Along a Path

Two nodes follow a path. Path Warp bends a picture along it: text on a curve or around a badge, a rope, a ribbon, a dashed line. Scatter in Path mode places copies of a picture along it: leaves on a vine, stitches around a patch, chain links, footprints, fence posts.

Find your job and jump to its recipe:

• Path Warp: text on a curve, badge text, top and bottom, a rope or chain, a rope border, a dashed line, a ribbon.
• Scatter: leaves on a vine, stitches around a patch, a closed chain, footprints, fence posts on a texture set.

Where the path comes from

Both nodes get their path the same two ways.

Draw it. With nothing wired into the path input, the node follows a path drawn on its own canvas, starting as a gentle arc. Select the node and the Preview shows a row of path tools: drag the points and handles, or draw a new path with the Pen, Rectangle, or Ellipse. The tools and editing gestures are listed in Path tools at the end of this page.

Follow a shape. Wire a mask into Path Warp’s Path pin (or Scatter’s Density Mask in Path mode) and the node follows the shape’s edge, updating as the shape changes. One Shape can drive several nodes at once, here a line of text and a ring of stars around the same circle:

Any mask works: a Shape’s alpha output, a Roto mask, Text, Mask From Image, or Magic Wand. The node follows the edge where the mask is half covered. The edge draws over the Preview as a dashed line with arrows showing which way it runs. It is read only: edit the shape in the node that makes it. The drawing tools, Reverse, Close, Copy, Paste, and Clear are grayed while a mask is wired.

A color picture is read through Mask From. Path Warp reads Alpha by default, so a colored Shape, a Text, or any cut-out picture follows its outline; Scatter keeps its Luminance default. Edge (Path Warp) or Edges (Scatter) picks which edges to follow when the mask has several, and Mask Fit lays the mask on the canvas when the sizes differ.

A drawn path moves between nodes with Copy Path and Paste Path, between any of Path Warp, Scatter, and Roto.

Which way a path runs

Anything placed along a path needs a start, a direction, and an up side. Both nodes use the same rule:

This is why a badge’s bottom line needs Turn Around: on a closed path, up points outside, so text along the bottom would otherwise hang upside down. Reverse, in the path tools, runs a drawn path the other way.

Rounding turns every corner of a drawn path or a traced mask edge into a circular arc of that radius, in pixels, before anything is placed or bent along it. The radius shrinks where a side is too short to hold it; smooth curves, and the pixel staircase of a hard mask’s edge, are left alone. The default, 2 pixels, is too small to see; raise it for a softer turn. When Rounding changes a drawn path, the rounded path that is actually followed is drawn in green beside yours.

Recipes

Each recipe starts from one of Path Warp’s Presets, or Scatter’s Along a Path preset, which sets the look; then you shape the path. No preset changes Scale, which sizes the picture to your path.

Text on a curve

Path Warp 1

Preset

Text on a Curve

Bend

Rigid Pieces

1. Wire a Text into a Path Warp and pick Text on a Curve. Wire the picture the text sits on into Background.
2. Drag the path’s points and handles into the curve you want, or draw a new one with the Pen.
3. Set Bend to Rigid Pieces to keep each letter straight and turned to the path, which reads better on a tight curve. Drag the knob beside the path to slide the text along.

Badge text, top and bottom

1. Add a Shape (Circle) at the badge’s size and one Text per line.
2. Wire the first Text into a Path Warp, the Shape’s alpha into its Path pin, and pick Badge Top Line. The text sits upright and centered on top.
3. Wire the second Text into a second Path Warp with the same Shape on its Path pin and pick Badge Bottom Line (Side Inside, Turn Around on). It reads left to right, the right way up.
4. Use Distance to move either line off the edge, and stack both lines over the Shape in a Layer.

A rope or chain

Path Warp 1

Preset

Repeat Along

Fit

Repeat

Side

On

Wire a short, seamless rope tile or one chain link into a Path Warp and pick Repeat Along. Shape the path, use Scale for the rope’s thickness, and drag the Phase knob to slide the tiles along.

