Trapcode Tao

Repeat Paths Group

The Repeat Paths group is used to make repetitions of paths. Its properties allow you to differentiate the repetitions from the original path. They can be offset, rotated and colorized in various ways. There are two repeaters with identical controls. The First Repeater repeats the paths, and the Second Repeater repeats the output of the First Repeater.

At the top of the Repeat Paths group, there are several options that globally control both repeaters.

The Repeater World Center sets the center point for world rotations in the repeater. If you’ve used any of the repeater’s random values (e.g. R1 Segment Pos Random), adjusting the Repeater Random Seed value will create new random values for those properties.

The Repeater Color Layer pop-up menu allows you to apply color to the repeated paths using another layer. The color layer is sampled so that the color for the First Repeater is taken from the horizontal (X), and the color for the Second Repeater is taken from the vertical (Y).

World Space vs. Segment Space

Throughout the Repeat Paths group (and other places in Tao), there is frequent reference to “world space” and “segment space.” These are two different ways to orient the XYZ coordinate system used for transformations. World space uses coordinates for the whole world, which orients the 3D axes from your point of view by default. So the X axis (by default) left to right, the Y axis is up and down, and the Z axis is towards the camera and away from the camera. Segment space orients the axes of transformation relative to the individual segments. This creates substantially different results. So the X axis is still left to right, but from the imagined perspective of the segment. Assuming that the segments are oriented to the path, the following image illustrates how the coordinates of segment space are determined.

In the examples below, the difference is clear between world space and segment space transformations. In both instances, there has been a single repetition (which has a darker color for clarity) that has been moved along the X axis. The first has been moved along the X axis in world space (using the R1 World Pos X value, discussed below). This moves shifts the repetition to the right of the screen, because it uses our perspective where the X axis is left to right.

The second example has been moved along the X axis in segment space (using the R1 Segment Pos X value, discussed below). As seen in the above image, this adjusts the repeated segments along an axis that is perpendicular to the path, which creates entirely different results.

Using a combination of world space and segment space transformations, the repeaters in this section can create very customizable results.

First Repeater

• R1 Repetitions : sets the number of repetitions.

• R1 Symmetric Doubler : makes additional symmetric repetitions. This in effect doubles the number of repetitions.

• R1 World Pos X : offsets the repetitions along the X axis in world space.

• R1 World Pos Y : offsets the repetitions along the Y axis in world space.

• R1 World Pos Z : offsets the repetitions along the Z axis in world space.

• R1 World Pos Random : creates a random offset in world space.

• R1 World Rotate X : rotates around the Repeater World Center along the X axis.
• R1 World Rotate Y : rotates around the Repeater World Center along the Y axis.
• R1 World Rotate Z : rotates around the Repeater World Center along the Z axis.

• R1 Segment Size X : changes the X size for each repetition. The Segment Size properties represent the percentage of change for each repetition. For example, if the R1 Segment Size X value is set to 90, then the X size of the first repetition will be 90% of the X size of the original. The next repetition’s X size will be 90% of the size of the first repetition (81% of the original’s X size), and so on.

• R1 Segment Size Y : behaves as R1 Segment Size X, except it adjusts the Y size for each repetition.

• R1 Segment Size Z : behaves as R1 Segment Size X, except it adjusts the Z size for each repetition.

• R1 Random Size : applies a random uniform size adjustment to each repetition.

• R1 Random Size X : applies a random amount of scale on the X axis to each repetition.
• R1 Random Size Y : applies a random amount of scale on the Y axis to each repetition.
• R1 Random Size Z : applies a random amount of scale on the Z axis to each repetition.

• R1 Segment Pos X : moves the repetitions along the X axis in segment space. Note that this value is also affected by OAS Size.

• R1 Segment Pos Y : moves the repetitions along the Y axis in segment space. Note that this value is also affected by OAS Size.

• R1 Segment Pos Z : moves the repetitions along the Z axis in segment space. Note that this value is also affected by OAS Size.

• R1 Segment Pos Factor : controls how the segment space position offsets vary between each repetition. At 1.0 there is no variation. For values less than 1.0, the offset shrinks for every repetition. For values greater than 1.0, the offset grows.

• R1 Segment Pos Random: randomly offsets the repetitions in segment space. Note that this value is also affected by OAS Size.

• R1 Texture Offset X: offsets the texture (if one is applied in the Textures group) along the X axis.

• R1 Texture Offset Y: offsets the texture (if one is applied in the Textures group) along the Y axis.

• R1 Path Offset: offsets the path on the path itself for each repetition. Works similar to Offset > Offset, but for each repetition.

Second Repeater

The Second Repeater works just like the first, but it repeats the end result of what is generated by the First Repeater. In the below example, the First Repeater is duplicated in the X axis of the world space (producing an array), and the Second Repeater duplicates this array in the Y axis of world space (producing a grid).