Quickly Create 3D in After Effects

In this video tutorial we'll take a look at how to quickly create 3D objects in After Effects.
Download Project Files: www.schoolofmotion.com/tutori...
Enroll for Free in the 30 Days of After Effects Series: bit.ly/2tu842p
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Partial, Auto-Generated Transcript Below 👇
Joey Korenman (00:19): What's up Joey here at school of motion and welcome to day seven of 30 days of after effects today. What we're going to talk about is something that's a little bit back to basics and after effects and something. A lot of you probably already know, which is that after effects is sort of a 3d program, you can create 3d objects by taking two and a half D cards and kind of arranging them to create maybe a box. Now, why would you want to do that when maybe you already own cinema 40? Well, I'm going to get into some of the reasons why you might want to do stuff like this in after effects. I'm going to show you some cool tricks. We're also going to talk about animation principles, which is a big deal to me. It's kind of the secret sauce that makes your work feel good.
Joey Korenman (00:59): It's kind of hard to put your finger on why it feels good if you don't understand animation principles. And unfortunately we can only cover so much in just this one lesson. So if you really want in-depth animation training, you're going to want to check out our animation bootcamp course. Not only is it several weeks of intense animation training, but you also get access to class only podcasts, PDs, and critiques on your work from our experienced teaching assistants. Every moment of animation bootcamp is designed to give you an edge in everything you create as a motion designer. Also, don't forget to sign up for a free student account so you can grab the project files from this lesson. All right, that's enough. Let's get to it. So what I'm going to show you guys is a really simple trick to, uh, you know, kind of get a nice 3d object that you can use inside of after effects using all native after effects stuff, you know, no fancy plugins, no elements, um, no plexus, nothing like that.
Joey Korenman (01:55): Um, and you know, this isn't always that useful. And of course, if you're, if you're great with cinema 4d, then a lot of times, if you need a 3d object, that's what you'll use. But you know, this example here, I thought it would be kind of appropriate because it it's a look that it's just easier to do an after effects. Um, so I thought that that would be kind of a good way of showing you guys something that, um, you may not think to use after effects in, in this way. Um, and sometimes it's useful. So let's start a new comp real quick, just, uh, you know, standard HD comp, uh, 24 frames a second. And I'm going to show you a super fast trick. This is really easy. I'm sure there's a million tutorials out there that show you how to do this, but I'm going to show you how to put together a 3d cube, a really quick and easy way.
Joey Korenman (02:40): So let's make a new solid, and let's just kind of pick some red color here. Um, and let's make it a square just to make it easy. So let's make the width a 1000 and the height 1000. So there you go. Um, so we'll make it a 3d layer, right? So obviously now we can, uh, we can rotate it around and we can sort of move it in 3d space and put together a cube. So let's just call this side one. Um, and then I'm gonna duplicate it. I'm gonna change the color of this. So I'm just going to hit shift command. Y brings up the solid settings and we'll pick a different color. All right. So this will be side too. And, uh, and then we'll just keep doing this. We'll make six sides. We can make a cube and I'll try to do this quick. So you've got red, green, blue, I'll duplicate it. Why don't we make this one kind of yellow?
Joey Korenman (03:38): We'll make this one. I don't know how a pink, pink so hot right now. It's like one of those in colors and then six is going to be, let's go orange. Great. All right. So we've got six sides. So one of the, one of the things that, uh, is cool about after effects is that if you kind of make a 3d scene in a comp like this, right? So this is comp one, why don't I rename this? Uh, why don't we rename this cube? Underscore PC PC stands for pre comp. Okay, I'll put this in my comms folder. So if I make a 3d scene and this comp, and then I drag it into a new comp like this, um, it comes in as one layer, but using a couple of tricks, I can actually turn this into a 3d object, which is really sweet.

[@cmbates4053]

I can't thank you enough, your tutorials are better viewing than Netflix. I have advanced so much in a few weeks. Just completed my own 3D boxes with sliders on x,y,z rotation, scale, and position. Great teaching style, Cheers

[@morbidcuriosityproductions8830]

Awesome tutorial. Very well explained. Thank you for this.

