• Adobe After Effects

  Smooth 3d curves

  Posted by Ari Grunzeweig on February 4, 2010 at 8:02 pm

  Hi,

  I’m working on an animation where a molecule is moving in a 3d figure-8 motion around a larger molecule. I’ve keyframed it all in 3d using bezier curves. Here is my problem. When I perfect one dimension, for example, the front view, it looks great. Then once I perfect the next dimension, the top view, it messes up the front view. and so on and so on in a vicious circle. Any ideas on how to have all dimensions smooth at the same time?

  Thanks!

  

  Bill Kelly replied 16 years, 3 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Michael Szalapski

  February 4, 2010 at 10:22 pm

  I’m sure others will chip in, but here’s one way: just do your figure 8 in 2d, then switch the layer to 3d, create a 3d null, parent the layer to the null, then rotate the null.

  – The Great Szalam
  (The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

  No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
• 

  Andy Blondin

  February 5, 2010 at 12:46 am

  You may what to create a path in illustrator or PS than copy and past it in as a motion path. That will get you the shape that you want and the speed should be consistent.
• 

  Ari Grunzeweig

  February 5, 2010 at 3:09 am

  Thank you for the tips.
• 

  Bill Kelly

  February 5, 2010 at 7:58 am

  I think this tutorial by maltannon is exactly what you want.

  https://maltaannon.com/articles/after-effects/simple-camera-rig/

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