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3D Reflections Tutorial From VideoCopilot.net
I did the 3D reflections tutorial I saw on:
https://videocopilot.net/tutorials.html
It’s all the way at the bottom of the page from the URL above – it’s an awesome tutorial I even added some cool rolling clouds in the background.
My question is – the text in it is just flat times new roman or something and I wanted the text to have more depth and look more 3D with some thickness and depth – does anyone know how I can achieve that without having to use a third party plugin or if using a plugin which one?
Any help would be greatly appreciated – thanks in advance!
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12 Replies
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I almost forgot I wanted the text to look like thick glass that would have the clouds reflecting of the glass text a little.
Thanks in advance again!
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Ok, from Andrew’s tut, take the text layer and change the text to White, both layers (hey, where’s an expression when we need it?). We’re changing the text to white so we can use a Luma Matte next step with the clouds, black text doesn’t work.
Make a dup of your rolling Cloud layer(mine was 2D, I don’t know if your rolling Clouds was 2D or 3D, but a 3D cloud layer doesn’t work, so if your animated cloud layer is 3D make this copy of it 2D) then put it below the Text (precomp) layer (that text precomp layer is 3D, I know this is a little confusing but with a 2D for the cloud to make the Luma matte you don’t get a semi-opaque face on the text and it doesn’t look so good. Now make a Luma Matte of that bottom cloud layer. You now have the text with moving clouds for the text face and reflection. Precomp those two layers. In that precomp, don’t collapse Transformation on the Text layer or you’ll lose Andrew’s nifty reflection.
In the main comp, make that precomp1 a 3D layer.
Move this Precomp to the top of the stack. Dup the Precomp layer and add this expression to the second layer down’s position:
position+[0,0,(index-1)*1]
This tells the second layer down to be 1 pixel in the Z direction separated from the top layer. Dup the second layer as many times as you want the letters to be thick, I did it 19 times so the letters would be 20 pixels thick (20 layer each 1 pixel apart in the Z).
Now select and precomp these 20 layers. Open this precomp2 and Collapse Transformations (that little Sun-shape next to the Shy switch) on al but the top layer. Important, don’t collapse transformation on the top layer, this makes it a bit opaque, giving it a better surface.
Back in the Main Comp, make that preComp2 a 3D layer and Collapse Transformatins. Then dup Andrew’s original point light and pull the copy in front of the text to illuminate the front. You might want to cutback on the intensity of the original point light (the back light), back to 100%, I did, but tweak to taste.
Still in the Main comp, to the Precomp 2 layer add Effect>Transform>Opacity =40-50% and you have it.
Alternatively, disable the Transform effect and Change the Mode of the precomp2 layer to Overlay, this gives you an icy blue transparency.
Note: I had a little trouble getting the mode to change until I added the Effect>Distort>Transform, then it seemed to let me change modes, don’t know if that’s a bug or a funny thing going on with adding the transform (I think thats a 2D plug).Either way you have Andrews reflection in 3D with depth to the letters, they’re transparent like glass, and no 3rd party plugins. One trouble is this “glass” doesn’t Refract light (bend it) like real glass would. More things to avoid below. If I’ve lost something in translation and it doesn’t work for you I can email an aep. I’m using AE 6.5 Pro.
This offset in the Z direction for a “3D thickness” breaks down (gets fizzy) when you get close to looking dead-on endwise, so don’t linger on the edge. And, when you add the depth this way it looks wierd from behind, there probably a fix but its beyond me at this time, so stay out front.
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WOW! Thank you! I’ll try it.
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It won’t look weird (it’s the 2D cloud layer causing it) on the backside (viewed with camera rotating to the backside of the text) by making that Cloud layer that was 2D into a 3D layer, then you can Collapse Transformations on that top layer in precomp 2. But you lose that semi-opaque face.