[@Woodgal91]

Absolutely wonderful. I just needed help creating a 3d cube....pretty simple with your awesome tutorial! Thanks so much!

[@jessinxp]

Best tutorial ever. Love the way you teach.

[@JakobDam]

Great tutorial - well explained and easy to follow! Very helpful, thanks a lot.

[@ashdays]

Extremely Helpful. Thank you for the amazing content!

[@wiliamelomaloma5990]

Awesome stuff, really makes workflow faster so I've hit the subscribe button. Great content hope to learn a lot from your channel. Thanks for sharing your expertise in Motion graphics to make others better.

[@hobit7585]

the tricks you showed in this are amazing to overcome some afterFX barriers

[@markchadwick77]

So many concepts covered! Excellent!

[@twskelton]

Always there when I need a quick refresh. Many thanks, Joey!!!!!!

[@tjmixmasta]

This one made me hit the bell. Is there a tutorial available on how you achieved that lighting?

[@markpersaud4918]

Awesome tutorial very helpful been wanting to create a 3d box and bam i see this. Thank you.

[@serkanyel9606]

Very informative tutorial. Thanks enough!

[@fabiantorres4668]

Very, very, very, really very good tutorial, Thank you...Subscribed and bell on

[@courtcrea.]

Thank you for the excellent explanation! This opens a lot of new doors

[@goczbela8469]

thx men!! all of your tuts are really cooooooool!!!!

[@1WillyDAVID]

this is awesome, ¡thank you!

[@ExakTime]

using sliders to separate scale dimensions just blew my mind and made my life so much easier!

[@niektenhagen560]

very nice solution to rig the dimensions of the scale!

[@yahyaelnaggar2264]

Really helpful ,Thanks

[@alexanderlane]

Great tutorial! Have only used AE in 2D, this was really helpful. Love the idea of using the two frame animations of texture from PS.

[@aaroncraig6538]

Great Tutorial!!!

[@parkerjohnson5270]

Great examples of some of the 12 principles of animation!

[@ChanellJWilson]

thank you so much for this tutorial

[@saemranian]

Perfect and thanks for sharing.

[@didiertecher1136]

Really great!

[@PetarRusev]

Thank you for this!

[@diensilva]

Thanks!

[@patomographix8511]

Bro, thanks. This video was so helpful to me.

[@huseyinyildizkovboy]

That was great a tutorial. Awesome

[@aerojoea]

Excellent stuff!

[@Michael-NZ]

Loved that hand drawn look!

[@3D-PHASE]

Great one! Thank you!!!

[@fernandocecchetto]

EXCELENTEEE!!! GRACIAS!!

[@diytamilview9381]

THANK YOU SO MUCH SIR

[@palpytine]

Throughout this entire video, watching full-screen, I thought I had an app bouncing for attention. But no... it was in the recording!

[@wefxgreen7105]

Thanks

[@EXPOSITO_VFX]

Very nice. thanks ;)

[@humanawareness3774]

You are an Amazing teacher in this Industry. Thanks 😊😊💖💖

[@EREN_777]

Best soft soft Introduction Ever!!

[@elwariat5774]

wow, very cool!

[@WillArtie]

Nice quick intro to AE 3D controls - ta!

[@maglucen]

Thank you so much for the video :) was really helpful. Do you any video explaining how to get the effect that you got on the final render? I was looking to create an intro that looked like this, but have problems with he lighting part. Thank you so much

[@Thinman63]

Long time AE user. This is a fantastic tutorial.

[@blackswan6386]

this floor,...man !!!! thanks !!!

[@Michael-NZ]

Great intro to 3D too

[@drakolyx8842]

Thanks u so much God

[@rakmichal]

What technique did you use to create the shadow under the cube? Thank you! Great tutorial BTW

[@wervie7682]

I was really wondering about why 250 until u figured out it was wrong. It's kinda cool u show your mistakes too for a point.

[@sdk4073]

Thx for that, exactly what I needed. You confused the hell out of me with that pause at 14:54 tho. Looks like someone forgot to cut the audio ;D

[@austinbonelli311]

How did you guys do that shadow technique? I'm trying to sift through the project file but am having difficulty understanding. thanks!

