[Graham Quince]

I think I’d use CC Ball Action with a bit of scatter. To get the edges of a face, I’d use Find Edges then an Invert effect both before CC Ball Action.

[Graham Quince]

Shadows in Element3D can be tricky. Sometimes switching the shadow to ray tracer gets a better result. Can you post a screenshot of your comp showing the 3D objects and the light set up – it might shed some light (pun intended) on the issue.

Element3D uses renders like games do, so it will fake some things rather than being a true 3D renderer. That’s what makes it quick, but sometimes hard to adapt.

I’ve just realised I’ve written all this based on your use of the word “elements” – if you were meaning AE new 3D object system, apologies though a screenshot would still help.

[Graham Quince]

I’ll just chip in to say the “big reason” when Media Encoder was introduced was that it enabled you to keep working in After Effects while rendering. And you could also do cute things like set up a render farm for a shared drive really very easily. (I did that at the school I used to work with and it was so convenient.)

I continue to use AME because I’ve got used to doing it that way and I have all the presets there. While Render Queue does have MP4, last time I looked there weren’t as many options, so I stuck with my current workflow. AME added notifications before AE did too, so it feels like Adobe consider it the go-to method with features being later added to After Effects.

The final reason I continue to use Media Encoder is that more often than not, I’m rendering overnight. So I can stack up several renders from different projects more easily.

In summary: it’s what I’m used to, I like not having to lock up AE while rendering BUT if it’s not right for you then there’s no need to force yourself to use it.

[Graham Quince]

I think I’d tackle this using an arrow symbol in a text layer. You can add a mask path to a text layer then animate the offset.

I normally shout out about FontAwesome for symbols, but their arrow doesn’t match yours. CopyChar.cc has a closer match.

1. Add mutliple copies of the arrow in a line. I had to use the font Segoe UI Symbol to get them to show up
2. Adjust the spacing and width of the characters.
3. Use the pen tool and draw a mask in the shape you want.
4. Expand the text layer and in Path Options, set the Path to your mask
5. Animate the First Margin property to get the arrows moving.

[Graham Quince]

Just posting, not really answering your question directly, but… if you are also looking for similar symbols, rather than draw shapes or masks, it is worth taking a look at FontAwesome.com The free fonts they have cover a lot of the standard icons you might be using.

[Graham Quince]

I spent 10 minutes playing and got relatively close with the Card Dance effect with circle effect on another layer as the gradient. It might be worth seeing if that approach can work for you.

Failing that, the SampeImage() expression can displace a layer based on another layer.

I found this video which shows something similar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1UaZNcVobhg

Basically, arrange your particles into a shape, with each on running its own expression.

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[Graham Quince]

Could you do something like having the poster as a layer, but have its visibility controlled by an expression? Or maybe make it a guide layer and see if that works.

[Graham Quince]

So I know Hector has outlined the 3D process, but to get the railings infront of your new layer with the water behind it, I think you’ll need to use luma keys or keylight on a separate version of the railings layer. With a lot of tweaking, you should be able to get a result that could then be used as a track matte for your new layer.

[Graham Quince]

Look at adding the mosaic effect on top of the fractal noise. That should give you some blocks. To get the length going on, try expanding the transform settings in Fractal Noise and unchecking uniform scale. The subscale settings influence might also help to get the staircase look.

[Graham Quince]

I’ll just add that when you move the camera, make sure you go for largish translations, even if they are not in the final elements you use. Avoid zooms too. This gives the Camera Tracker more information and makes it easier for it to creeate a matching 3D camera.