Thanks for downloading 3D Extruder and welcome to the User Guide. This guide is very comprehensive and intended mainly as a reference guide. I'm the sort of person who likes to read the manual cover to cover before finally converting it into a doorstop or plinth for a large statue. But if you prefer to get off to a flying start, you're probably better off with the quickstart video guide. I'm also hoping to post various tips and tutorials over a period of time, so keep a look out over at aescripts for new material. Purpose: 3D Extruder was designed to make an easy-to-use and relatively convincing pseudo-3D in After Effects using the time-honored method of stacking 2.5D layers. The aim of 3D Extruder is to automate the process and add a level of detail and control that would otherwise take hours, if not days to work in manually. It was always an important consideration that 3D Extruder be quick and intuitive to work with. A common problem with this method of extruding is that previewing and working is extremely slow. 3D Extruder's edit mode gets round this problem, usually allowing you to work in real time. I also wanted to structure 3D Extruder in a standard After Effects way, meaning that the composition structure will be quite familiar to After Effects users and allow intuitive customization. Meanwhile, the expressions that drive everything remain tucked neatly away in the background. For the pro motion graphic designer who uses 3D programs as well as After Effects, 3D Extruder enables you to make mock-ups, pre-visualisations or sometimes even finished projects, without having to resort to the much more laborious process of rendering passes out of 3D, then importing and compositing them in AE. For users who only use AE of course, 3D Extruder enables the quick creation of 3D extrusions in After Effects that would otherwise be difficult or very time consuming. So let's dive in and see exactly what you can do with it... |