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Pseudo 3D in AFX.
meh.
Is it just me, or is the lack of 3D effects in AFX relly dissapointing? To top it all AFX comes bundled with a huge amount of “Pseudo” 3D plugins, are we supposed to accept these as any real kind of alternative? I mean what a cop out!
It’s just reacently I searched through a lot of the “3D” (or what appeared to be “3D”) effects in AFX and to my dissapointment found they’re all flat as a pancake!! They don’t even have their own Rotate X,Y,Z controlls!!! (this is tru of most of the effects in AFX, save for maybe 2 effects, in total.
Many of the effects in AFX are obviously created using 3D processes and with the simple addition of 3D transform controls (Like rotate XYZ, Position X,Y,Z) they would act as tru 3D objects, I really wonder what these guys were thinking when they programmed them, didn’t it occur to them that they could do this?
I was so dissapointed when I realised AFX was limited like this, I’m not saying that Psuedo 3D can’t be usefull, just quite frankly I would have expected better from Adobe.
So I can see I’m going to have to look else where for decent 3D effects, it’s obviously been overlooked by Adobe, but I can only find two, 3D Warps and trapcode form, they’re both way over complicated and difficult to use, there are many many tru 3D effects out there, most of the new Open GL Free Frame effects for example, but they won’t run in Adobe.
🙁
Am I missing something, is there some sort of switch that I’ve missed that will enable AE effects to run in 3D?
What options are open to me?
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12 Replies
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No. The lack of 3d in AE is not disappointing. At all.
AE is a compositing program. Over the years it’s been added to and improved to where it does an excellent job for motion graphics as well. The relatively recent addition of the ability to fake 3d in it has been a delight. Yes, natively in AE the 3d is actually 2.5d, but considering everything else the program can do and what the program is intended to do, it’s a wonderful bonus.
Additional plug-ins such as Zaxwerks Invigerator and many from Trapcode simply add to the wonder that is AE. Those of us who have used AE for a while were absolutely overjoyed at these additions and we marveled at them. But AE is not intended to create 3d things. AE is not a 3d program. The fact that we can do any 3d at all is fantastic.
If AE were to add the ability to do true 3d in addition to all of the other amazing things that it can do, the price would be much more than it already is and I, for one, am glad it’s not any higher already.
I’m not sure what it is that you’re trying to do, but there are a lot of 3d things that can be faked to look amazing in AE. You can create growing vines that respond to AE’s camera, you can do set extensions, you can even create a 3d city!
If you want help with creating something that you’re struggling with, post it and let us help you.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Sure, I am purely talking about effects here, I can see you understand my point though you don’t agree, well fair enough, it’s only my point of view but I was dissapointed especially with the displaicment map. Anyway I agree with you about the trapcode plugs.
There are two effects I’d most like to use but I’m stumped as to how exactly to achieve them in AFX, both I think should be achievable using displaicment mapping.
This kind of thing.
But I’d also like to use one image, (like some noise) to displaice a layer in 3D space, So as the layer itself is warpped aswell as the footage that’s placed on this layer so it can be rotated, and zoomed over etc. as bellow.
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After Effects is not intended to be a 3D application, it is a compositing application, and if you are familiar with the differences between the two, you will understand why they are kept separate.
In my opinion, Adobe really needs a full 3D app as part of it’s collection. However, unless they purchase Cinema4D from Maxon, I don’t really see them including one with any quality. They certainly wouldn’t be able to buy out Maya or 3D Studio Max. Chances are Maxon won’t be accepting any offers for Cinema 4D either.
If you want true 3D rendering capabilities, you should be using a 3D application anyways. After Effects has included some basic 3D capabilities so you don’t have to jump over to a 3D app for certain things.
I’m quite pleased with the 3D work I’ve been able to achieve entirely in After Effects. All my motion menu template kits use a great deal of 3D motion, as do my promo videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGaA_ITFSQ0
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
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Richie, that first image you posted probably isn’t achievable in AE (or I can’t think of a way, at least). You have extrusions in each axis, as well as different rotations of those extrusions, so it is a true 3D object.
The second one can be made with a plugin such as FreeForm (which costs some hundreds of dollars, but eh). You can use a displacement map like some fractal noise to push a layer in Zdepth. Trapcode Form will do a similar thing.
The trapcode plugins are complex, but once you play with them for a while they are quite user friendly and a pleasure to work with, in my opinion. I would MUCH rather use Particular for 3D particles than switch to Maya, align my scene and render particles, then re-import to AE (and rinse and repeat if I don’t get it right).
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You can get an approximation of the first image using a lot of layers. They will be flat, but it would be somewhat close. If you have things angled right and you’re smart about your camera moves it could work.
The other one has already been mentioned.
If these solutions aren’t going to work for you, you want an actual 3d program.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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I see what your all saying, I guess I’m cool with that.
Personally I think the best 3d plug in AFX is Shatter as it can extrude 3D shapes from still images, this atleast is a starting point.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate your sugestions.
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I think our problems lie in seeing AE’s 3D as “3D”. We think “you’ve gone this far in 3D, why not go a little farther?”
… when in truth, and I’m not a programmer, making AE a true 3D app would require a total rewrite, making it a new app entirely. What they do now, I’m willing to wager, isn’t 3D, but a clever way of distorting and scaling AE’s flat planes. It’s a fake.
The 3D plugins create little 3D movies that play on AE’s flat movie screens. Shatter (originally part of the Evolution third-party plugin set) and Invigorator are self-contained 3D mini-apps that are (sort of) imported into the AE comp, live. 3D stroke makes a whole bunch of little circular flat planes that line up to give the impression of a continuous stroke. Inside the AE universe, there’s no real 3D — you have to step outside for a moment.
If we think AE is 3D, we’re looking at it from an AE-centric universe. Once we start working with dedicated 3D apps, we can see AE’s structure and purpose more clearly, and we respect it for what it is.
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That’s deep 🙂
And your right I am looking at it from an AE-centric universe, the reason being that I havn’t used any 3D modeling apps, also the compositions I’m working on are Primerilly Video so I would prefer to work in AFX as much as I can.
Are there any 3D modeling plugins for AFX? plugins that can create 3D geometric shapes not jut warp layers? I’m struggling with shatter at the moment, Im looking in to invigorator now though.
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invigorator creates geometric shapes. You can have 3d text and any shape you could draw. With some clever use of edge styles you can even create bottles, glasses, and similar things.
Again there is still the downside that it’s not actual 3d. It’s just a 3d looking item on a flat plane in AE. You can make it respond to AE’s lights and cameras, but if you want something to start in front of it and go behind it, it requires two instances of it.– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Thanks for the pointers, can you project video on to objects created in invigerator?
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