Transcripts
1. Introduction: After effects, motion graphics with element and
three D plug in to create easy and stunning
animations. Welcome everyone. I am your host LIS RNapols. I've been an educator
over the past 28 years, teaching in universities and social platforms covering
animation techniques, vector design, and page layout. This D after effects
motion graphics class, he will learn how to generate custom normal
maps from a pattern. How to create three D
shapes from vector paths. How to work inside the element, three D plug in environment, extruding shapes and applying textures inside after effects. How to animate in three D space and apply rendering settings, improving the overall
three D animation. By the end of this course, you will have a firm knowledge and vision of how to create stunning three D animations for your own projects
and clients.
2. Custom Textures - Generating Normal Maps: For generating
custom normal maps that I'm sharing with you in the exercise folder is using the normal map online
in the browser. What are normal maps? They store information about
a surface in the form of a texture image and can simulate the appearance
of surface detail, such as bumps or scratches
without creating high detail polygons
inside the normal map. Online on the left, we have the standard height map, which is a gray scale texture where the brightness of each
pixel represent its height. For more information,
we can click on the question mark here it reads, The texture contains the
distance height from the floor. The brighter the pixel,
the further away. Since I will be using just
the black and white pattern, I'll go ahead with
the height map. I'll click on the window here. I'll click to select the
black and white pattern and then click to open. On the far right, we have
the three D preview. I can zoom in, I can
zoom out, can rotate. I can also change the three
D model representation from cube to sphere, since I will be using a spherical model for
applying my textures. Here in the middle, we have
the options to control how the texture maps
are being generated, starting with the normal map, which creates depth, and
it's used for bump maps. For example, I can
make this very strong or I can
make it very weak. And we can see the
changes taking place in both the
preview window, the three D preview, or
inside the normal map. I'm going to set this
back to default. I can change the level of the normal map as
it gets applied. Going to set that
to default as well. Then here we can
adjust the sharpness. All the way to the
right has been very sharp and all the way to the
left is the blur amount. I'm going to set
mine to minus four. Then I'll click on
the displacement map that is going to push out the details that is used
to deform the axle mesh. I won't make any changes here. I will click on the
ambient occlusion, which creates an extra
bit of depth and shading. For that, I will
make it stronger. I'll app the strength. I'll set the blur amount exactly the same as it
was for the normal map. For the specular map, which tells us which parts of a model should
be shiny glossy. I will leave everything as this. Then here at the bottom, we have the choice to download each of these texture maps or we
can do all of them here. We can change the extension. I'm going to go for Jpeg and then download all
the texture maps.
3. After Effects - Setting Up Composition: All right, inside after effects, I'll create a new composition. I'll give it a name
of motion graphics from the preset drop menu. I'll choose 1920 by 1080. As for the duration, for now, I will keep this
one to 30 seconds, but most likely at
the very end I will trim this out and
then click Okay. Now inside the project panel, I will import the texture
files and whatever else I will be using for this after effects
motion graphics project. I'll double click on that. First I will import the clouds, double click again, and shift select to
import the textures. To keep my work organized, at the very bottom of
the project panel, I create a new folder. I rename these two textures, Shift select those
and bring them inside the folder.
Here they are. All right, I'm also going to import some vector files
from Adobe Illustrator. For that, I'll need to
create multiple solids. I will click on the Timeline. Then up on the menu, I create the first solids. I'll give it a name
of oval shape. I make sure that I make click on the Make comm size
and then click okay. Then I'll head to
Adobe Illustrator. I'll select the oval shape
with a selection tool. I'll copy these to
the clipboards, head back to after effects, and then paste that in. I'll create another solid. Back of the menu, New Solids. I'll give it a name
of side panel. Click. Okay. Head back to
the straight, here it is. Mark, select those panels, Copy those to the clipboards. Paste those in. I
create another solid. I'm going to use the
keyboard shortcut. I'll give it a name of Picks, Allies, that will
be my name here. I'll click. Okay. Back on. Illustrator. Here it is. Mark you select that. I copy to the clipboards, paste that in. I create another solid. That will be my logo, press return, here's my logo. I select that, I'll copy to the clipboards,
then paste that in. All right, so for the timeline, I'll click and drag the clouds, and I'm also going
to shift select. Then also bring in all
of these textures. Now the textures that
don't need to be visible, all they need to be is
inside the timeline. As for the clouds here, as you can see, this
is just a little big. I'm going to press the letter S on the keyboards
for the scale property. I'm just going to scrub
this to let's say 80% I'm also going
to lock this layer, so don't accidentally move it. Now that the project
has been set up, the next step is to create
three D shapes from all of the solids using the
element three D. Plug in.
