Installation You can install 3D Extruder into the Scripts folder or the Scripts UI panels. Just copy the file BR_3D_Extruder_V1.0.jsxbin into Adobe After Effects CSX/Scripts or Adobe After Effects CSX/Scripts/ScriptsUI (replace the X in CSX with your version number!). If you copy it into the first location, then you can run 3D Extruder from inside After Effects by selecting File->Scripts->BR_3D_Extruder_V1.0.jsxbin and if you copy it into the second location, you can run the script as a dockable palette in After Effects by selecting Window->BR_3D_Extruder_V1.0.jsxbin. I'd recommend the second option. On the first run, 3D Extruder creates a preferences file so that you can save and load your preferences. You don't really need to know where this preferences file is for the day to day use of 3D Extruder, but just so you know or so that you can make a back up: On Windows, the location of this file will be: C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CSX\3DX_Preferences.txt and on a Mac... Computer Name/Hard Drive Name/Users/User Name/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe After Effects CSX/3DX_Preferences.txt (the parts in blue will be your custom names). The preferences file is designed to be readable by eye. But avoid editing it manually! You may want to take a back-up of your preferences file before installing new versions of the script. 1. Stage I - the Script UI (User Interface) 3D Extruder is in essence a two stage process. In this, Stage I, you set up the 3D extrude, deciding which elements such as bevel, shading, reflection you want to use. You also decide on some basic structural elements. If there are any parts you don't understand, click on the ? button next to that element to see details. In Stage II, you fine-tune these elements in the After Effects interface where you will have visual feedback. There are also 10 presets to get you started, which you'll find at the bottom of the interface in the Presets dropdown menu. Finally, there are help tips for every parameter in the interface itself to help you on your way. If there's anything you don't understand clicking the ? button will give you a little nudge in the right direction. Here's a run down of what the things in the first three panels do. General tab. Basic: Extrude Depth The extrude depth is the initial depth (in pixels) to which your layer is extruded to. This can be altered or animated afterwards.
| Extruded text with a depth of 120 compared to a depth of 40
Iterations 3D Extrude achieves the effect of extruded depth by creating multiple iterations of a flat 2.5D layer. Iterations indicates how many iterations you'd like to use. If you only want to see your extrusion from a relatively frontal angle, you can use a small number of iterations. The further round the side you go, the more iterations you'll need to keep it looking solid. It's important to get the optimal balance. More iterations means longer render times, whereas too few means a less convincing extrude. Although you can add iterations afterwards, the process is a little labor intensive, so choose wisely here. As a guide, for an extrude with depth 50, 50 iterations should be a good balance. Remember that no matter how densely you stack layers, if you look at your extrude directly from the side you will be able to see through it partially.
| Extruded text made with only 10 iterations. The individual iterations are clearly visible. The more iterations you use, the smoother your extrude will appear, but at the expense of speed. This is where edit mode comes in (see below).
Options Materials If you check this box, the side materials will be linked to a material controller layer in the 3D Extrude precomp (the layer is called 3DX side material master). If you want to change the material properties of all the sides together, then you can do it via this one layer. The downside is that it's a bit of a processing overhead. Of course it's always possible to change the material properties of the layers manually, but if you've got 200 of them it can be a little time-consuming. Note: This controls only the Light Transmission, Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Shininess and Metal properties. The Accepts Lights, Accepts Shadows and Cast Shadows properties are set explicitly for front and sides in the Front and Sides tabs (see later).
| If you have selected link, you can adjust or animate the materials of all side layers by changing the material properties of layer [3DX side material master] which you will find in the 3D Extrude precomp.
Separate Controls Layer This switch is all about neatness vs. functionality. If you switch it off, all of the expression controls that control 3D Extruder will be placed neatly on the 3D Extrude layer itself. However, this interferes rather with After Effects functionality and stops the 3D Extrude interacting with other 3D layers in certain ways. For instance, the 3D Extrude will not be able to cast shadows on other 3D layers or intersect them. If you want to retain this functionality, then you should leave separate controls layer checked. Then, the controls for 3D Extrude will be put on to a separate null layer called 3DX CONTROLLER: My Layer
| To the left, with 'separate controls layer' on, the controls are separated on to the layer '3DX CONTROLLER: My Layer'. The main layer in this example, '[My Layer(3DX)]' will now be able to intersect with and cast shadows onto other 3D layers in Comp 1. To the right, with 'separate controls layer' off, the controls are actually on the main layer, '[My Layer (3DX)]'. This is neater and quicker to work with, but the 3D Extrude won't be able to intersect or cast shadows on other 3D layers in Comp 1. The transformation (position, orientation etc.) of the extrude is always controlled from the main layer. In this example, [My Layer (3DX)]
Front tab.
