Today, we're diving into a step-by-step guide on how to dynamically animate a flexible tube in After Effects using Newton. Whether you're envisioning a vein, a flexible tube, or even a stomach, this tutorial will show you how to make objects, like marbles, move through the tube for a smooth and realistic animation. Let's get started!
Original thread on Reddit by u/Agreeable_Meal8624 : Its currently only a vision in my head, but im imagining the balls moving down the curve, and the curve stretching as they bunch up in the beginning, and slowly progressing ... At first i thought of Newton, its helpful for the movement of the balls, but not so much the stretching of the tract line ... i really dont wanna do it manually ..." https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterEffects/comments/1i763hm/any_tips_on_how_to_achieve_this/
➡️ Download the project + Newton settings
Let's Kick Things Off: Create Your Tube
- Hey there! Let's start by designing our tube. For this, we'll be using Illustrator.
- Grab the brush tool and tweak it for a super smooth stroke. After a few tries, you'll nail the perfect path.
- Expand the stroke and use the Expand Appearance function to get a single path around it.
- Create a funnel shape and merge it with your stroke using the pathfinder.
- Add a bottom to your tube, cut off the rounded end, and make a square to remove it with the pathfinder.
- Once done, save your Illustrator file and head over to After Effects.
Import and Set Up in After Effects
- Import your Illustrator file into After Effects.
- Create a new composition directly with the imported file.
- Convert the Illustrator file into shape layers within After Effects.
- Clean up any unnecessary shapes and adjust the color of your tube.
Design Your Marbles
- Import your texture to create the marbles.
- Place the texture in your composition and use the ellipse tool to create a circular mask.
- Ensure the mask is the right size, slightly wider than your tube.
- Duplicate the marbles to create six of them, adjusting the mask each time for variety.
- Center the anchor point and create three different sizes of marbles: small, medium, and large.
Prep Your Tube for Animation
- Use the prepare soft body's script to get your tube ready for animation.
- Enter the necessary values in the preferences and click on "prepare for Newton."
- The script will create small controllers that allow your tube to deform in Newton and After Effects.
- Rearrange your composition by placing your layers above the controllers and add some style options to give volume to your marbles.
Launch Newton and Place Marbles
- Launch Newton and start by correctly placing your marbles.
- Select all yellow objects with the C key and set them to Ae-matic so they stay static but with physical constraints.
- Adjust the global properties of your simulation, set steps to 20, turn off collision tolerance, and increase the tension of your AEmatics to three.
Fine-Tune Object Interactions
- Ensure objects pass through the funnel by setting them to Dead, making them transparent to the marble animation.
- Adjust gravity settings so objects stay in place.
- Create a closed chain of weld joints between all objects to allow deformation while maintaining the tube's shape.
- Set the tension of the joints to 60 for better deformation as objects pass through.
Fix Stuck Objects
- If objects get stuck at the end, change their collision group to ensure they no longer touch the marbles in group A.
- Remove the joints connecting them for smoother animation.
Extend Animation with Teleportation
- Use Newton's teleportation function to create a longer animation.
- Create an object in After Effects to serve as a portal.
- In Newton, set this new object to static and enable the portal under teleportation.
- Make your marbles teleportable so they return to their starting point when exiting the tube.
Final Touches and Rendering
- Increase the duration of the simulation and offset your marbles in time for a seamless animation.
- Render your simulation and head back to After Effects.
- Open your new composition, hide the yellow objects, and display your tube.
- Adjust the position and settings of your composition to match the simulation length.
- Preview your animation and customize the look of your objects as desired.
That's it! You've now got a dynamic, deforming tube animation with marbles passing through. Enjoy customizing it further!
