Hello,

I am working on an animation involving an audio cable spelling out a word.  It will come out of a speaker and grow to form the word.  Is there any way of growing a shape along a path and have it follow that exact path?  I know you can animate in the spline editor, but it does more of a morphing effect rather than following along a specific pre-determined path.  I was able to make it reveal (grow) using an animated shader in the alpha channel on a fully completed cord shape, but the problem with that is syncing up a separate object  - the tip of the cord (audio jack) to follow on a motion path with the exact timing of the animated shader for the cord.  Any ideas?  Thanks.

Chucker 

Wow this is kind of a new one for me!

You can scribe out a motion path and get that to be fairly intricate.  The only thing I can think of is to put a particle generator on a motion path.

Set the particle generator to generate particles in a VERY ordered fashion and use metaballs for the particles.

Then have the particle generator flow along the path and "create" the cable as it goes.

Have the "end" of the cable follow the same path.

This is just a whackazoid idea sitting here thinking about it for two minutes but that's what I'd try.

-Kix

That's not a bad idea Kix... Thanks for the suggestion.  I think in the short-term just to get the job done I'm probably going to use the animated texture reveal technique and just keyframe the alpha movie to match the movement of the separate object (tip) that moves on a motion path.  I love trying to solve these little problems, so I'll give the particle idea a try and see if I can get it to work.  Thanks for taking a shot at it!

Chucker