Materials accpt light, accpt shadow, cast shad. The accept shadow, accept light and cast shadow attributes of After Effects 2.5D layers cannot be set dynamically, so you need to decide here how you want those layers to behave. This panel sets those attributes for the front faces. The similar attributes for the side faces are set under the Sides tab.
| To the left, cast shadows enabled for front faces and to the right, disabled.
Bevel Edge Bevel: Turn this on to give a bevelled look to the front faces of the extruded object Highlight: Show a bevel highlight Shadow: Show a bevel shadow Choose these options carefully, as you can't change them easily afterwards.
| Clockwise from top left: bevel - highlights only, shadows only, highlights and shadows balanced with side shading, highlights and shadows
Use Reflection Turn this on to create a reflection on the front and back faces of the 3D Extrude. 3D Extruder will create an extra composition called 3DX REFLECTOR: My Layer and put this composition into the main composition. This layer will appear reflected in the surface of your 3D Extrude. You can move, orientate and scale this layer and its new position will be seen in the reflection. You can go into the composition and change its contents, or resize the composition. The changes will be reflected on the surface of your 3D extrude.... quite literally! Additive Layer 3D Extrudes look pretty cool with no light on, but they really come into their own if you also illuminate them with After Effects Lights. However, when you turn an After Effects surface away from a light, it falls into complete shadow. The way that 3D Extrude is structured will mean that the specular highlight and reflection will also fall into shadow. This is not how things work in the real world. If you check the bevel and reflection layers additive checkbox, then 3D Extrude will create an extra composition, called Layer Name (3DX) - Additive Front. In here you will find anything that should react additively: namely, any reflections and bevel highlights. The result is that even when the 3D Extrude is turned away from the light, although the surface will be completely in shadow, the specular highlights (bevel) and reflection will still be visible. Incidentally, it's a good idea to put an Ambient Light with an intensity of around 30% into a 3D Extruder scene. That way, the surfaces don't turn completely dark when facing away from the main light. Sides tab.
Materials accpt light, accpt shadow, cast shad. The accept shadow, accept light and cast shadow attributes of After Effects 2.5D layers cannot be set dynamically, so you need to decide here how you want those layers to behave. (see also Materials section of the Front tab) Shade Sides Shade: Turn this on to give a bevelled look to the front faces of the extruded object Highlight: Show a bevel highlight Shadow: Show a bevel shadow Choose these options carefully, as you can't change these easily afterwards.
| Clockwise from top left: Side shading off, highlights only, highlights and shadows, shadows only.
Tint You can choose here to add a tint effect to the sides of the 3D Extrude. You can choose the color and the amount to tint too (these can be changed later in the After Effects interface). Even if you don't intend to use the tint, it's recommended to leave it on and turn the amount down to 0, as it helps in visualizing the 3D in edit mode 2.
| With sides tinted dark blue
Presets
There are 10 built in presets that you can use as they are or as a basis to build from. You can delete or overwrite these and you can save your own presets using the Presets panel. Just type the new name in the box to the right and hit save. To delete, select the preset you want to delete and press delete. The presets are actually capable of saving the state of the 3D Extrude after you have fine tuned it in After Effects too (in other words, parameters which are not visible in the interface). In order to do this, you first need to load the current state into the User Interface. To do this, use the Current to UI button in the Tools panel. Here's a quick rundown of the 10 presets. toon_simple- A simple extrude with no bevel or reflection. The sides are tinted completely back. The Z Anchor Offset is at the back, so depth animations spring forwards toon-bevel - As above, but with a bevelled edge glossy hard - A glossy, reflective extrude. The bevelled edges are narrow and hard glossy_soft - As above, but with a softer bevel hard_shade - Similar to glossy_hard, but with no reflection soft_shade - Similar to glossy_soft, but with no reflection fill - similar to glossy hard, but with only 2 iterations. This is intended for filling a two part extrude that has a stroked edge and then an inset fill. Like this. stroke - the complimentary part to fill basic10 - a very basic extrude with side shading and 10 iterations basic20 - as above with 20 iterations
2. Stage II. Fine tuning in After Effects Once you have run 3D extrude, you can adjust most of the parameters that are set in the script from top level sliders, which you will find either on the main 3D Extrude layer or on the 3DX CONTROLLER layer, depending on whether you chose to have separate controls when you ran the script. Note that the effects called _GENERAL_______, _SIDES__________ and _FRONT___________ are just separators. They have no function. The apparently blank effects are just visual spacers and also serve no function. (other than visual spacing) Here's what they the rest of the effect sliders do...
