This tutorial will show you how to create animated arrows in Maya, to see an example click on the image below.
Creating the Animation Path
Select the EP Curve Tool...
Then create the path that your arrows will travel on.
Creating the Arrow pt 1
Select the linear option in the EP curve tool options.
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.
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)
Now hit apply and the arrow head should follow along the path, you can click on the image below to see a sample movie.
click on the image above to see the sample movie
Creating the Arrow's Tail
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.
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, and we want it to be smooth.
Here are the settings I use to fix the tessellation.
Animated the Arrows
Under subCurve2 set the max curve to 0 at frame 1 then right click and add a keyframe.
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.
click on the image above to see the final movie.
And there you go enjoy!
