Combining 3D Layers and Cameras in After Effects

1. Double click on the Pizza Box Precomp.
2. Select the Back Flap layer.
3. Hit R for Rotation.
4. At the origin, hit the stopwatch next to Y-Rotation to set a keyframe.
5. At 0:00:02:24, change the Y-Rotation to 90 degrees.
6. At 0:00:02:24, set a keyframe for X-Rotation.
7. Move the Playhead to 0:00:04:00.
8. Set the X-Rotation to 25.
9. Select all the keyframes.
10. Navigate to Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease.
11. Move the Playhead to the origin.
12. Select the Bottom Flap layer.
13. Hit P for Position.
14. Set Position at 500, 640,-665.
15. Move the Playhead to 0:00:00:12.
16. Change the Position to 500, 640,90.
17. Move the Playhead 0:00:01:00.
18. Set the Position at 500, 640,0.
19. Select the first and last Position keyframes.
20. Right-click on any selected keyframe.
21. Navigate to Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease.

Camera Animation

1. Go up to Layer > New > Camera.
2. Hit Ok.
3. Go up to Layer > New > Null.
4. Parent the Camera to the Null.
5. Open up Camera Properties.
6. Turn Blur down to 0
7. Open up the Null’s Rotation property.
8. At 0:00:00:24, hit the stopwatch next to the Null’s X and Y Rotation to set an initial keyframe.
9. Click the stopwatch next to the Camera’s Zoom property.
10. Set the X and Y Rotation of the Null to be 133 and 40, respectively.
11. Set the Zoom to be 3700.
12. At 0:00:02:00, the X-Y Rotation of the Null is 50 and 43.
13. Change the Camera’s Zoom to 5200.
14. Select all the Rotation and Zoom keyframes.
15. Right-click on any selected keyframe.
16. Navigate to Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease.
17. Flip the Motion Blur switch on for all the layers. If the Motion Blur switch is not visible, hit Toggle Switches / Modes at the bottom of the layer stack.
18. Enable Motion Blur.

Video Transcription

Hi. This is Tziporah Zions for Noble Desktop. And in this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to use 3D layers and cameras in Adobe After Effects. So we're first going to be setting up parts of the project that we're going to animate, namely the top and back flaps of this pizza box. We're going to animate those, opening up the whole box, following it, and then get to animating a camera.

We're going to be relying on a null object to control the camera easier and have it swing around and zoom in. This box opens. We're going to be taking the step by step. So, you know, trying to get overwhelmed. 3D can be like that. But yeah, like I said, step by step, and you can see here's what the project looks like when it's done.

So if you've been following this 3D and after series we've been doing, you'll have heard me say this, but for any new watchers, 3D and after effects is a lot easier to pick up in traditional 3D programs. Granted, it's technically using 2D elements to create the illusion of true 3D. That's what makes it great for animating slick looking logos, intro sequences, opening books and rotating objects has a much easier learning curve than typical 3D and looks great.

So we're going to be using a pre-prepared file here with a pizza box mostly put together and you'll find it in the video description below. So let's get started. So upon opening is pretty calm, this is what you're going to see. Everything is set up in 3D space, and I want you to notice that everything except for one layer is set up so that the bottom flap controls all of them right there, all parent into the bottom flap, which looks much like a real pizza box.

If you were to move around the bottom of a pizza box, the rest of the flaps follow. They're also nearly all oriented in 3D space and nine degrees away from each other relative to the bottom flap. Again, much like any real box, you know, like the side flaps are 90 degrees away from the bottom flap. The only one that's different is the top flap.

And that's because see, it's parentage, that backpack, because you cannot open a pizza box without affecting the back flap, right? If you're open a pizza box, if you open the top, you're also going to be moving the back flap a little bit. So with that out of the way, let's get started on animating this thing. So at one second and two frames and we're going to be grabbing this back flap and let's hit P for position and you'll see there's X, Y, Z, we're going to be animating the Y.

So at one second two frames and we're going to be animating back flap so hit bar for rotation and we're going to be animating the Y rotation here. So we're going to put down a keyframe and let's set that Y rotation to zero. We want this guy to be mostly close. Then at 2 seconds, 24 frames and we're going to be animating back flop again.