| Live controls on the controller layer. The greyed out ones are optional ones that may or may not be present depending on the options you had set when you ran 3D Extruder.
General Edit Mode and Edit Mode 2 Since working with stacked 3D layers can be pretty processor intensive, 3D Extruder has a trick or two up its sleeve. There are two edit modes in 3D Extruder. You can find the controls on the 3DX CONTROLLER layer or on the 3D Extrude layer itself (depending on how you had separate controls layer set). There are two checkboxes. When you check the Edit Mode checkbox, all your extrusion, all your bevelling and shading disappears and you are just left with the original 2.5D layer. This allows you to work very fast. When you are finished, just uncheck Edit Mode and your beautiful extrusion will be back. If you want a better sense for the extruded 3D form in space, then check Edit Mode 2 aswell. In this variant of Edit Mode, you'll see the front face, the back face and one side face, rudimentarily shaded to give you a better impression of the 3D text without using up too much processor time. If Tint Sides was selected when you ran 3D Extruder, the side faces will be tinted to 100% of the tint color. (That's why it's recommended to leave Tint Sides on)
| From left to right: Edit Mode: Off, Edit Mode 2: Off Edit Mode: On, Edit Mode 2: Off Edit Mode: On, Edit Mode 2: On
Extrude Depth Here you can adjust or animate the depth of the extrusion. Back Face Cull When Back Face Cull is checked, front faces that are facing away from the camera will temporarily become a side face. This is so you don't see the front face at the back (have a look at the diagram below if you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about). If this is a desirable effect, then uncheck Back Face Cull
| An Extrude with Back Face Cull unchecked. You can clearly see the front face peeping out at the back.
Z Anchor Offset % This dictates where Extrude Depth animations are anchored. With Z Anchor Offset % set to be -100, the back of the extrude will be fixed and Extrude Depth will extrude forwards from this point. With Z Anchor Offset % set to 100 the front of the extrude will be fixed and Extrude Depth will be extruded backwards from this point. At a value of 0, Extrude Depth is anchored in the middle and animating the Extrude Depth property appears to make the text grow or shrink equally in both directions. Note Z Anchor Offset % has no effect on the anchorPoint around which the layer rotates. Therefore, animating Z Anchor Offset % will make the extrude appear to move. You would need to balance these out by either counter-animating position or anchorPoint on the main 3D Extrude layer, depending on the effect you want to achieve. Z Anchor Offset % isn't really intended to be used at values greater than ± 100. You can exceed these limits, but beyond these values, you may find that Edit Mode 2 becomes rather less intuitive to use. Transparency (Front / Sides) If part of the original layer that you have extruded is translucent, then this is where you may need to adjust Transparency (Front / Sides). When you stack a lot of translucent layers on top of one another, the effect is that the extruded version tends to become more opaque. 3D Extruder attempts to automatically adjust for this. However if it gets it a bit wrong, you can use this effect to manually adjust the translucency level. The left number adjusts the translucency of the front and back faces, and the second number adjusts the translucency of all the side faces.
| Adjusting translucency using 'Transparency (Front / Sides)'
Sides Side Shading Depth % This controls how far into each face the side shading reaches. It's actually easier to see what the effect does by adjusting the Front Bevel Depth % effect. Adjusting Side Shading Depth % will have two apparent effects. Up until a certain point, it will appear to make the shading stronger. After this, the shading may appear to become metallic. Also, if you find that you are able to see the separate iterations of your 3D extrude, then before you go and add iterations and before you adjust the Anti-Alias effect, try turning the Side Shading Depth % up a bit. That will often solve the problem. Side Shading Intensity % This one is pretty straightforward. The bigger the number, the more intense the side shading. Simple as that! Side Shading Color From Light% When a 3D Extrude uses side shading or front bevelling, an After Effects Light is created in the main composition. It's the position of this light that controls the angle of the shading. The color of the light can also control the color of the shading. This slider controls to what extent the side shading is controlled by the color of the light. 100% means that it takes its color completely from the light, at 0%, the shading will be white. Tint Sides The sides can be tinted to a certain color. This is a standard After Effects Tint Effect where you can control the tint color and amount. Anti-Alias Sides Stacking a lot of layers on top of one another can create some anti-aliasing artefacts. This effect softens the outline of the edges slightly to compensate. If the edges are looking a little ragged, try turning Anti-Alias Sides up a little to get rid of it.
