• Adobe After Effects

  Wooden engraved sign or board – the best way to achieve this

  Posted by Sam Freeman on September 9, 2011 at 6:00 pm

  Hi Guys,

  First time posting in a long time, although I’m here a lot.

  I’ve been asked to create a graphics shot of text (names) engraved into a wooden board or sign. It’s got to look reasonably realistic and I want to animate a camera move on it as well. The client hasn’t mentioned animating the text in, so let’s ignore that for the moment. It’s for a TV spot.

  I’ve been using After Effects for around 7 years for motion graphics, and I’m using CS5.

  I was thinking of using Freeform to get the names actually etched with depth into a wooden texture – do you think this is the best way to go? I’m new to Freeform so unsure of it’s scope.

  I’ve also thought of using a text layer to stencil out the alpha from the texture, and then duplicating the layer in z-depth to get some depth to the letters, but it’s looking a bit… Mheh. Finally I was thinking of simulating the etched/engraved look using photoshop styles. What are your thoughts?

  Thanks in advance!
  Sam

  3.4gHz iMac i7
  16GB Ram
  AFX CS5
  Particular 2
  Freeform (basic not pro)
  Optical Flares
  Twitch

  Tudor “ted” jelescu replied 14 years, 8 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Tudor “ted” jelescu

  September 9, 2011 at 6:59 pm

  If you want a camera move on the wooden sign, Free Form is the way to go. FreeForm Pro is the better option if you can fork out the cash. Much- much faster (go to mettle.com and download the trial and test files and see for yourself) and a lot better 3d displacement.
  Here are a few useful links:
  https://library.creativecow.net/jelescu_tudor/FreeForm-Pro-review/1
  https://library.creativecow.net/jelescu_tudor/3D-from-2D-image_AE/1
  https://library.creativecow.net/jelescu_tudor/AE-3D-tunnels-FreeForm-Pro-1/1
  https://library.creativecow.net/jelescu_tudor/AE-3D-tunnels-FreeForm-Pro-2/1

  Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
  Senior VFX Artist
• 

  Sam Freeman

  September 9, 2011 at 9:18 pm

  Thanks for your reply Ted – that’s awesome. I shall take a look at those links over the weekend.

  Looking on the mettle site I can’t seem to find information on a mac version of FreeForm Pro… Is that available yet? It all looks like a bargain to me!
• 

  Tudor “ted” jelescu

  September 10, 2011 at 9:18 am

  Shoot an email to Chris Bobotis ( chris at mettle.com). I am not exactly sure what the status of the Mac version is but I know that there is one in the works.

  Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
  Senior VFX Artist

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