After Effects region of interest

A few months ago, I posted a project and simple set of instructions for creating a radial rays graphic. Today, I had a forehead-smacking realization when I was looking at a tutorial that showed how to get the same result in Illustrator.

Duh.

I like this method better.

Make a shape layer containing a single big circle. Set the stroke width to be the same as the diameter of the circle. Make the stroke a dashed stroke. Set the dash length to taste.

Ta-da!

Thanks to Rype for making me see the obvious.