| Anti-Alias Sides at various different levels. The first two are a little low, the fourth one is rather high, but number 3 looks pretty good. Anti-aliasing effects can also be controlled with 'Side Shading Depth %'
Front Front Bevel Depth % This controls how far into each face the side shading front bevelling reaches.
| Front Bevel Depth at 100%, 200% and 400% respectively. The 3D illusion holds up best with lower Front Bevel Depth values.
Front Bevel Intensity % This controls the intensity of the front bevel. The bigger the number, the more intense the bevel shading. Front Bevel Color From Light% When a 3D Extrude uses side shading or front bevelling, an After Effects Light is created in the main composition. It's the position of this light that controls the angle from which the bevel is illuminated. The color of the light can also control the color of the shading. This slider controls to what extent the front bevelling is controlled by the color of the light. 100% means that it takes its color completely from the light, at 0%, the illumination of the bevel will be white. Reflection Strength If you are using reflection, this controls the opacity of the reflection. Reflection Distortion This controls the reflection distortion. This creates the effect that the front surfaces of the extrude are not entirely flat. A value of 0 will create no distortion. Always Show Reflection In Edit Mode, the reflection will not show. You might want to line up your reflection while in Edit Mode though. Always Show Reflection will let you do that. When checked, the reflection will always be shown, regardless of Edit Mode being turned on. 3. Stage III. Manual adjustments inside the 3D Extrude Structure Once you've set up your 3D Extrude, the structure is designed to allow you maximum and as far as possible, intuitive access to make changes after you have run the script. In other words, you can just carry on working into the compositions in a normal After Effects workflow. Below you can see what the structure looks like in After Effects Flowchart View. Your main composition is at the bottom. As you can see, changes to the base layer (My Layer (3DX) - Base at the top) will effect everything, whereas if you want to just affect the front or the sides, then work into My Layer (3DX) - Front and My Layer (3DX) Side respectively (middle right). The greyed out compositions on the left hand side of the diagram are the optional compositions if you are using additive layers or reflection.
| How the compositions of 3D Extruder are structured. Here, my original layer was called 'My Layer'
And here's how the structure looks in the project window. Again, the greyed out elements are the optional ones.
| How the compositions are arranged in the Project window. Here my original layer was called 'My Layer' The greyed out items are the optional items that may or may not exists, depending on the options you set when you ran 3D Extruder.
Altering the base comp. To change the contents of your 3D Extrude, simply work in the base comp, My Layer (3DX) - Base. All changes you make in this composition will be propogated throughout the structure. If you're working with text, you could change or animate the text, you can add layers... basically do anything that you can do in After Effects. The long way to get to the base comp is by double clicking the main 3D Extrude layer (My Layer (3DX)). This will take you into the 3D Extrude precomp (My Layer (3DX)). Double clicking one of the front or side layers will take you into the side or front compositions respectively. (My Layer (3DX) - Side and My Layer (3DX) - Front). Then clicking the lowermost layer of either of these comps will take you into the base comp, My Layer (3DX) - Base. Alternatively, you can find all these comps neatly arranged in a folder called 3D Extrude - My Layer, which you'll find in the project window in the same place as your main composition (the one that you ran 3D Extruder in). Working in side and front comps You can work into the side and front compositions aswell. Adding layers and generally doing After Effects things. There are also a few more specific and advanced things that you can do.... (you may want to look at the video guides for these too) Creating a second shading layer: Inside My Layer (3DX) - Side you can add a second layer of side shading. Duplicate the layer 3DX - Side Illumination. Now look at the effect 3DX Bevel Alpha. By typing 180 into the Light Angle property, you will see that the shading spins round 180 degrees. This gives the effect of another light coming from the opposite angle to the first. To tint this light to a different color, simply change the color of the Light Color property. This acts as a multiplier: the color that is automatically generated by the light color in the main composition is mulitplied by the color you put in here. To change the Edge Thickness or Light Intensity values, once again, simply type in a new value. These also both act as multipliers, so changing the value of Light Intensity from 1 to 2 will double the value of the calculated Light Intensity. You