How to create an sphere3D in AE

[Steve Roberts]

Make a comp that is twice as wide as it is high, drag it into the Main comp, then apply CC Sphere. It is one of the Cycore Effects found on the AE install disk.

For print, take the final size of the poster in inches, then multiply those dimensions by 300 to get the Main composition size.

AE has a maximum comp size of 30,000 by 30,000 pixels. You may not have enough RAM to render that. Try it…

[Mike Clasby]

For a Sphere, use CC Sphere on a layer that’s twice as wide as it’s height. Size of comp and layer depends on how big your print will be and resolution, moreinfo below.

To Output to print, just do a little math to get the comp size. If the print is to be 11×14 inches at 180 dpi, then its 11 and 14 times 180, or a comp size of 1980×2520. Do the math for your print size and resolution (dpi). Use square pixels. You can render from AE as a psd or jpeg. To get a psd for Photoshop, in AE it’s Edit>Save Frame As>File, or just make th comp one frame and render as a jpeg.

I used AE to massage files that were printed to 12×18 inches at 165 dpi, only three dollars at Costco by the way and it was on Fuji Crystal Archive paper… off subject but I like to pass on savings tips.

[Steve Roberts]

Indeed.

I chose 300, since my clients often want posters to be printed at 300 dpi, but other DPI numbers are possible, depending on what the client wants. Lower DPI numbers will give you a smaller comp size, which is desirable.