Now we have some great looking 3D text, we want to make sure we make the most of that when animating it. I used the standard settings without changing anythingĪs you can see, we now have wonderful 3D text, now it is time to animate it. We still have light hitting everything equally here, so to get out lovely 3D text we want to add a point light to the composition. Now, that still doesn’t look so good, but for effective 3D it is worth remembering lighting is everything. Our first job is to add a camera to the composition.Īnd then by right clicking the camera layer once created, create an Orbit Null for the cameraĪt this point I decided to tilt my text a little to make the most of the 3D effect, simply by using the x, y and z axis on the timeline panel, so now we have this. It doesn’t look particularly spectacular at the minute, however, now we are going to bring out the beauty of these techniques. Now, that may not look very exciting just now, but stick with it. Repeating the same on the 2nd text layer gives us too words with an extrusion depth of 20. Here you can also add bevels and so on, but for this one we are just using extrusion. Here I have added an extrusion effect to the first layer, a depth of 20 works for this project, but just find a value that you find visually pleasing. Within the Ra-Traced composition 3D objects have extra attributes, and selecting our text layer we can find the Geometry Options to create that extruded 3D effect. Now that is completed, we can extrude the text for 3D. Once created I adjusted the size of the text to how I like it and made sure both layers were in 3D mode in the timeline – the cube icon. I created 2 separate text layers for the two words, Wonder and Share, simply because it makes animating them separately a simpler process. With that done we can create and work with 3D text and shapes from within After Effects itself, so let’s carry on. The final setting here will be a personal choice based on what the sequences will be used for and how long you can wait for the rendering. I’ve left the quality at the default 3 for this demonstration, as you can see, the program explains the effects of various quality levels to you on this screen, but remember that render time can increase significantly at higher qualities, so it is a balancing act for what the intended use is. Once switched to Ray-Traced 3D, you can then set the options for it. For 3D text or shapes, or if you are importing layered vector graphics such as a logo, there are settings you need to enable on your composition for it all to function.Įither when you select New Composition or on an existing one by selecting composition settings, you need to go to the advanced tab and switch from the default Classic to Ray-Traced 3D render. Our first job is to create the composition. How to Make 3D Animation in After Effects