 18-wheel truck (elements contained in a single group layer) that I want to "drive" into a smaller open box (another grouped layer).
How can I get it to go inside the smaller box, other than using the Layer Scale Tool (which would shrink the truck down to fit the into the open box globally.)

I need it to "funnel" into the smaller open box, meaning the truck will squeeze down from normal size only at the part that enters the opening of the smaller box - while the remaining part is still full size until the last part enters the box.

Is is possible to selectively scale/shrink only part of a grouped layer (over time, of course)?

thanks for any help.

There's a nifty little trick to distort images.
Create some chains of bones in one bone layer, with help of the grid, and increase the bone stregth of all so that they all overlap:



In frame 1 of the animation, bend the chains like this (with rotate tool (3)):



Import an image of your truck (render it and cut to size), put it inside the bone layer. Place it to the left in frame 1 (with translaze tool (1)), then to the right some frames later. Replay. See how the bones distort the image? The option "warp images with bones" must be on, it is default, see image layer panel.

Very ingenious solution--- works perfectly for an Image layer (I tested your suggestion.).

But how can I apply this to the group layer without rendering out a still frame (as in your example) since I want the truck wheels to keep spinning.

Can't seem to get this method to work on a group layer.

regards

Also-- I see that this method works if I export the truck first as a QT movie with alpha layer
--then reimport that QT into the timeline and apply your bone method to it .

But the quality of the new QT asset is somewhat less than that of the original vector files that created it. (animation codec with Alpha).

It is perhaps a solution to keep the truck wheels spinning-- but maybe there s a better way?

regards