[Erik Waluska]

AE doesn’t support 3D models directly. You may be able to open it in Photoshop (check docs to see if that format is supported) and import into AE as a Photoshop 3D composition but it would be fairly limited as to what you can do with it in PS or AE.

[Erik Waluska]

The shortcut is Ctrl(Cmd on Mac) + Shift + /
Works from the timeline or project window.

[Erik Waluska]

“I have two suggestions. First make sure your blur is set to repeat edge pixels.”

That option is only available in Fast Blur and Box Blur but not Gaussian, so maybe try using one of those blurs instead.

Here’s a video about those blurs:
After Effects: Effects A-Z: Box Blur

[Erik Waluska]

Lloyd Alvarez from aescripts has a script called 3d-text-creator that does that. He demos it in this video starting about 20 minutes in:
AENY presents Lloyd Alvarez’s After Effects Scripting Presentation

There’s also a script called compsfromspreadsheet that will pull text and other info from a spreadsheet. I used this for an awards presentation with about 150 names, titles and photos and it worked great.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

Basically, if you place a vector PDF file in Illustrator it is still vector but flattened to a single referenced file layer. But if you open the PDF with Illustrator it will open with all of the layers and editable text intact. The downside is that if you don’t have the font they used to create the file it can cause issues:

You can save either file type as an AI document and then open it in After Effects and they will both be vector (except for the raster background topology image of course). But a placed file will retain the original fonts:

However, with layered AI files, since the background topology image is raster you can put it on a separate layer in AI before you save the file and then import into AE as a composition and apply just enough blur (I prefer box blur) to that layer so you can scale larger without seeing the ugly pixelation on the background. The top image above has blur applied to the background and the bottom image does not.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

Hey Neil,
The PDF maps are a mix of vector and raster so the borders and text will be sharp and the background is raster so it will start to deteriorate above 100% scaling. One thing that might be causing your issue with the blurry text is that you might be zooming into the comp window with the scroll wheel on the mouse instead of scaling the layer. In that case, the text and borders will look pixelated. Just save as an AI file and import as footage or a comp; either way works – text and borders should be sharp when you scale.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

What file format are you importing into AE? I would suggest opening the PDF files in AI and saving them as an AI file and importing that into AE.

[Erik Waluska]

This may help:
clockworks

[Erik Waluska]

No problem. Good luck with your project.

-E

[Erik Waluska]

You can if you use the Distort>Transform effect but it’s raster-based so when you scale over 100% it pixelates so that won’t work. If you’re just worried about having too many layers to deal with then just pre-comp the text and the duplicate text layer that’s acting as your drop shadow. Turn on 3D for the text layers and then collapse transformations for the pre-comp. This way the text remains vector, you only have the one pre-comp layer instead of two text layers to deal with for animation, and the “shadow” will scale correctly.