A rope border

Pick Repeat Around instead: Fit to Path makes a whole number of tiles close the loop without a seam. To follow your own shape, draw it with the Rectangle or Ellipse tool, or wire a Shape’s alpha into Path. Raise Rounding if the corners are tight.

A dashed line

Wire a short dash into a Path Warp and pick Dashed Line. Set Gap, a percentage of the canvas, so the proportions hold at any size. Draw the line, or wire a Shape into Path to dash its outline, and wire the picture you are decorating into Background.

A ribbon

Wire a long ribbon or banner picture into a Path Warp and pick Ribbon: it stretches over the whole path, starting on an S-curve. Use Scale for its thickness. To keep a banner’s text unbent, put the text on its own Path Warp with Bend set to Rigid Pieces.

Leaves on a vine

A Path Warp bends the vine, and a Scatter places the leaves along the same path:

1. Set the Path Warp’s Fit to Stretch, give it a canvas (Canvas Width and Canvas Height, or a Background), shape the path, and click Copy Path.
2. Wire its result into a Scatter’s Background and the leaf into a stamp pin. Pick Along a Path, then click Paste Path: the leaves follow the vine.
3. Turn on Alternate Sides and set Offset to put leaves on both sides of the stem, angle them with Turn With Path and Rotation Min / Max, and set Taper to shrink them toward the tip.

Stitches around a patch

The patch goes into Background, a stitch into a stamp pin, and the patch’s shape into Density Mask. Set Step to End to End and use Gap for the spacing. A negative Offset moves the stitches inside the edge.

A closed chain

Wire a Shape (a rounded rectangle or a circle) into a Scatter’s Density Mask pin, set Mode to Path, and wire two links into the stamp pins: one seen flat, one edge on. Set Step to End to End with a negative Gap so neighboring links overlap. With Stamp Cycling on Sequential, the count rounds to whole pairs, so the links still alternate where the chain closes.

Footprints

Scatter 1

Mode

Path

Step

Distance

Alternate Sides

On

Wire one footprint into a stamp pin and draw the walk. Distance is the stride. With Alternate Sides on and Offset set to half the distance between the feet, every other print lands on the other side, mirrored into the other foot.

Fence posts on a texture set

Wire a ground texture set into a Scatter’s Background and a post texture set into a stamp pin, set Mode to Path, and draw the fence line. Set Anchor to Bottom so each post stands on the path, Turn With Path to 0 so posts stay upright on curves, and Step to Distance for the spacing. The Surface group decides how each post meets the ground in every map.

When a shape gives no path

The panel’s first line names the kind of path being followed. When a wired mask gives no usable edge, a note says why:

• The mask covers the whole canvas (a photo, or a Shape with an opaque background, read by Alpha): there is no edge. Check how the mask is read, or wire one with a shape in it.
• The mask is empty: nothing is half covered. For a colored shape read by brightness, set Mask From to Alpha.
• An open Roto path has no area, so its mask is empty. Use Copy Path in Roto and Paste Path here.
• Too many edges (a noise field, or a busy photo read by brightness): tracing stops after a fixed amount of work and follows the longest edges found. Wire a simpler mask, or blur this one.
• A path mask of another size than the background is stretched onto the background’s canvas, so a circle can become an ellipse. Make the mask the canvas size (wire the background into a Shape’s size input), or set Mask Fit to Fit.

Path tools

While a Path Warp or a Scatter in Path mode is selected, the Preview shows a row of path tools (the picked tool is not saved with the document):

Button	Effect
Select	Move points and handles of the path already there (the default).
Pen	Click for corners, drag for curves. Click an end point to continue the path, the first point to close it, and press Escape to finish. A new path replaces the old one; Auto-smooth makes every new point smooth.
Rectangle, Ellipse	Drag on the canvas to draw a closed path.
Reverse	Runs the path the other way.
Close / Open	Closes the path (three points or more) or opens it.
Copy Path, Paste Path	Move a drawn path between nodes (see Sharing a path).
Clear Path	Removes the path and picks the Pen, so your next click starts a new one. Until then the node shows the background (or nothing). Undo brings the old path back.

Editing a drawn path

The Select tool’s gestures are Roto’s. On macOS, Ctrl is the Command key and Alt is Option.