can also try adding a Fast Blur effect to this layer to soften the shading. Linking to a new light (advanced technique): Note: this is an advanced technique for the intrepid user only, who isn't phased by tinkering around inside expressions. Save a copy of your project before proceeding. Create a new light in your main composition (making sure that it has a unique name). Then go into the My Layer (3DX) - Side composition and duplicate 3DX Base Layer. A new layer, 3DX Base Layer 2 will be created. Turn off its visibility. Now link the expressions in the 3DX Base Layer 2 to the new light as follows: Any expression whose first or second line begins tLight = should have that line changed.... from: tLight= comp("Your main comp name").layer("3DX: Light Your Original Layer Name"); to: tLight= comp("Your main comp name").layer("Your New Light Name"); Now duplicate the shading layer, 3DX - Illumination and alter its 3DX Control Layer effect to refer to 3DX Base Layer 2 that you have just created. Voila! A second shading layer controlled by a second light. Note also that most of the effects on the 3DX - Base Layer can have their values altered in a similar way to 3DX - Illumination. The values act as additives or multipliers to the calculated values, so you can offset or multiply them (depending on which makes most sense for a particular value). These techniques work in exactly the same way in the front and additive front comps - My Layer (3DX) - Front comp and My Layer (3DX) - Additive Front Changing the balance of highlight and shadow: If you are using an additive layer you'll notice it's easy to change the balance of light and shadow of the bevel on the front face (assuming you're using both). But what if you're not using an additive layer, or that you want to change the balance of light and shadow in the My Layer (3DX) - Side comp. Well, here's a neat trick. Add a Tritone effect to the layer from the Effects -> Color Correction menu. Make sure that the Midtones value is set to mid gray, RGB 128,128,128. Now, decrease the brightness of the Highlights value and notice how the highlights become less apparent while the shadows remain the same. Decreasing the Highlights value all the way down to mid gray will make them disappear. altogether. On the other hand, increasing the level of the Shadows value will make the shadows less apparent. In this way you can fine tune your side shading (or indeed your front bevelling if you apply the same technique in the front composition). Of course, this will only work if your bevel is using highlights and shadows. You can tell if it is, because the 3DX - Illumination or 3DX - Front Bevel 's blending mode will be set to Hard Light. Note: In the front comp, there is an extra checkbox called 3DX Light in Front Only. This prevents the layer from being bevelled when the light and the camera are on different sides of the layer. This presupposes an opaque layer though. By unchecking this box, the bevelling will occur even when light and camera are on different sides of the layer, as though the layer were translucent... or you may just find it a cool effect. Adding iterations in the 3D Extrude precomp. Something that's not so entirely easy in 3D Extruder (although it's not actually that hard either) is increasing the number of iterations. You should always try and get the number of iterations right from the offset. But there are going to be occasions when you need more (or less). If you need to add (or remove) iterations, go into the main extrude precomp, My Layer (3DX). Find the layer 3D extrude null, twirl down the effects and set the Auto Index effect to On. Decide how many total iterations you want and change the effect Iterations to this number. Next select any of the3D Side index X layers except 3DX Side index 0 or the 3DX Side index with the highest number and use Cmd-D or Ctrl-D to duplicate it up the right number of times. Bear in mind that your highest index number should be one less than the number of iterations you entered above, because the numbering starts at 0. i.e with 20 iterations, your highest numbered layer would be 3DX Side index 19. Of course, you may also need to delete layers if your desired number is less than the current iterations. The nice neat layer numbering will be a bit blown, but don't worry about that - the indexes will now be calculated automatically. Changing the Reflection Layer: When you extrude with a reflection, a new reflection layer is created in the main composition, along with 3 reflection compositions. Two of these( My Layer (3DX) - Reflection Disort and My Layer (3DX) - Reflection Matte ) are just working comps, but the third ( My Layer (3DX) - Reflector ) can be worked on. As a default, this composition is 500x500 pixels and has a single layer that looks a bit like a softbox light. But you can do whatever you like in this composition. You can resize it and add any layers, animation or effects that you want to. Anything you do in this composition will be reflected in the front and back surfaces of the extrude. What's more, you can easily animate the transform