So far, we have been working in 2d on After Effects, meaning we have been using the x and y axis. When it is time to work in a 3-dimensional space, a third axis is introduced, called z. X left and right, y is up and down, and z is forwards and backwards. So the z provides that depth which allows objects to be seen in a third perspective thus making them 3d.

 

 

To have our first taste of working in 3d in After Effects, we began with making some text and showing the 3d space through lights and shadows. As always, I followed the instructions and later attempted it myself, making sure to know what each thing I click meant and changed.

Demo

1.  Make a new composition and create a solid layer.
2.  Click on the capital T at the top of the screen to insert a text box and type something.
3.  In the layers panel, click the box below the 3d cube for both layers, in order to make them 3d and introduce that third arrow.
4.  Change the active camera view to custom view 1, in order to see the composition from an angle that showcases depth.
5.  Select the text box and hold the blue arrow whilst dragging forward, to pull it away from the solid background. Doing so will allow us to see the shadows created later on and better show the idea of 3d. Change the view back to active camera once satisfied.
6.  Now it is time to add the light. Go into layer, new and select the ‘light’ option. Before clicking ok, make sure the ‘cast shadows’ box is ticked. You should see a spotlight shine onto your text.
7.  Opening up the light layer that was just added allows you to see all of the aspects that you can edit, change and animate. In light options, there are many useful ones, such as cone angle, which is how big or small the light is, and cone feather, which is the sharpness of the light.
8.  Open the text layer and go to material options. There you can turn ‘cast shadows’ on and shadows of the letters will appear when the light it over them.
9.  Depending on whether it is desirable for the text to be affected by the light, toggling ‘accept lights’ impacts on whether or no the text disappears without any light.
10.  Next to active camera, there is a box for one view. Changing the view allows you to change the format and look at layers from different angles.

 

 

I really liked the fact that almost anything that you could edit or change about the light was also something you could animate with the stopwatch. So, In my animation, I made the spotlight pass my text three, four times, moving from left to right. Each time, I played around with the options I could change, increasing sharpness, or making the light smaller, or changing its colour. I enjoyed making it unexpected and interesting to watch. Something that I think would have been very interesting to try out would be making the text change in synchronisation with the light. For example, I can imagine the text having a gradient, which fades into different colours as the light passes over it.

 

 

 

 

 

From that point onwards, when we had learned how to create the light, make shadows and so on, it was basically about experimentation and furthering the skills that were already applied. The next clip I created involved the same things but with something extra, with an aim to replicate title sequences. The idea was to learn how to change the angle of the text, so that whilst the spotlight is moving, we get zooms, low and high angles and general movement around the subject. Essentially, learning how to add a camera perspective to enable us to view the text from different points.

The first thing I did was go into Google and type in high res textures so that I could pick a background which was high resolution and a good quality image. I saved one, not pondering too much on my choice as this was merely practise, and imported it into After effects. I stretched the image out so that there was some overlap (I made it slightly bigger than the composition) because the changes in angle might look strange if the background was cut off. From there, I followed the exact same steps from the previous demo, making the layers 3d, adding a light, casting shadows etc. but then, I went to layer, new, camera, which would be the difference between the two clips. Next to the pan behind button, there is a little video recorder icon, which is the camera. Selecting that enabled me to left click hold and move the whole compositions around. This is how I was able to animate the changes in perspective and make the video more appealing and fun. I didn’t experiment too much with this and went with my gut, allowing the camera to almost naturally flow from one position to the next. From all of my experience with media, as just a normal person, I instinctually knew to vary the positions and make the zoom-ins and outs work well with where the camera was moving to. For example, if at one point, the camera was looking at the text from a high angle to the left, it felt right to then bring it down and move it to the left.

 

 

I also varied the speed at which the camera moved because most title sequences in films don’t have a constant speed with their motion. Different speeds are more exciting and allow you to pack more into a shorter amount of time. One thing I forget to do quite often is shorten the length of my video. The default for when you open After Effects is a 30-second video, but if the action isn’t that long, there is no need for the video to be that size. I need to get into the habit of cutting the unnecessary time away so that when I render my work out, the files aren’t as big. Nevertheless, I think the result looks awesome, and the changes in perspective definitely make it more interesting then if it was just seen from the front like my ‘hello world’ clip.

 

 

The final thing to do was to take everything we learned and add them to a clip that we create on our own. Since this is the month of Halloween, the theme was a horror film opening sequence or title sequence for a trailer. I decided to make mine based on ‘IT Chapter 3’ even though that movie isn’t being made. I wanted to include the red balloon and Pennywise because I feel like they have become classic horror tropes and almost everyone understands them and references them to IT. So I went into Google images and gathered everything I wanted. I had to think about how many backgrounds I wanted to include, any elements, like the balloon and the bloody writing, and also make sure that they were all without a background. My plan was to first see the red balloon floating upwards in a spooky house, after which the screen would flicker and change to a creepy wooden background. This was where the spotlight would come in and move from left to right a few times. The first time, Pennywise wouldn’t be there, but the second time, he’d appear, as if from the shadows and disappear again. I also wanted to show some bloody writing on the wall before finally moving onto the title, where I’d use the camera.

 

 

 

Although that was my plan, it didn’t turn out exactly as I pictured it. Mainly because I ran into a few issues, but also because it was more complicated then I thought it would be. One of the issues I had was at the very start when I had all of my assets saved and ready to import into After Effects. At first, I imported all of them together, because it was quicker, but I soon realised that organising the layers was too difficult to do when there were so many. So I tried again and did it bit by bit, importing maximum three or four files. However, that also proved incorrect because then I was missing things out and getting confused with assets I had yet to add. I believe that this was mostly in my mind, as I haven’t had a lot of experience with After Effects and I’m still getting used to thinking in the specific mindset. I ended up importing all of the assets needed for one background, and then all of the ones needed for the other so that I could work with everything sort of in two groups. As well as that, I had some trouble with the transition effect I wanted between the two backgrounds. I wanted there to be a flicker like when the lights in horror films turn on and off. However, I only know to make a solid and make it flash, which was for when I learned to make lightning. Because of this, it wasn’t quite how I wanted it to look visually. I didn’t want to spend too much time on it though, as I had other things to work on that would also take a while.

The second big problem I ran into was time. Because I hadn’t explored every single option available to edit the light, and even though I had a rough plan, new ideas kept popping into my head and I wanted to add more things into the clip. For example, I found an option that allows you to completely shrink the light, and I was reminded of those films that end with an entirely black screen except for the shrinking hole that still shows what is happening. I wanted to replicate that, so I created something similar but added a different image of Pennywise just when the hole was about to disappear, and then it enlargened again, almost out of shock. Keeping in mind the fact that with each new asset I added, I had to do some reorganisation and figure out where it would fit amongst the layers, and sort out the opacity, and then figure out when it would appear in correlation to existing keyframes, no wonder it took me such a long time. I didn’t get everything I wanted to do done, so the clip is unfinished, but I am still quite happy with what I accomplished. I would have liked to include the things I learned about the camera though, which would have happened at the end with the title. If I got everything completed, I would also have liked to add some sound too, to add to the tone and make it seem like an actual trailer for a horror film.