Let's put this guy at 90 degrees you go, I'm going to ease both these guys by selecting both of them right click keyframe assistant and off the ease. And like we mentioned before, the first thing that opens when a pizza box opens is the back flap just a little bit less animate the rotation of the top left. So right where we left off at 2 seconds 24 frames and let's set a key frame this is going to be zero.

Then at 4 seconds in it's going to be 25 degrees all the way open. And I use those as well. Let's head back to the origin and we're going to be animating this whole box. Like going into the composition, as you've seen at the beginning, since the bottom flap controls everything that's what we're going to be animating for position.

So the coordinates of the box when it first comes in, it's going to be 500. So in X space it's going to be 500 and Y, it's going to be 640. And perhaps most importantly in Z, in an out dimension, we're going to be putting it a -665, and that's going to make it move closer towards the screen.

Now, it may look a little bit odd here, but you have to remember we're going to be putting a camera in afterwards. So the idea is that we want this box to move away from us initially, bounce back a little bit and open up. That's all we want. The camera is going to provide the cool dynamic feel to the whole piece.

All right. Hit that stopwatch to set a keeper at 12 seconds and let's have this thing overshoot. So we're just going to be changing that Z to positive 90 because it like really falls in and it moves a little bit password's supposed to end up with and then in one second in it's at 500 640 and it's zero settles in and is put in use on the first and last keyframe.

And if we playback the animation, this is what we see frozen and opens up, settles back into position a little bit. Now let's put a camera in this props layer new camera. Sorry about that. It's going to be a one node camera that should pop up the top layer layer stack and we're going to be making a new come on layer new no object.

And the reason for that is that we want to be able to control the camera a lot easier and the null really helps with that. So I'm actually going to scale my nose a little bit about like 300 and I'm going to move with y, I'm going to y move the anchor point right to the middle. This is just something personal.

I do. And then I'm going to make it a different color. So it stands out, it matches the camera, but it stands out in the layer stack. This is just for organization purposes, and I'm going to move it straight into the middle composition. And yeah, this is just a controller, so I just want it to be easily, easily accessed and I could recognize it where it is at a glance.

So that that's all that set up was parent the camera to the know and remember to activate three D on the null as well. So toggle open. So we're going to be here at 24 frames and we are going to be animating the rotation of this thing, of this camera. And also we're going to be opening up camera options and let's head over to blur level, push that down all the way to zero.

If you follow the through so far you'll know that this is kind of prerequisite for working with camera. And we're really going to be animating the zoom over here you see so at 24 frames and we're going to be putting the zoom let's see what's happening to zoom somewhere around 30 730 700 trees that'll automatically put down a keyframe if not just hit the stopwatch.

And as for the rotation on the no, I want the X rotation to be at around 133. So the X and 40 for the Y, you know, it's coming from underneath, but if you like it looking like a different way, these numbers are just guidelines. This is just what I found to work. But you don't have to stick exactly what I'm doing, right?

Hit the stopwatch, set this keyframes now are 2 seconds in the x y rotation is going to be 50 in 43 respectively. And let's get that zoom at 5200. There we go. Not overshoots just a little bit but don't worry about that that's easy is everything and as you can see I've used all these keyframes I've also turned on motion blur usually do this at the end.

I do realize that I've had it on this whole time but usually do this at the end just to save processing power and make sure that all these little motion flares are switched on. But it adds a lot to the piece. It's literally I mean, it's what it sounds like. It's motion blur but it takes up a good amount of processing power.

So we usually put it on at the end, unlike what I did today. Let's head back to the main car and turn on our new project and play it back. There we go. It looks really, really cool. So that's it. Like I mentioned, 3D and After Effects has enough versatility to create title sequences with depth, three dimensional logos to zoom through environments or to combine all of these ideas.

Try adjusting the settings on the camera to get more blur and fast moving pieces. We're taking the camera to an up close shot of your logo before zooming out ideas like that. So you let us know if you have any comments or questions below. I might make a tutorial. A lot of information is on how to make this pizza box.

Is that something you're interested? Please let us know. And yeah, we'd love to hear what you're working on right now. I hope you enjoyed learning how to use 3D and After Effects. This has been Tziporah Zions from Noble Desktop