settings of 3DX REFLECTOR: My Layer layer in the main composition. Again, these changes will be visible in the reflection, so you can use the transform settings to line up the reflection perfectly. Note however, that making the reflector layer visible or invisible will not affect its reflection, nor will changes to the opacity setting of the reflector layer. If you want to make the reflection less bright, you need to use the Reflection Strength slider on the controller layer. Renaming: Although everything is heavily linked together with expressions, there shouldn't ever be a problem renaming any of the layers or compositions created by 3D Extruder. The only caveat is that you don't give compositions or layers duplicate names. All composition and layer names that are part of a 3D Extrude should have unique names, otherwise you may find that you get expression errors or unexpected results. (If this does happen, there's an easy way to fix it - see Tools - Fix Expressions) There are also instances where you can use this fact to your advantage. If you have two 3D Extrudes in the same composition for example, you could rename the second light to be the same as the first and then delete the second light. Now both 3D Extrude instances would be controlled by the one light. Another way of achieving the same thing with lights is to make the second light the parent of the first light and setting the position of the second light to [0,0,0]. Now both lights are in the same place (controlled by the position of the first one) and for safety's sake, they're separable again in the future! You could try a similar trick if you have multiple extrudes with multiple control layers. Name the second control layer to be the same as the first, then delete the first one. Now both extrudes will be controlled by the same control layer. But again, beware: once this is done, there's no going back. Parenting: Once you start using 3D Extruder, you'll probably find that you want to connect multiple 3D Extrudes to null objects via parenting. This is perfectly possible. The 3D Extrude layer behaves like any other 3D layer. Of course, this is just a small selection of examples of ways that you can customize the output from 3D Extruder. Hopefully, the above has given you a feel for the structure and a few ideas to start out from. 4. The Tools panel
The Tools tab adds some important functionality to 3D Extruder. These are tools that automate certain tasks and make working with 3D Extrudes easier. Duplicate Having got your extrude perfect, you may want to duplicate it. Well that's not the simplest matter - if you simply duplicate the layer, you have another version of the same extrude, but if you change the contents of one, the contents of the other changes too. Rather you need to duplicate the entire precomposition structure, lights and control layers and then update all the expressions.... Gulp! Well that's where the first tool, Duplicate comes in... it does all this for you in a couple of seconds.
When you hit the Duplicate... button, a new interface pops up. You can use this new window to duplicate the entire structure of your extrude and make a brand new version that you can work on separately. You need to select the main extrude layer of the layer you wish to duplicate. The New Name field in the 3DX Duplicator window will automatically change to the name of this layer. Don't worry about duplicate names - the 3DX Duplicator will automatically see to it that all names are unique. Of course you can also use your own custom name. The Duplicate Into option allows you to duplicate the 3D Extrude into a different composition. The dropdown list will give you a list of all compositions that are not part of the current 3D Extrude structure. The three checkbox options (which will be dimmed if you're not copying to the Current Comp) dictate whether the duplicated 3D Extrude will have its own control, light and/or reflector layer, or whether it will share these layers with the original 3D Extrude that it was duplicated from. Check the boxes to create new control, light and reflector layers if existent. Center Reflection Getting a reflection to line up in a surface is difficult enough in real life, let alone with a virtual reflection. This is where Center Reflection comes in. Suppose you have lined up your 3D Extrude to the perfect position and angle in space and you have set your camera. But you want the reflection to be visible in the front surface at that point. Well, rather than fiddle around for ages trying to move the 3DX REFLECTOR layer to the right position, simply select the main extrude layer (My Layer (3DX) and hit Center Reflection. The reflector will jump to the position in space where it can be seen by the camera in the reflection and will angle itself towards the reflection surface. Easy! Fix Expressions 3D Extrudes are controlled by some pretty heavy expression work. This stays tucked firmly away behind the scenes. However, there's a couple of things you can do that can 'break' the expressions, causing them not to work any more. This includes giving layers or compositions duplicate names, or deleting layers that are referenced by expressions in the 3D Extrude. In this case, you will see an expression error pop up, that looks something like this:
