Creating a 3d dome in AE 6

[Tom Daigon]

Another approach would be to build it in a true 3D program (Blender is amazing and free) then save it as an OBJ file . You can them import this object into Element 3D (plug in) made by Video Copilot which will be displayed and rendered very quickly in AE.

This doesnt use the AE raytracing mode , but will give you the result you want.

https://www.videocopilot.net/products/element/

Tom Daigon
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[Walter Soyka]

[Stephen Fisher] “I’m trying to create a 3D dome in AE CS6 using the ray-trace features. I’ve managed to create a 3D sphere, but can’t seem to cut it in half. Does anyone have any ideas?”

Ae CS6 lacks modeling tools. If you can’t extrude/bevel it, you can’t make it in Ae. (You can only make full spheres via a clever bevel hack.)

Tom’s advice to use a plugin like Element is probably best.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Stephen Fisher]

You can make a full sphere pretty easily by typing a . and then setting the bevel style to convex, bevel depth to 100, hole bevel depth to 0 and extrusion depth to 10. Just can’t really mess with the shape afterwards in Raytrace 3d.

Thanks though.
Stephen Fisher
Multimedia Producer
George Washington University

[Walter Soyka]

[Stephen Fisher] “You can make a full sphere pretty easily by typing a . and then setting the bevel style to convex, bevel depth to 100, hole bevel depth to 0 and extrusion depth to 10.”

That’s the clever hack I was referring to.

In a proper 3D package, you have primitives, which are elemental pieces of geometry that you can easily generate: spheres, cubes, pyramids, planes, etc. Ae CS6 doesn’t have these, so to get a primitive sphere, you have to bevel the heck out of a circle as you describe. As you note, once you do this, you can’t really do anything else to it (like modify the polygons or cut it with a Boolean operator and a box).

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events