Importing 3D in After Effects CS4

[Will Cavanagh]

I was under the impression that AE couldn’t import 3d directly — it has to be done through Photoshop CS4 Extended.

Now to address your question… It looks like a premultiplied/unpremultiplied issue… Although I don’t know how 3d object layers work, so I wouldn’t know how to walk you through fixing this… Can you post a screenshot of the Interpret Footage dialog for the object?

Also, why not just do the texturing and animation in 3DS and import an image sequence… AE is not as a 3d package, and trying to use it as one is cumbersome. If you already have access to 3DS, use it!

–Will

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[Khu Suh]

Actually I did sort out that issue. It was the limitations of CS3 Extended, CS4 Extended has an option to bump up the Anti Alaising.

However, I have noticed that using the imported 3D composition is incredibly slow. And I have not even started putting in any background animation. Just rotating an moving the object around is extremely sluggish.

I am running a Dell 5130 Xeon 2.0Ghz with 3GD RAM on WinXP Pro.

[Lyndon Alvarez]

Alright homie I got you if you havn’t already figured this out (or to anyone else who isn’t getting a response they want from these seris of posts).

What you want to do, like already stated by (i forgot), is change the anti-aliasing.

To do this go to window-3D.

When the window displays, click on the top left icon. It should read “3D {SCENE}”

Below the scene layers you will see anti-alias. It defaults to draft.

Click on the drop down arrow and select Best.

Now remember, when you do this and save then open up in after effects, unless you’re computers a beast it’s gonna be made slow. What I reccomend is just keep it set at draft and save. Do the work in AE till you get the animation right, save the project, open the original photoshop file & change the anti-alias to best, save, then reopen your AE file. And there you go, all your animations stick and everything looks slick.

Hope that helps you all 😉

[Brennan Shappell]

1018_pscs53dpane.jpg.zip

This is what my 3D window looks like. For some reason, there are no aliasing options. I have tried importing a 3d studio max file and creating a 3d object in Photoshop… the window stays the same. I have also tried going to Edit->Pref.->3d enabling raytrace and open GL, to no avail. Am i missing something obvious here? It’s a little frustrating, i must admit 😉

Thanks a lot
Brennan

[Dan Smith]

I think that Adobe changed the render engine and the AA settings no longer applied. I just applied draft raytracing (rather than the default ‘interactive’ setting) and then refreshed my model in AE. Its SLOW as anything, but it looks much better.
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