Making a pre-exsisting logo 3D, and animating in AE CS6.

[Emily Burrow]

I see. Is there a specific program you would recommend for this kind of a project?

Thanks for your time.

[Emily Burrow]

Fair enough, thanks for your response.

[Todd Kopriva]

For your logo, you might be better off doing the 3D work in Cinema 4D, but you can do some basic things by designing in Illustrator, converting the Illustrator graphic to shape layers in After Effects, and then using the ray-traced 3D renderer in After Effects.

Here’s a video showing the first step (Illustrator to After Effects):
https://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-after-effects-cs6/converting-imported-vector-graphics-from-illustrator-to-shape-layers/

Toward the end of this video, the same log is made 3D and put into a 3D scene:
https://www.video2brain.com/en/videos-13021.htm

Actually, the whole set of videos in the 3D animation category here is relevant:
https://www.video2brain.com/en/videos-13019.htm

But, again, for your logo, with its twists and such, Cinema 4D might be better for the 3D work.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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[Joseph W. bourke]

Emily –

It might be possible to achieve this using Element 3D – it depends upon a few things –

One – how accurate do the colors have to stay to the still? If they have to be identical, you will be far better off doing this in the 2D/3D world of After Effects. Once the elements you have there (the 6 “iris elements”) get converted to real 3D, you’ll find it a nightmare to keep the gradients and sheens (which aren’t even closely accurate to what real world light would do on a metallic surface) looking the way they do.

Two – what is the animation you’re going for? If you can more or less keep the 6 elements in the x and y planes, no one will know that they’re not “real” 3D. If you want to rotate them in z space, flying the in from the camera’s point of view, they will obviously not be true 3D, and the illusion will be broken. If you’re just looking for them to sort of work the way a camera iris might, starting from zero opacity, and rotating into place, you could achieve this fairly easily without real 3D.

I would suggest that you cut the layers apart in Photoshop (or if they were created in Illustrator, just bring the file in as layers – if you’re in CS6). Then decide whether the “slices” are actually larger in reality, since each one is covering part of another – so you might have to do some creation of the underlying parts which don’t show in final position. Also think about the shadows – if you can add the shadows after the fact in After Effects, you can make them respond to animation, so they’ll look more “3D”.

Once you’ve got your Photoshop file with each element on a separate layer, bring it into After Effects as a composition, which will keep each layer separate, and then start playing around with animation ideas.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I’m with Todd on this – use extruded shape layers in AE. You can keyframe your bevel size to start with a large bevel and then animating it down as each slice comes into its rest position – my thoughts are that starting with a larger bevel size will help sell the 3D-ness of the slices. A lot also depends on how you move each slice.

You would of course build the logo, as it is, at its final rest. farther down the timeline and then move the timeline indicator to an earlier point and then work backwards to dismantle it

The only issue I see is that each slice seems to be bent. This will be tricky but not impossible to do in AE, if you have FreeFormPro.

To test if your logo will work, you can animate them in 2D. If you’re happy with the movement, then start working on making it 3D.

THere are lots of ways to cheat their coming together – stuff like extreme motion blur and particles are good strategies to hide any pixel related issues when forming the logo at its final rest.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects ACE/ACI (version 7)

[Emily Burrow]

Thanks Joe!

I already had brought the separate vector layers into AE from Illustrator and animated them, it was just lacking the creative vision I had for the animation.

I wouldn’t mind if the colours changed to what would be a more accurate representation of the lighting and 3D effects.

I wanted each piece to spin into place using multiple axis, or to be able to even spin the logo around 360, so 2D is not what I’m going for, I want complete control. I tried using the “shatter” effect to be able to control the depth of the layers but it ended up being far to glitchy and unpredictable. If I want to do this I want to do it right, so that is why I am here getting second opinions. =)

I will definitely look into these suggestions as well as look into some 3D software, considering that’s something I wanted to dive into at some point anyway.

Thanks again for your time, much appreciated!

[Emily Burrow]

Thanks for the input! I need to definitely check these suggestions out. From the reactions to this idea thus far, my only concern is that I want complete 3D control of my logo. So since AE doesn’t seem to have any solid features that would allow me this complete control, I am actively looking into 3D software, as that is something I’ve been meaning to dive into anyway!

Thanks again for your time! I’m glad I asked around.

[Emily Burrow]

Thank you very much for the links, I will definitely check these out. I’m also seriously considering Cinema 4D.

Thanks again for your time.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Emily Burrow] ” I want complete 3D control of my logo.”

Define Complete Control, then ask yourself if you really need to have Complete Control.

My thoughts are that you need control over the individual slices that make up the logo. For this, AE will do a very effective job – even better than any 3D app; considering that you don’t already know a 3D app and you want to create this animation now.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects ACE/ACI (version 7)

[Joseph W. bourke]

I’m with Roland on this, and that was the gist of my post above. You can make a killer animation which to the untrained eye will appear to be 3D without ever going into the “real” 3D world. It’s more about having individual control of the “slices” than given them depth – the coloration on them already gives them somewhat the appearance of being three dimensional. Taking this into a 3D package is going to set you back a considerable amount of time. I’ve been using 3D Studio Max for upwards of 10 years, and the first three or four months was just learning the GUI, Lighting, Texture Mapping, Cameras, and Animation. I’m not in any way trying to discourage you; I’m just giving you the reality. Any 3D program, by nature of its’ capabilities, has a deep skillset.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com