BorderPatrol
  • Jason WatsonJason Watson
    Great script and I'm loving it so far. Thanks for your work on this and making it available.

    As a suggestion for a future update (if it's possible within Ae), I think it'd be useful to be able to apply this selectively to groups or individual shapes within a shape layer. Right now the functionality seems to be to apply the script to everything within a shape layer, irrespective of whether the group or shape has a stroke and irrespective of what groups or shapes are selected. In my workflow I often tend to have various shapes within a single shape layer, and so being able to selectively apply the script to only selected shapes or groups within that shape layer would be very useful. Barring that, a filter on the script to apply it to only shapes that have a stroke would also be useful.

    As a workaround I have used Explode Shape Layers to remove the layers that I don't want this applied to, then I apply the script to the layer, and then paste the exploded layers back in, but this is obviously not ideal in many situations. 

    As another suggestion, it might be interesting to have a feature where you can apply the script so that all the stroke widths (and rounded corners) are linked to an expression slider control on the shape layer, which can then be animated at will, almost like an inverse function of the default. For more complex shapes it'd be great to have a one-button solution. 

    Anyway, thanks again, and great work on this! 
  • Ryan WestRyan West
    Jason Watson said:
    Great script and I'm loving it so far. Thanks for your work on this and making it available.

    As a suggestion for a future update (if it's possible within Ae), I think it'd be useful to be able to apply this selectively to groups or individual shapes within a shape layer. Right now the functionality seems to be to apply the script to everything within a shape layer, irrespective of whether the group or shape has a stroke and irrespective of what groups or shapes are selected. In my workflow I often tend to have various shapes within a single shape layer, and so being able to selectively apply the script to only selected shapes or groups within that shape layer would be very useful. Barring that, a filter on the script to apply it to only shapes that have a stroke would also be useful.

    As a workaround I have used Explode Shape Layers to remove the layers that I don't want this applied to, then I apply the script to the layer, and then paste the exploded layers back in, but this is obviously not ideal in many situations. 

    As another suggestion, it might be interesting to have a feature where you can apply the script so that all the stroke widths (and rounded corners) are linked to an expression slider control on the shape layer, which can then be animated at will, almost like an inverse function of the default. For more complex shapes it'd be great to have a one-button solution. 

    Anyway, thanks again, and great work on this! 
    Hi Jason,

    Thank you for the kind words and for taking the time to provide feedback. I'm glad BorderPatrol is working for you!

    Your description of how the script works is spot-on! Stroke widths and rounded corners / roundness are maintained regardless of whether the shapes have strokes. This allows your shapes to maintain rounded corners even if there's only a fill.

    Funny enough early on the script only worked when you selected shapes or shape groups directly as described in your first suggestion. I found it was tedious in to have to select all shapes and then apply expressions. I didn't think of wanting to only have it applied to certain shapes within a layer. I'll look into this. Good thinking on your workaround with ESL!

    Linking the stroke width and rounded corners properties to slider controls is an interesting idea for quick access to those properties. Also noted.

    Thanks,
    Ryan
  • Chris MarriottChris Marriott
    Any chance of CS6 support? Happy to help with testing.
  • Ryan WestRyan West
    Chris Marriott said:
    Any chance of CS6 support? Happy to help with testing.
    Hi Chris, 

    There are no plans to officially support AE CS6 because it doesn't support expressions applied to the path property. This feature was introduced in AE CC18.
  • Chris MarriottChris Marriott
    No problem, thanks for the reply! If there was an alternative way it would be amazing!
  • Jason WatsonJason Watson
    Still loving this script, and finding it very useful! 

    I was wondering if there's a way to maintain the effect through parenting? For example, let's say I have three shape layers with Border Patrol applied, and I parent two of the layers to the third which I want to use as sort of a control layer for all of them. At present (at least as far as I've been able to tell), Border Patrol will work on the Parent layer if I scale it, but it won't work on the child layers. It'd be great to have the child layers react to the scale of any parent layer. 

    thanks!
  • Ryan WestRyan West
    Jason Watson said:
    Still loving this script, and finding it very useful! 