4. Element 3D - Oval Shape: For the element three
D. Plug in to work. Once again, I need to
create a new solid. I will click on the timeline. I would talk a lot of the
visibility of these layers. No need to see those, I just
want to see the clouds. Then I'll use the keyboard
Shout to create a new solid. I'll give it a name
of element three, D. I click on Size,
then click Okay. Then under the effect menu, video, pilots and elements. Before I click on the
sin set up for standing, to loading all of these
shapes here and the textures. I can do this under
the custom layers, under the custom text and masks. For the path layer one, I will assign the oval shape, the path layer two
to the side panels, path layer three to pixels
and four to my logo. For the textures under
the custom text maps, layer one will be assigned
to the normal bump, layer two to the enclusion, layer three to the specular. Now I can just click
this, set a button here. The first thing is to click
on the extrude button, since that was the very first
shape that I loaded in. That's why this one gets
extruded. All right. I'll double click to rename this two oval shape.
Enter Return. Right now I have one bevel, actually want to
have two copies set 0.2 for the bevel copy one. I'll 2.5 I'll
expand the edges to 3.5 I'll scroll down a bit
under the basic settings, diffuse color, I set this one to black and then click okay for the val two under the Bevel
outline, I will enable this. I'll set the outline to two. I'll scroll up a bit. Now I want to put this outline
in the middle of the two. First I'll change the view
instead of perspective. I'll set this point to
left on the z of set. I can scrub this like this. I'm just going to more. Let's say around here that
looks to be at the center. Go back on the
perspective view then on the oval shape and sets
under the tessellation, the bath resolution
to the extreme. So I have a nice dense geometry.
5. Element 3D - Side Panels: For the side panels. Once again, I'll click
on the extrude button. I'll double click to rename
the two side panels front. I'll click okay for
the custom path. I'll assign the
custom path to here. Here are the side panels. I'm just going to drag
this out on the z axis. Another presets and physical, I will assign the
racing babble here. The preset, I'll
click and drag this right on top, right there here. I'm also going to make sure that the path resolution is
set to the extreme. Or I now have a
nice dense object here instead of
perspective view. First I'll choose the left view. I'll also in quite a bit because I want to
make sure that this sits on the Z axis right there. I'll switch the
perspective view here and click to
duplicate this model. That will be the sides
panels back. I click Okay. Now I'm going to bring
this out on the Z. But in this case, first I need to flip this on the Z. I'm
going to do this right here. I'm going to flip this under
the transformation on the z. There you go. Then
back on the left view, I'll drag this on
the Z right there, switch to the perspective view. Here we go, Both look
great, and click okay.