If this happens, quickly use Ctrl-Z to go back a step. But this won't actually make the expressions work again. To do this, select the main extrude layer in question, My Layer (3DX) and hit Fix Expressions. This will run through the structure recompiling all expressions. When working with projects that use lots of expressions (or indeed any kind of project), it's recommendable to have Auto-Save set to every 5 / 10 minutes or so in After Effects Preferences. Also make sure to do a progressive save every now and then. This way you're really safe. Current to UI Current to UI is simply a way of saving not only the parameters that are visible in the 3D Extruder user interface, but also the things that you have adjusted and fine-tuned in the After Effects interface. It would be impossible to show every little detail in the 3D Extruder interface, because there are just so many areas that you can adjust. But you can save them as a preset. Select the layer that you would like to save as a preset and click Current To UI. 3D Extruder will attempt to read the structure of your 3D Extrude, gathering as much information about it as it can. If you have radically changed the structure or had a massive bout of renaming (i.e. renaming all the layers, compositions and effects), there may be one or two elements that can't be read. If this is the case, no matter: the default value will be used instead. Once the structure has been read, you will receive a message that the set-up has been copied to the UI. Now you can use the Presets panel in the user interface to save your set up, including the elements that aren't visible in the UI. 5. Tips and Tricks Multiple Extrudes You can make 3D Extrudes that appear more complex by using multiple extrudes. (You can actually extrude several layers at once, although if you want them to have different settings it's better to create them individually) . Sometimes you can achieve very cool effects by superimposing two extrudes. For instance, you might take two text layers, one of which is a stroke only and one of which is a fill only... to create the effect shown below. There are two presets that exist for doing this - Fill and Stroke
| Two overlapping extrudes
Or here's another version with two overlapping extrudes to make a more complex extruded form.
| Another way of using two overlapping extrudes
6. Limitations We all hate limitations. Well, I do. There are some limitations to most things in life and 3D Extruder is no exception. Some of the limitations are to do with the stacking technique used to create the 3D effect, others are to do with limitations that already exist in After Effects or After Effects expressions language. You shouldn't get too hung up on the limitations, because for the most part you won't encounter them. But for the sake of completeness, here's a list of all of the limitations I can think of.... It's not real: Convincing though it may be, 3D Extrudes are not solid, they are a stack of planes! This means there are some limitations. For instance, you cannot look at a 3D Extrude directly from the side. You will be able to see though it. This goes the same for lights that strike directly from the side. They will pass straight through the stacked iterations without casting a shadow. You can get around most of this by using more iterations packed more closely together (turning motion blur on also helps when spinning text around so you can see it from the top or side). But as ever, you'll need to be a bit careful about angles... or maybe retouch a frame or two by hand. If you want to get around this problem once and for all..... you're going to need a real 3D program! Motion Blur: As with any stacked 3D layers in After Effects, 3D Extruder isn't too happy with native per layer motion blur. After Effects per layer motion blur is a very handy shortcut, works for most simple animations and is very fast, but as with 3D programs, the proper way to do motion blur is per scene / composition, not per layer. In After Effects that means using CC Force Motion Blur and that means time consuming renders.
| The limitations of AE layer motion blur. From left to right: Motion Blur off. Native AE layer motion blur on. Notice you can see the back ground through the gap.... the gap which shouldn't exist Using CC force motion blur, the motion blur is rendered correctly with no gap between the black and the white square
| And how that equates to 3D Extruder: On the left, native per layer motion blur. On the right, using CC Force Motion Blur renders it correctly.
As an alternative, you could have a look at the excellent Reelsmart Motion Blur, which at $89 is a must have time saver for anyone working in 3D or with heavy duty After Effects comps. Reelsmart Motion Blur calculates the movement and applies a blur (usually pretty successfully) accordingly. Depth of field on the other hand holds up rather well with 3D Extruder.
