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Working in 3d – getting objects and text to match
Hi,
I’ve only just stared using AE and am creating a 3d animation.
Three quick questions.
1. When I select a new object or create text, it will show on screen, then when I click the 3d button, it disappears and I have to drag it to the correct position. Is there an easier was around this?
2. I have just created a rectangle, make it 3d, dragged it into position and then created some text, which will go over it. It’s proving a pig to position exactly at the same angle/position as the rectangle. I have tried manually inputting the same position settings, but it still won’t work. How do I match the text object to the position of the rectangle in AE when working in 3d?
3. Finally, I have an object flying past the camera and I want to reveal another object beind it as it does. I gussed the best way to achieve this is to animate a mask, although I can’t figure out exactly how to do this…
Any help would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
Olly Lawer
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3 Replies
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1. No. Work with two views, which can be found by clicking on the view button near the bottom of the comp window. Then you can see things better.
2. Make sure that the anchor point of the text is in the middle of the text. To give two things the exact same position, opt-click on the “follower’s” position property, then drag the expression pickwhip to the “leader’s” position property. Check the help.
3. Position the background object so it is completely hidden behind the passing object as some point. Then adjust the background object’s layer-in-point so it appears just before the passing object reveals it.
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Objects are always placed right in the center. If your current camera isn’t looking at the center, then making it 3d is going to potentially make it appear to vanish, because it is at the moment you make it 3d, that cameras and lights even mean anything.
And yeah, working with 4 views helps. Right, top, front and active camera are what I use.
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Your other questions have been answered pretty well here.
My suggestion for #2 is to parent the text to the rectangle.
Here’s some information on parenting:
https://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7da0a.html
Once the text is parented to the rectangle, all of it’s transform properties are relative to the rectangle’s position and orientation. If you set the text’s position to [0,0,0] then it’s anchor point will be located at the [0,0,0] point of the rectangle layer. You can move it from here to approximately the center of the rectangle and then set the z position to 0 if you want it to sit right on top of the rectangle. If you set the z position to -5 then it will sit 5 units in front of the rectangle. Also check the Orientation property and set the orientation to [0°, 0°, 0°].
The text layer will now maintain this positional relationship throughout the animation. If you animate the rectangle layer, the text will move with it maintaining the exact same relative position, scale and orientation.
Darby Edelen
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