UV mapping in AE

[Jeff Mullen]

Hello!

If I may, what are you trying to do? There may be another way than UV mapping in AE….

…But, I do not believe UV is supported in AE, yet, I may be wrong. However, Zaxwerks Invigorator can do UV mapping, but only on objects in Zaxwerks, not any 3D layer. There may be a plug-ing out there to do it. Or just use your 3D app (3DS, Maya, Lightwave) and do it there since those have tools for UV mapping.

Cheers!

-jeff mullen

[Tom J]

Hi there,
Since I believe AE 5 or 5.5 there are some options for supporting 3D files, ie. rpf or rla files, and the usual separate passes or channels that one would work with when compositing a scene.

In your Effects list under 3D Channel / there is ID Matte (it supports Material ID and Object ID) based on scenes or passes rendered out into .rpf or .rla sequences with certain data attached at time of rendering. I used this quite some time ago when manipulating a 3D scene that I imported into AE and used the Object ID channel (which I believe is set to as default) and used Shatter to destroy certain objects in the scene based on the object ID that I chose. I even used this method to separate each object into foreground and background elements.

It’s been a while so forgive me, but I even recall using the Material Id’s to apply certain effects to just those ID’s chosen (maybe you can load bitmaps into those material ID’s, I don’t know). Of course Invigorator from Zaxwerks is definitely a possibility.

Now I know you want to UVW in AE and my description doesn’t necessarily follow that, however I just wanted to point out that you can use both Material and Object ID’s in your filter stack just as long as you render a sequence with that data embedded in the files to be read later on.

Hope this helps, and I’m sure someone here can pitch in and maybe take my option further… :>)

My .02
Tom