Keep Your Eye on the Ball… 3D in After Effects

Animating your After Effects design in 3D space is fun and,
for the most part, easy to achieve. However, the camera and objects can
have their own agendas in some instances, but a few tricks can change a
seemingly uncontrollable camera animation into pure, cool
cinematography…

1 CREATE COMP; IMPORT/CREATE FOOTAGE
Start out in a blank After Effects CS3 project, and press Command-N (PC:
Ctrl-N) to create a New Composition. In the Composition Settings
dialog, choose HDV/HDTV 720 29.97 from the Preset menu, enter 6 seconds
for Duration, and click OK. Then create, or double-click in the Project
panel to import, an item you wish to move the camera around in 3D space.
(For this flyby title animation, I’m importing a clip named SBE173H
from Artbeats.com—an
HD clip of a 3D-animated soccer ball.) A circular element like this
will add even more 3D depth to the scene. When imported, drag the clip
into the Timeline.



2 MASK CLIP
In the Timeline, double-click the ball clip to open it in a Layer
window, then go to the Toolbar and choose the Ellipse tool (nested under
the Rectangle tool [Q]). Position the cursor in the center of the ball,
start dragging, and then hold down Shift and Command (PC: Ctrl) to
proportionately constrain and center the circle. Double-click a point on
the mask to position and scale it to fit the edge of the ball, then
close the Layer window and select the main Selection tool (V). If you
click the Toggle Transparency Grid icon in the Comp window, you can see
that the ball is now separated from the background.

3 ADJUST SPEED; SCALE BALL; ADD SOLID
We want to make the ball spin faster, so click the {} icon at the very
bottom left to expand the Stretch pane in the Timeline, then click on
the ball’s Stretch value and change it to 25%. Close the time Stretch
pain by clicking the {} icon again. With the ball still selected, press
the S key to reveal its Scale property, and shrink it to the appropriate
size (60% in this example). Now, go to Layer>New>Solid, make the
Width and Height 1500×1500 pixels, click the color swatch, choose a
bright color for visibility, and click OK. Click OK again, and then
click-and-drag the solid below the ball in the Timeline.

4 3D LAYERS; MOVE SOLID
In the Switches column, click the boxes below the 3D Layer icon next to
both the ball and the solid—nothing will change, but now we can add
perspective. In the Comp window, ensure that your 3D View Popup is set
to Active Camera. Select the solid in the Timeline and press P, Shift-R,
then Shift-S to reveal the Position, Scale, Orientation, and Rotation
properties. Change its X Rotation value to 90° and its Y Position value
(the second field on the Position line) to 900 to place the solid below
the ball, acting as a floor. Finally, change the Scale to around 2,000%.


5 ADD GRID & ADJUST
Animating in 3D space is much easier when you have reference objects or
lines to work with—but a ball and a flat color solid don’t look much
different from any angle! So go to Effect>Generate>Grid, and a
square grid appears on the solid. Set the Blending Mode (in the Effect
Controls panel) to Normal to see the original color of the solid, then
change the grid settings to suit your needs. You can always switch
Active Camera to Custom View 1 in the Comp window and then use the Orbit
Camera tool (C) to view the scene from a different angle—showing the
ball as a flat 2D object.

6 ADD CAMERA; AUTO-ORIENT BALL
Switch back to Active Camera view, then go to Layer>New>Camera.
Choose 35mm from the Preset menu, ensure the Enable Depth of Field
checkbox is turned off, and click OK. As you saw in Step 5, looking at
the ball from a different angle reveals a problem—the 3D layers are
flat. But here’s a super little trick: Select the ball layer in the
Timeline, go to Layer>Transform>Auto-Orient, choose Orient Towards
Camera, and then click OK. Now the ball will auto-rotate to stay
face-on to the camera!

7 ANIMATE THE CAMERA
Let’s test this by animating our camera now. At 0 seconds in the
Timeline, select the Camera 1 layer, hit P to open the Position
property, and set the X, Y, and Z values to 2700, 500, and –1000,
respectively. Click the Time-Vary Stopwatch icon to add a Position
keyframe, then scrub along the Timeline to 5 seconds and change the
values to –800, –600, and –300. Now scrub back and forth along the
Timeline (or hit 0 on the keypad to RAM Preview), and you’ll see the
camera and grid show movement, and the ball always looks totally 3D.
Very cool but…

8 ADD NULL; ANIMATE
…the ball is always dead-center of the screen, and this looks fake. So
let’s do a small trick to fix that. At 0 seconds, go to
Layer>New>Null Object, and then click the 3D box for the new Null 1
layer in the Timeline. Press P to bring up the Position property,
change its X, Y, and Z position values to –600, 360, and 0,
respectively, and then click the Stopwatch icon to add a keyframe at 0
seconds. Scrub along to 5 seconds and change the Null’s X, Y, and Z
position to 500, 400, and 400. This is basically animating the Null to
move in close proximity to the ball’s position, but with a different
speed and end result.

9 EXPRESSION CAMERA POI
So now we can tell the camera to look at the Null—and not the center of
the ball—during its position animation, and this will offset the motion
beautifully. Select the Camera layer and hit A to reveal its Point of
Interest property (POI). This, by default, is always pointed at the
center of the 3D scene, but it helps greatly if this is told to follow
an object instead. Hold down Option (PC: Alt) and click on the POI
Stopwatch icon, click-and-hold the Expression Pickwhip (swirl) icon, and
drag it to the Null 1 layer’s Position value.

10 ADJUST ANIMATION
Now when you RAM Preview, you can see a much more cinema-like feel to
the camera movement—the ball goes off-camera slightly to one side, and
the final resting position is more controllable, which allows for
insertion of text, titles, and other elements. Go back to the Camera
Position keyframes (select the Camera layer and press P), scrub to 5
seconds, select the second keyframe, and adjust its values to –800,
–1000, and –800. Now Shift-click the final Position keyframe for the
Null 1 layer so that it’s selected as well. Go under the Animation menu
and choose Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In to ease the motion in
slowly.

11 ADD SOLID SHADOW; MASK
To give the ball some “lift” from the solid ground, let’s add a shadow.
Using a light wouldn’t work very well, as the ball casting the shadow
would be—remember—rotating to follow the camera, so the shadow would
adjust its shape in a strange way. Instead, at 0 seconds go to
Layer>New>Solid, set the size to 750×750, change the color swatch
to black, and click OK. As we did in Step 2, use the Ellipse tool to
create a circular mask from the center to about half way to the four
sides of the black solid.

12 ADJUST SETTINGS; ADD MOTION BLUR
Turn the masked solid layer into a 3D layer. Hit R to reveal its
Rotation values, and set its X Rotation to 90°. Hit P to reveal its
Position values, then set its Y Position to 898 until the solid is just
above the floor. Hit F to reveal the mask’s Feather property and adjust
to your desired softness. Finally, hit T to reveal its Opacity value,
and lighten it slightly to show the floor through the shadow. Cool, eh?
Now, in the Switches panel, turn on Motion Blur for the ball, shadow,
and floor solid, and then click on the Enables Motion Blur icon in the
Timeline. A RAM Preview sure looks great now!

13 EMBELISH & COMPLETE
Now you’re free to change out the floor for other elements and graphics,
adjust the position keyframes and timing, and get more daring with the
moves and find keyframe combinations that really suit the project you’re
working on. The main thing is, you now have full control of your camera
and can accurately animate smooth cinematographic moves without the
guesswork. Enjoy!