6. Element 3D - Sphere Model & Texturing: With the middle being empty. I'll go ahead and add
another three D object, in this case just a sphere. I'll click on the Create
button, a sphere model. Double click on it, rename
this sphere. Click, okay. The first I'm going to do is
scale this up non uniformly, which means I will
disable the on. I will scale this one on the x axis to 270%
200 on the y axis, as is on the Z axis. That looks good. I'm going
to apply some materials, which means I will select
the material settings. The first texture to apply
will be the normal bump. I will click on the non set. I'll click on the low
texture dropped on menu. And I will apply a normal
bump and then click Okay. As you can see, this creates
a bump on the surface. But looking at the way this displacement map wraps
around the object sphere, I would like to adjust that. I will click select
the sphere model. Then under the UV mapping
and the UV repeats, I'll just how many times
this material repeats tiles? Right now the texture map
wraps around only once, will increase to two by two. Back on the normal bump, I'm also going to
change the repeat here, 22 by two as well. Then click Okay. All right. I'll go
ahead and zoom in a bit here for the next texture. Then that will be
the glossiness. Click on that and apply
the specular map. I'll make sure that the U
repeat is set to two by two. And I'm also going to
invert and then click Okay. The glossiness is how shiny or smooth the surface is right now. This is before and
this is after. Let me zoom even more
before and after. As you can see, we
are not able to see any drastic changes
by just applying the specular map that
will be seen once we swap a different
environment map. All right, now I'm also going to add an occlusion
texture here, so I'll click on that and
add an occlusion map. I'll change the U
repeat to two by two, Invert that, then click Okay. As you can see, this
darkens up the map. All right, so things
are looking good. I'll go ahead and change
some colors here. For example, under the basic settings and
the diffused color, I'll apply a blue
color of my choice. Click okay for the reflectivity, I'll apply a yellow
color of my choice. I click and up its intensity
to 50% for the illumination. I'm also going to apply
another color of my choice. Up its intensity, let's
say to 6% That looks good. But now it's time to change
the overall reflectivity by swapping up the
existing environment map. This way my scene will
light up perhaps even more. The look is going to change. Also, I'm going to create some better reflections
for these three D models, which means other the
presets environment, back light environments. This is part of the back
light collections coming from the video Copilots Bike
Like two K. I'll score down, I'll apply this here. You see the changes are
immediate. There we go. I just want to go up
again to the glossiness, the specular map that
will be before and after. Without the speculator map, we get very little reflection, but with it, we'll get
some great results.
7. Element 3D - Name & Logo: The next two objects to extrude. That will be my
name and my logo. Once again, I will click on the extrude button. I'll
double click on it. The name, this topic alias. I'll click okay for
the custom path. I'll choose custom path three on the Z. I'm
going to pull this out. I'm going to assign one of the beveled presets that
element three D comes with. In this case I will apply
the stripes bevel preset. I'm just going to click
and drag this right on top of the object release that targeting the paint
material for the illumination. I'll change the color to a
yellow color of my choice. I will up its intensity to
60% That looks pretty good. I'll change the view
to the left view. I like the distance. Maybe I can bring this a little closer, back on the perspective. All right. Click.
Duplicate this model. Double click During this logo, I'll change the custom path
to custom path four on the C. I'm going to bring this out under the transformation here
and for the orientation, I'll change this to 180
degrees by 180 degrees. I'm also going to scale
this down quite a bit. Let's see, I'm going to
go back to the left. Bring this closer,
perhaps I can. Skill is done even more. Something along those lines. Let's see, things are looking
pretty good here, like so.
8. Element 3D - Separating Objects: Now, before I get into
animating the entire scene, I'm going to bring the name and the logo
outside the group. I can target them separately. I will shift the electors to then click and drag and bring
them outside the group. The order doesn't really matter. What matters is
that I'm going to assign each object
to a separate group. In this case, the name will be assigned to the second group, the logo to the third group, and then click Okay.
9. After Effects - 3D Camera & Bending Objects: Moving forward, I'll go ahead and add a three D
camera to the scene. So I'll click on the
Timeline Under the menu, New Camera Inside
the Camera Settings dial up box for the
type of camera. I'll choose the two node
camera for the lens set. I'll set this 135 millimeter. I'm just going to
leave everything as is and then click Okay. I'll grab the orbit
around the cursor tool. I'm just going to
orbit this around. I'll target the element
three D solid layer here inside the
group two which is basically the name here inside the particle look,
deform and bend. I'm going to bend this a
bit. I would enable it. I'll set the bend
angle to 30 degrees, the bend direction to 90
degrees. That looks good. Perhaps I can
actually bring this closer to the oval shape. And I can do this inside the particle
replicator right here on the position z, see that? Maybe I can bring this,
let's say to ten. I think that's enough here. I'll work on the logo
here which is under the group three
Particle Deform bend. I'll enable it. The
bend angle will be -30 degrees and 90 degrees
for the direction. I can also bring this
a little closer. Again, that will be inside the particle replicator
here is on the Z, can do this negative ten, I think the distance more
or less is the same. I like C, so I'm
going to keep that.