Gesture	Effect
Drag a point or handle	Moves it. Shift locks the drag to one axis.
Alt+drag a path’s line	Duplicates the path (every selected path, when it is one of them) and moves the copy; the original stays. On Linux, where many window managers take Alt+drag, use Copy and Paste instead.
Alt+click a point	Makes it a sharp corner.
Alt+drag a point	Pulls out a fresh pair of smooth handles.
Alt+drag a handle	Breaks the pair, so only the dragged handle moves.
Ctrl+click the path	Adds a point there without changing the curve.
Ctrl+click a point	Deletes it. A path always keeps at least two points.
Ctrl+click empty canvas	Adds a point to whichever end of an open path is nearer.
Click the first point of an open path	Closes the path.
Ctrl+click the closing segment	Opens a closed path there.

Sharing a path

A closed shape is shared live by wiring the same mask into several nodes: one Shape can drive a Path Warp’s text and a Scatter’s stars at once.

A drawn path moves between nodes with Copy Path and Paste Path, in the path tool row and on the right-click menu of a shape in Roto’s shape list. A path copied from any of Roto, Scatter, and Path Warp pastes into any of the others; pasting into Roto adds a new shape.

A drawn path remembers its canvas

A drawn path remembers the size of the canvas it was drawn on, so it keeps its place on the picture when the canvas changes size (a background wired in later, or a new width and height), and a path pasted into Scatter or Path Warp keeps its relative place on a canvas of another size. A path copied from Roto is pasted at its own pixel positions.

Path Warp settings

Wire a picture into Image and it is laid along the path, bottom edge on it. Start from a Preset: each brings its own starting shape (arc, circle, wave, rounded rectangle, S-curve) until you edit the path, and none changes Scale, which sizes the picture to your path.

• Fit: Keep Size (text and single pictures, placed by Position and Align), Stretch (end to end), or Repeat (tiles, with Phase, Gap, and Fit to Path).
• Bend: Smooth (the whole picture bends) or Rigid Pieces (each letter or link stays straight; one line of text per node).
• Side: Outside, On, or Inside (Above and Below on an open path). Turn Around runs the picture the other way, so a badge’s bottom line reads right side up; Distance moves it off the path.
• Background: wire the picture you are decorating here and the result is composited onto it. It also sets the canvas; without one, a mask on Path does, else Canvas Width and Canvas Height.

Drag the knob beside the path to set Position; double-click it to reset to 0.5. See Path Warp for everything else.

Scatter’s Path mode settings

Set Scatter’s Mode to Path, or pick the Along a Path preset (one stamp every 40 px, each turned with the path). Path Layout then sets the spacing and look:

• Step: Count (a fixed number, spread evenly), Distance (one every so many pixels), or End to End (each stamp starts where the last ends, like chain links, with a Gap).
• Start and End (two knobs beside the path) limit the stamps to part of it.
• Turn With Path, Rotation Min / Max, Jitter, Offset, Spread, Alternate Sides, Taper, and Rounding shape the line.

Everything else works as in Scatter’s other modes, including Anchor (Bottom stands each stamp on the path). See Scatter’s Path mode.

Texture sets

Wire a texture set into Path Warp and every map, Opacity included, bends together, with the Normal map’s directions turned to follow the bend. Rigid Pieces splits the set once, from its Opacity, so every map gets the same pieces. A set comes out Warped Only on the background’s canvas (Show Background in the path tool row draws the background dimmed underneath while you place the path); lay the result over a material with Texture Layer. Scatter’s Path mode places texture sets and libraries exactly as the other modes do.

While you drag

Dragging Path Warp’s path or knob, or a Scatter’s over texture sets, redraws the Preview continuously at reduced resolution (a Path Warp texture set redraws just the map on screen, at full size). The exact result appears when you let go; nothing downstream sees or saves the reduced picture.

Keyboard

Click a point, a handle, or a knob and the arrow keys move it one image pixel per press, ten with Shift; a knob steps along the path. See Arrow-key nudging and the path shortcuts.

The Node Library also finds Path Warp under “bend”, “curve”, “type on path”, “follow path”, “ribbon”, and “arc”.