Dynamically unravel a shape in After Effects

Ariel asked us “Hello, is it possible to create the “unraveling” effect on a neon sign that you see at 00:47 of this video: &t=0m47s​ “ Well, yeah! It’s possible and here’s how! In this tutorial, I will show you how to unravel a shape in Adobe After Effects using Newton3 and ConnectLayersPRO. Here’s the process: 00:00​ Track and stabilize with Mocha AE. 01:50​ Reverse stabilization. 02:26​ Keying using Keylight 03:40​ Trace the shape in Adobe Illustrator and export to AE using Overlord 04:16​ Prepare the shape for Newton3 using the “Create Nulls from Path“ script 06:10​ Recreate the shapes with ConnectLayersPRO 07:50​ Adjust the position of the shape and track the movement of the hand 09:46​ Physics simulation with Newton3 13:16​ Apply glow with Deep Glow 15:24​ Final compositing with Composite Brush I will also use other tools such as: Overlord, MOBO_Utils, Deep Glow and Composite Brush (Note that you c