Precomped 3d layers loose material and light controls

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

It seems that in AE a precomp with 3D inside and the collapse transformation switch on keeps the 3d but not the cast shadows and other material options- it also looses the motion blur ability.
The workaround- for a cleaner comp- create your 3d structure in a separate comp, enable material properties, parent all to a Null, copy the whole thing and paste in your master comp. Enable “Shy” switch on all layers but the Null and turn hide shy layers on. You get one layer that controls all the 3d structure, all material properties and ability to cast shadows plus motion blur- hope it helps.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior Compositor/VFX Artist
Bucharest, Romania

[Cassius Marques]

Well, things can get tricky with precomps…

Make sure:
*Your precomp has no effects applied, turning them off wont help…you have to delete them.
*each layer inside the precomp is set to cast/receive lights/shadows
*Photoshop layer styles are not used (right click all layers in the precomp go to layer styles -> remove all) I’ve seen this messing things up.
*In the main comp, watch for 2d layers between your precomp and other layers (e.g. your background) 2D layers, will break the 3D “stack”.

If you had all that done before, then all I can think of is to duplicate every camera and lights into the precomp (and don’t collapse it)…it sucks but on some occasions I can’t seem to avoid it.

hope this helps, good luck.

[Mike Harrington]

Thanks for the advice…
Right now I am making use of the shy button and organizing my comp accordingly….

I may try it again making sure there are no 2d layers inbetween the 3d stack…I had already set each layer in the precomp to recieve lights….either way I should get it to work

Thanks