[Mike Clasby]

Actually Shatter can add depth to a layer, it’s worth a look, here’s a tut:

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/kahlenberg_roland/3d_logo_extrude/index.html

I just swapped-in a psd of a fern (cutout with alpha) into Roland’s project (for his COW_header.jpg) and it works just fine.

Basically, set Shatter to:

View: Rendered
Shape>Extrusion Depth: Set to how many pixels in thickness you want the z depth
Force 1: 0
Force 2: 0
Physics>Gravity: 0

Textures>SideMode: Can be a layer, color or other combo

Camera>Camera System: Comp Camera is usually handiest if you want to add your own camera

Lighting can be a bit of a pain sometimes, I usually drop Lighting>Light Intensity to zero, then raise Lighting>Ambient Light to one. Or you can just use Rolands’s handy-dandy expressions.

[Mike Clasby]

Here’s two expression solutions from the wizards at the AE Expression forum:

Filip’s for a 2D layer:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/227/7942?

Dan’s for an AE 3D layer:

https://www.aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?t=8

[Mike Clasby]

You can Import other aep’s, Import>File and choose an aep, it will come in it’s own folder.

[Mike Clasby]

Actually Shatter can add depth to a layer (since AE5), here’s a tut:

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/kahlenberg_roland/3d_logo_extrude/index.html

Basically, set Shatter to:

View: Rendered
Shape>Extrusion Depth: Set to how many pixels in thickness you want the z depth
Force 1: 0
Force 2: 0
Physics>Gravity: 0

Textures>SideMode: Can be a layer, color or other combo

Camera>Camera System: Comp Camera is usually handiest if you want to add a camera

Lighting can be a bit of a pain sometimes, I usually drop Lighting>Light Intensity to zero, then raise Lighting>Ambient Light to one.

[Mike Clasby]

Filip has some nice sound expressions for volume (percentage control) and panning, here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/882399?

His Doppler effect in 3D:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/868747?

Surround Sound, here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=227&postid=2557

Ask Filip at the AE Expressions Forum for details:

https://forums.creativecow.net/viewforum/227

[Mike Clasby]

Good point.

[Mike Clasby]

It is that simple, if you’re only moving the camera, not the text.

If you’re moving the text, you’re correct, Parenting is needed. Just make the original text layer (topmost) the Parent of all the dups, or use a Null as the parent for all, as in the tutorial link I provided in 1), my original post.

One expression works fine for everthing… with a little Parenting applied… if the text moves.

Like the tut, I sometimes like Bevel Alpha on the two end layers, chased with a little Drop Shadow on the bottom layer. Lightning Bolts are optional.

[Mike Clasby]

Here’s a Cow tut for slow movements (swirly included):

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/quince_graham/liquify/index.html

[Mike Clasby]

Not applicable here, but if you trying to do this in AE’s 3D space, I like this:

https://www.aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?t=160&highlight=sphere

Just download the project and swap your text, one letter on each layer, and delete the layers that aren’t around the circumference. The expressions make expanding the sphere relatively easy.

[Mike Clasby]

Here are a couple of other ways:

1) Quick and Dirty. Not that dirty really. For a quickie that looks fine unless you linger side on, just add this expression to a text layer (make it 3D):

position+[0,0,(index-1)*1]

Now duplicate the layer as many times as you want it to be thick (the expression tells the layer to be offset 1 pixel in the z direction for each layer it’s down in the layer stack). If you want to move the letters as a unit, parent all to the first text layer, then rotate/move it, or precompose the text layers.

You can change the color of the front by changing the Color of the text in the Character Palette ( and the back too) You can even bevel the front and back with Perspective>Bevel Alpha (quite nice, really)

Note: You may get a warning for certain plugins to use AE’s Advance 3D Rendering, so go Composition>Comp Settings>Advanced>Render Plug-in: Advanced 3D.

The same principal is used in this tut, without the expression (he uses a 3 pixel separation), but with nice use of precomposing to make changing the text easy, and a control null to animate the text enmass:

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/woodall_traylor/3dtypetut2/index.html

2) Also you can use Shatter:

Make your text, duplicate it, add a Black Solid, arrange as below:

Text
Text
Black Solid

Now Select and precompose the bottom two layers (move all attributes), this precomp will be as a custom Shatter map.

Add Effect>SimulatePattern: Custom
Custom Shatter Map: Precomp
Extrusion Map: This controls how deep the letters are

A tut for a logo extrusion here:

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/kahlenberg_roland/3d_logo_extrude/index.html
Force 1>
Strength: 0 (this keeps the letters from being blown away)
Physics>Gravity: 0 (keeps the letters from succumbing to gravity)

Textures… You can control the Front, Side and Back Modes with precomped layer (a red solid precomped choose, Side Mode:Layer, Side Layer Red Solid Precomp.

Camera System: Comp Camera

Add a Camera to the Comp, Layer>New Camera (C toggles the Camera Orbit Tool).

For a walk through, click on Roland R. Kahlenberg