    I was wondering if there's a way to maintain the effect through parenting? For example, let's say I have three shape layers with Border Patrol applied, and I parent two of the layers to the third which I want to use as sort of a control layer for all of them. At present (at least as far as I've been able to tell), Border Patrol will work on the Parent layer if I scale it, but it won't work on the child layers. It'd be great to have the child layers react to the scale of any parent layer. 

    thanks!
    Hi Jason, 

    Just wanted to let you know that getting BorderPatrol to work with the parent and child layers is high on my list. I believe it's possible, it's just not as straight-forward as I'd hoped.

    Thanks for your support!
  • nathan neelynathan neely
    I'm missing the slider controls in the UI 
  • Ryan WestRyan West
    nathan neely said:
    I'm missing the slider controls in the UI 
    Hi Nathan, just use the layer scale property to adjust the size of the shape. There are no sliders in the BorderPatrol UI panel. If you have any issues please open a support ticket. Thank you :) 

    If you have a technical or customer support issue, please open a support ticket instead
  • Daniel BillinghamDaniel Billingham
    Hi - I am having trouble getting this to work with rounded corners. I have a rounded rectangle in a shape layer. I have clicked on the border control button. But when i resize i get horrible squished corners. Where am I going wrong?
  • Ryan WestRyan West
    Daniel Billingham said:
    Hi - I am having trouble getting this to work with rounded corners. I have a rounded rectangle in a shape layer. I have clicked on the border control button. But when i resize i get horrible squished corners. Where am I going wrong?
    Hi Daniel, there are some limitations to how BorderPatrol maintains rounded corners. In general it's best to use with without grouping shapes, and using only one shape per layer.

    Your corners might be getting squished because:

    1. You can only maintain the corner radius of parametric shapes (not bezier path shapes). If your rectangle is a bezier path shape, it won't work. However the shape will still maintain the stroke weight.

    2. When using BorderPatrol to maintain the corner radius on parametric shapes, avoid any shape transforms or group transforms (especially rotation) to the contents of the shape layer. Instead apply the transforms (like rotation) to the shape's layer transform property. From there adjusting the shape layer's scale property should resize while maintain corner radius and stroke width.

    If you require further assistance, please open a support ticket.

    Thanks,
    Ryan
  • caetano brittocaetano britto
    Hi, Border patrol didn't used to be a plugin? Instead of a script? I used to get borders out of a image with alpha channel...now I can only use in shape layers :(
  • Ryan WestRyan West
    caetano britto said:
    Hi, Border patrol didn't used to be a plugin? Instead of a script? I used to get borders out of a image with alpha channel...now I can only use in shape layers :(
    Hi Caetano, 
    It's possible that there's another plugin with the same name by another developer, however this BorderPatrol has always been a script specifically made for shape layers.
  • Darren HszDarren Hsz
    Border Patrol doesn't seem to want to install on my machine.  I've installed via the AE Scripts Installer but projects I've inherited that use BP don't 'see' the plugin.  Am I doing something odd or is this a known issue?  Thanks for your time!
  • Ryan WestRyan West
    Darren Hsz said:
    Border Patrol doesn't seem to want to install on my machine.  I've installed via the AE Scripts Installer but projects I've inherited that use BP don't 'see' the plugin.  Am I doing something odd or is this a known issue?  Thanks for your time!
    Hi Darren,

    Once installed Border Patrol is a script accessible from the Window menu, it won't be listed in the  Effects & Presets panel. You don't need BorderPatrol installed to modify layers of a project you've inherited. You'd only need it if you want to apply it to new layers.

    If you have a technical or customer support issue, please open a support ticket instead.

    Thanks!
    Ryan
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