11. After Effects - Smoothing Animations: To better time the animation. No need to have two views.
One view is enough. I'll scribe the current time dedicated to the
very beginning and press Space bar on
the keyboard for the Ram preview and then stop. I actually want to improve
this animation and make it smoother the
way it comes in. I will make you select
those two keyframes. Click under the
keyframe assistant. I'll chase the interpolation
from linear two is. I'll press Spacebar for
another run preview. That looks good but that doesn't mean it cannot be improved. I will select the key frame, bring up the graph editor, then double click
on the key frame to bring up the keyframe velocity. And set the influence for the incoming velocity
to 80% And click okay. The animation goes like this. It accelerates and as it
comes in it decelerates. And by the way, I'm working
inside the speed graph, I'll do the same
for this keyframe back on the graph editor. This timer, I can just use the influence handle
to do exactly the same. I'll set this one to
80 something percent. Then press space
bar for the Ram. Preview looks great. Perhaps I can select all of these key frames and
space the mount tad, there's a little
bit longer distance here for the rotation. Great. Now the next
is right here. I'll click on that right click. Easy is back on
the graph editor. Double click and set the
incoming velocity to 100% We'll accelerate and then slowly decelerate space bar
for the Ram preview. Great, same story here for the two right click
firm assistance is, is I'll bring the
influence handle to 100% and this
influence handle to 100% then press the space
part for the Ram preview. Fantastic, exactly
what I was going for.
12. After Effects - Rendering Out Settings: Now that the animation
is in place, I want to talk about
the render settings. How can I improve the overall reflections and what have you? I'll click on the element
three D solid layer, back on the effect controls under the render settings and inside the
physical environment. First I will increase the overall exposure
on the environment. I'm also going to increase the gamma and that
was going to give me some more contrast and also
is going to help me to get more rich colors
for the reflections. Also rotate the
entire environment. I will scrub the
current time decator to the very beginning
and I'm going to rotate the Y rotation
environment. We'll click on the stopwatch to create the first key frame. Then to go to the last
visible keyframe, I'm going to use the
keyboard shortcuts. That will be the letter K that goes to the next
visible keyframe. I'm going to tap this
few times to go to the last visible
keyframe and set the Y rotation environment
to 150 degrees. I'll scrabe the current time decator to the very beginning. I press the space par
for the Ram preview. As you can see, the
environment rotates on the Y as the animation
takes place. For the glow, I will enable the glow and here's
the intensity. Okay, I'm just going to
bring this down actually to 11 is enough on my end. I can also have
some motion blur. I will turn this
on, but I also need to increase the
motion blur samples. I'm going to go for 20, then I'll scrub the current
time decator. Nice and slow. We can see the motion
blur taking place. You see that over
there and there? All right, another
thing I can do inside the output for
the multi sampling, I'll change this 8-16 Actually, let me go ahead and
zoom in a bit here so I can show you
the difference. You're going to see some
changes here once and change the multi sampling 8-16 Now this reduces basically
the jagged edges on objects that have sharp
highlights and reflections. Go ahead and press
the space par for the norm preview. Things
are looking good. I got the glow, very
nice reflections. Here's the motion blur. It's going to be a little
slow in the system but still looks good. I'll keep that.
13. After Effects - Trimming Composition: Before exporting the
entire animation, I'll go ahead and
trim the composition, since it only lasts
a few seconds. I suppose the entire
animation around here. I'm also going to leave a bit of a breathing room,
let's say around here. And then using the
keyboard shortcuts, I'll press the letter on
the keyboard to set the end of work area to this
current time relic. Then trim comp to work area. Now go up to the Composition
Menu Add To Render, I need to specify here where this move is
going to be exported, and then click to Render.
14. Thank You!: Thank you so very much for
spending time with me. Understanding how to use the very powerful
video copilot plug in inside after effects. Reach out. If you
have any questions or feedback about the course, it would be a great
help to hear from you.
Elias Sarantopoulos, Helping You Develop
