• Adobe After Effects

  3D stumper.

  Posted by Jeremy Garchow on January 16, 2006 at 3:25 pm

  Hello. I have a 3D stumper for you all. I am a video editor that dabbles in AE for better looking effects (please excuse my simple oversights, and relative AE ignorance). Over the weekend I was doing some text effects for a series of car commercials. In one comp, I have a light, a 3D solid (to give the solid some depth) and a 3D text layer and a 2D text layer (among other layers to do the commercial). In that comp, I have set the 3D text layer to start at 15000 (way in the BG) and it flies up behind the 2D text layer while the 2D layer is animating out of the way. It looks fine and I am happy with the desired effect.

  I created another comp to do a similar effect for the next in the series of commercials. The problem is that for obvious reasons, when I try and set the 3D text layer in the background, all of a sudden when I change the z position to anything over 0, it hides behind the 3D solid. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how I got it to work in the other comp. I don’t know if the first comp has a glitch, or if the second comp has a different setting than the first. I fixed it by using the basic 3D effect, but it doesn’t look as good as the 3D layer in the first comp. What I’d like is for the 3D text layer to always be on top of the solid. I know that logically, in 3D space, the problem I am encountering in this second comp is what should happen, but why in the first comp is the text layer always on top (or in front) of the 3D solid? Any clue as to what I’m missing? I’m running AE 6.5.1 Pro on OS 10.4.3.

  Thanks very much for your time.

  Jeremy

  ———–
  G5 Dual 2Ghz <> 4GB RAM <> FCP 5.04 <> Kona 2
  ATTO 42XS <> Huge Systems 4105 Fibre
  OS 10.4.2 <> QT 7.0.3

  Jeremy Garchow replied 20 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Chris Smith

  January 16, 2006 at 3:31 pm

  First thing. Re-arrange your layer stack so the effect you want in front is on top.

  Also can try just duplicating your first comp and only change what’s needed.

  Chris Smith
  https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com
• 

  Mstleger

  January 16, 2006 at 5:05 pm

  If there is a 2d layer between any two 3d layers, the 3d space above and below the 3d layers is seperate. Try putting a solid between the clipping layers and turning the opacity to 0. This will keep the layers from clipping.
• 

  Jeremy Garchow

  January 16, 2006 at 8:01 pm

  [mstleger] “Try putting a solid between the clipping layers and turning the opacity to 0”

  That got it. Thanks a lot for the help.

  Jeremy

  ———–
  G5 Dual 2Ghz <> 4GB RAM <> FCP 5.04 <> Kona 2
  ATTO 42XS <> Huge Systems 4105 Fibre
  OS 10.4.2 <> QT 7.0.3

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