Welcome, in this tutorial I'll show you how to create the following effect.
Step 1; Select the EP Curve Tool...
Then create the path that your arrows will travel on.
Step 2; Select the linear option in the EP curve tool options.
Step 3; Then draw your arrow's head and hit enter to finishing drawing the shape.
Don't worry about closing the shape, you can just to go the Edit Curves menu and Open/Close curves. Then go to Surfaces and select the Planar option to give some volume. Now that our arrow head is complete so let's line it up at the start of the curve.
Step 4; Now select your arrow head and curve and go to the Attach to Motion Path options in the Animate menu. You can use the settings I have below, depending on your scene you'll want to use more (fix)
Step 5; Now hit apply and the arrow head should follow along the path.
Step 6; Now let's create the arrow's tail, click on the good o' EP curve tool and create a line that will the height of the arrow's body. Make sure it's at the beginning of the path you created.
Step 7; Now select your tail curve and the path and go to Surfaces -> Extrude options. Make sure you have Partial selected, this will allow you to animate the extrusion. If your path doesn't line up you may need to move it up a bit.
Your arrow's tail maybe a little chunky looking, and we want it to be smooth.
Step 8; Here are the settings I use to fix the tessellation.
Step 9; Under subCurve2 set the max curve to 0 at frame 1 then right click and add a keyframe.
Step 10; The go to the end of your scene (my scene is 60 frames long, so the end frame for me is 60) and set the max curve at 1 and add a keyframe.
Then create the path that your arrows will travel on.
Step 2; Select the linear option in the EP curve tool options.
Step 3; Then draw your arrow's head and hit enter to finishing drawing the shape.
Don't worry about closing the shape, you can just to go the Edit Curves menu and Open/Close curves. Then go to Surfaces and select the Planar option to give some volume. Now that our arrow head is complete so let's line it up at the start of the curve.
Step 4; Now select your arrow head and curve and go to the Attach to Motion Path options in the Animate menu. You can use the settings I have below, depending on your scene you'll want to use more (fix)
Step 5; Now hit apply and the arrow head should follow along the path.
Step 6; Now let's create the arrow's tail, click on the good o' EP curve tool and create a line that will the height of the arrow's body. Make sure it's at the beginning of the path you created.
Step 7; Now select your tail curve and the path and go to Surfaces -> Extrude options. Make sure you have Partial selected, this will allow you to animate the extrusion. If your path doesn't line up you may need to move it up a bit.
Your arrow's tail maybe a little chunky looking, and we want it to be smooth.
Step 8; Here are the settings I use to fix the tessellation.
Step 9; Under subCurve2 set the max curve to 0 at frame 1 then right click and add a keyframe.
Step 10; The go to the end of your scene (my scene is 60 frames long, so the end frame for me is 60) and set the max curve at 1 and add a keyframe.