To get that back you make a dup of the original text layer, name it “text off white”, then change the color from white to just off white, say 250,250,250. Then drop that comp into the top and bottom of the comp2 (the stack of layers to make the thickness), you need to make sure the faces have the expression and are 3D.
It is definitely easier if you don’t want the semi-opaque faces and is more glassy that way.
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I tried to do everything right up until I got to adding the expression. I couldn’t figure out how to add an expression even though I have done it through another tutorial, I even went into the help and I still couldn’t get it and I can’t remember which tut was for adding expressions because I have done so many over the last month or so.
As far as the tutorial you gave it looks awesome but I’m such a newbie at AE that I need more step by step instructions.
I’m very fluent with Flash and just about any software set before me but After Effects has a lot of stuff to it, it’s an insane program but I love it so far and the more I do the more I like it.
Sorry to be a pain in the butt. I realize you have a life of your own but if you could find the time to help me with more step by step I would be very greatfull.
Thank you so much in advance!
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To add an expression, first select and copy (like in a word processing program, Ctrl C on a PC) the expression:
position+[0,0,(index-1)*1]
To add the expression to the position, select the layer, hit “p” on the keyboard and the position property will appear below the layer. Alt Click the stopwatch next to the word “Position”, and “position” is written in a blue box under the layer in the timeline, paste (Ctrl V) the expression in there, so it says:
position+[0,0,(index-1)*1]
and a little equal sign (=) now appears next to the stopwatch and the numbers for the value of position are now red instead of the original blue numbers (meaning the position is controlled or generated by an expression).
Now duplicate (Ctrl D) that layer as many times as you want the letters to be thick, each dupped layer adds 1 pixel thickness. Remember you need the text layers on the top of the layer stack as the expression tells the lower layers to take their position from the top layer. So move any cameras or light below the text layers.Anymore questions, ask away.
About expressions and that little equal sign: To break the expression click on the equal sign and a line goes through it , the expression is still pasted in there but is no longer controlling (see those numbers turned blue again). To re-enable the expression, click the equal sign again, it heals itself and the numbers turn red, expression activated. Breaking and fixing expressions is no big deal, get used to it, if you type bogus (bad) code into the expression and AE can’t make sense of it, you’ll get a warning box (giving you clues as to what’s wrong) and that broken equal sign, disabling the expression, when you get the code right, then if you click the equal sign, you’ll get the normal equal sign and red numbers. If you do expressions much you’ll get lots of broken equal signs until you get things right, no biggie.
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You’re AWESOME!!! Thank you for your time.
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You seem to be very educated about AE and probably a lot of other things. Do you have a demo reel or a site with some of your work so I can check it out?
Thanks again!
Have a great day!
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Exposed!
I gots no demo reel, well, you see… I’m not a professional, I’m a very very part time graphics guy, but I do know what I wanna be when I grow up, a “Contest Winner”. I’m not there yet, but here are a few contests I’ve entered, the only samples online. My favorite part of school was “Show and Tell”, that’s probably why I try to answer so many questions (is it still an obsession, if you have an inkling your obsessed?). A lot of the time I read a question and ask myself “How would I do that?” then if I figure it out (or close), I have the chutzpa to post it, go figure. Anyway, some samples here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4kwInEUjKo
https://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=94D38AEAF6B811DABD2F1E30947BEEEA
https://www.firefoxflicks.com/flick/index.php?sort=pop&id=22000&c=false
https://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2710509
https://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2686263
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That was awesome stuff!!!! I really like what you did with the Keanu Reeves trailer. How are you getting that blowout effect? What I mean is where a scene blows out with light then goes to another or blows in like the part where keanu reeves has that helmet type brain scanner thing on.
I’ve been wanting to learn to acheive that effect!!!
Please help me with that.
Also the cartoonification is awesome!!!!! I saw a tutorial on creativecow for that type of stuff but it was no where as cool as yours. I would like to learn how you acheieved that also. Did you take it into illustrator and use live trace?
I do part time graphics stuff myself. Right now I’m currently doing:
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