Writing on your shape's outline

Motion gives you the ability to draw and erase shape outlines easily. Maybe you want to draw on an animated line over a map to animate the path of travel. Let's see how we can use this.

How to do it...

1. From the exercise files of this chapter, open the 03_10 project by double-clicking on it.

2. The project consists of a simple circle and square. Let's apply a Shape behavior to draw these objects on the screen. Select the Rectangle layer and click on the gear icon under the Canvas. Navigate to Shape | Write On as shown in the following screenshot:

   

3. Nothing happens. That's because the Write On behavior will only work on the outline, not the fill of a shape. Press the F4 key to go to the Shape tab of the Inspector. Under the Style pane, turn off Fill and turn on Outline as shown in the following screenshot. Play back the animation.

   

4. The Rectangle layer is drawn onscreen over the length of the project. Stop the playback. Select the Write On behavior in the Layers tab and...