| Heavy depth of field holding up pretty well with 3D Extruder
Time Stretch: You cannot use the top level control sliders (on the main 3D Extrude layer or 3DX CONTROLLER - Original Name) to animate 3D Extrude layers that have time stretch, time-remapping or any other source retiming effects on them. 3D Extrude is able to work with layer offsets, but nothing else. The reason is that to date, time stretch values are not available to AE expressions language. Renaming Layers: Multiple instances of the 3D Extruder effect will automatically allocate unique names to precompositions and layers. As mentioned above, you may change layer and composition names, but if you change them to names that are not unique, you may get unexpected results or even expression errors. If you do get expression errors, there's a tool for fixing this. Have a look under the Tools section. Deleting Required Layers: You shouldn't delete layers or compositions that are referenced by other parts of the 3D Extrude structure. For instance if you delete the control layer or reflector layer. If you do this, you will immediately see expression errors. If this does happen, hit Ctrl-Z and then use the Fix Expressions tool. Details are in the Tools section. Self-shadowing: Objects are not able to self shadow. There are plenty of ways you can cheat this manually... there'll be a tut about how to achieve this in the not too distant future. Non-square pixels: It's best to use 3D Extruder on layers that have a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio... i.e. square pixel, even if you are working in an anamorphic composition. Everything works fine with non-square pixels, but the Bevel Alpha effect which is used to create the bevelling on the front faces doesn't take non-square pixels into account. In other words the bevel looks very slightly elongated. You can always go and adjust the pixel aspect ratio of your Original Name (3DX) - Front composition later if you forget. It's a little thing and doesn't really notice too much, but for the sake of completeness, I mention it here. Reflector Comp Dimension: If you change the size of the reflector composition, then you also need to change the size of the other reflector matte composition. The easier way to make the reflector bigger is to simply scale up the reflector layer in the main composition. Reflection Angle: The reflection effect is created in large part by the After Effects Corner Pin effect. This effect is limited to a pixel buffer of 30,000 pixels. There is code built in to 3D Extruder to make sure that this limit is never exceeded. However, if you try to see the reflector in a 3D Extrusion that is at a very steep angle to the camera (i.e. almost sideways on) the reflection may disappear. Also, if you make very large reflectors that straddle the 3D Extrude and then put the camera nearby, you might see some errant reflections. If you do, just turn the reflection strength down manually for that frame. Expressions linking layer to be extruded: Before you apply 3D Extruder, you should check whether any expressions refer to the layer you want to extrude by name. If so, then you will get expression errors when you extrude, exactly the same as if you were to use After Effects' native precompose (and move all attributes) function. If that happens, then simply relink the expressions to the new 3D Extruder layer. Note also, that all effects on the original layer will get moved into the 3DX Base composition. Scale of 0: You shouldn't give the main 3D Extrude layer a scale of 0. The layer space transforms in After Effects Expression language produce errors if layers have a scale of 0. That's why there's a little expression on the main layer to avoid this situation. Erroneous expression error message: Occasionally, when you run 3D Extruder, After Effects gives an expression error message(s) that doesn't exist. It's an After Effects bug and appears to be harmless. Exactly the same happens if you use After Effects' own precompose (and move all attributes) function. Infact, it's the pre-compose (and move) function which 3D Extruder uses that causes it. If you do see expression error messages, make a note of which composition and layer they're on and check them out, to be on the safe side. CS3: 3D Extruder is not available for CS3. That's because the tabbed panel facility around which the 3D Extruder interface is built wasn't invented in CS3. The dreaded exclamation mark!: This is a known bug in After Effects. The combination of Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and After Effects CS5.X very occasionally produces a strange effect, whereby hitting the Duplicate button under the Tools panel produces a miniature window, which looks like a white exclamation mark in the middle of the screen. There's not much more that can be done for this error than to handle it gracefully, which 3D Extruder does. If it happens, simply close down the main 3D Extruder User Interface window and reopen it, then the Duplicate button should work. Once you have successfully used the Duplicate button to open the Duplicator window, then you can close that window safely. Subsequently it will open with a 100% success rate, until you close the main 3D Extruder window. Hopefully, there'll be a fix for this soon. I expect that Adobe's brilliant technicians are working on it as we speak! Duplicator: You can only duplicate 3D Extrude layers that have their control, light and reflection layers (if existent) in the same composition. For instance, if you use After Effects to duplicate a composition (let's call it Comp 1) that contains a 3D Extrude layer, then select that layer in the duplicated composition (let's call it Comp 2) and try to duplicate it using the Duplicator, you'll get the message that Duplicator wasn't able to read the structure. It will make a duplicate structure, but everything will be linked to the relevant layers in Comp 1. All in all, I really hope you enjoy using 3D Extruder. I hope it's a real time-saver. 3D Extruder has been carefully beta-tested, but if you come across any glitches or special situations where it doesn't work as expected, then get in touch (and preferably send me a copy of the file you're working on if possible). Also if you have any suggestions for new features or improvements. You can find me at ben@benrollason.com - Ben. |