Studio Wisdom Logo Animation
This is a logo animation made for Studio Wisdom. After a few iterations we ended up with a gradient stroke animation that reveals the logo as a loading screen for their website.
First Technique
At first I attempted a stroke effect that would transition in and out. I accomplished this by creating a separate composition for the stroke going below the stroke [fig1], and adding that to the main animation [fig2] manually masking the gaps in the logo [fig3]. Finally I masked the entire sequence to the original logo to ensure it stays within the right bounds [fig4]. Final result is in the gallery to the right.
Achieving the gradient stroke
The Client then informed me he would rather go with a gradient effect on the stroke. After a lot of trial and error, I ended up using the plugin Thicc Stroke to achieve the fade. First I made two stroke layers, one for the stroke above and one for the stroke below [fig1], then masked the stroke below [fig2]. After this I masked everything to the original logo outlines [fig3]. Lastly to ensure the single gap at the end of the animation disappeared before the out animation, I manually masked it with a dissolve effect [fig4].