[@VinhPham-el8kc]

nice

[@SuncoastSoftware]

I know this is an older video but I just recently got into AE and would really like a in depth tutorial on how this was created. from the Photoshop texture all the way thru the lighting and composition in AE. would you be willing to do that?

[@umiyagarbimandalluntavadar7267]

tnx

[@yitphady3787]

I like that

[@salmamostafa]

great tutorial .. how can I make the cube with rounded corners ?

[@mlememe9541]

hey, what if for any purposes I wanted to create an another array in the scale expression section. How AE decide which one it is updating a property values with? Is there any reference for what kind on data types are every single ae property expecting to achieve?

[@martinapappagallo9619]

Nice tutorial! But how can I export to not lose the 3D?

[@TheComposer1979]

ok simple this guy is Pro thats it

[@franzllagas1157]

Great tutorial. But how can i render it with custom view ? It always lose its 3d whne i export it

[@ryanrandolph5478]

how did you create the textures and add the effects to them

[@johanstone]

so there's no way to avoid the weird edges ae makes when you make a cube that way? no matter how precisely they are paired together it always shows the edge

[@TiborshoMaldito]

whats the song in the intro?

[@turgutabasli1722]

thank you for tut :) there is also the same problem with expression but after adding ; to the x=effect("X scale")("Slider") it's worked. just copy and paste this x=effect("X scale")("Slider"); y=effect("Y scale")("Slider"); z=effect("Z scale")("Slider"); [x,y,z];

[@jackiesanchez4613]

hi i had a question when i make a 3D object or shape you can kind of see the back layers of the cube interfere with the left figure if you know what i mean or when i try to put them together you can see that they go into each other, do you know how to fix that?

[@shimronnetia]

Be blessed

[@angelfmusic]

Is this good to create an ebook cover animation.

[@kozmizm]

I'll give you a thumbs up just for your complaint about not being able to separate the scale components

[@chrishuber1474]

many thanks for this really great tutorial, your boxes look absolutely adorable. With your technique i also built some boxes, but ran into an issue with shadows, as soon as i switch the x,y,z scale to expression with sliders, the cube doesnt cast shadow anymore, without expression sliders, the shadow is fine, do you know a solution / workaround for this issue?

[@schoolofmotion]

Glad you liked it! Try these steps: Twirl open the layer > Materiel Options > Cast Shadows: "on". Hopefully that helps out! If not double check that your lights have a long enough falloff distance under Light Options.

[@chrishuber1474]

thank you so much for your reply, those settings were all set good, i guess it was just an after effects quirk, as soon as i remove the sliders from the 3d cube precomp layer, the shadow where visible again, as soon as i inserted one slider -> shadow removed, i have now solved this issue: i created a null object, did add the 3 sliders to the null object and linked the 3d cube scale properties to the null object sliders and that worked well :-) many thanks for your great tutorials again

[@TheCamberwellCat]

@@chrishuber1474 I had to do that too - thanks for the idea (a year after you posted...)

[@chrishuber1474]

@@TheCamberwellCat hey i´m glad it worked!!

[@avinashsagar3294]

Thanks for the Great tutorial. This will really Help full. But I am facing a problem when doing this. When i Duplicate my boxes and rotate my Camera, my boxes are showing back faces. ( like in 3D program turning on backfacing kull ) Please Help...!!!

[@schoolofmotion]

Are you rotating the box 180 degrees along the right axis?

[@milesmungo]

Works for boxes, what about cylinders?

[@raiinworks]

Hey! Thanks for the great tutorial. I was wondering if there is a way to auto-trace the entire 3D cube? I wanted to apply the Saber effect to it!

[@schoolofmotion]

hmm that's a good question. You'd probably have to do each face individually.

[@sjasociados4579]

what i have to do ni soft stuido?

[@MultiREDDO]

HOW DO YOU DO THE SHADOWS???????????????

[@fiftypnce]

Great tutorial, which I followed to the end. But then I wanted to go further, and play around with the lighting - as in your intro. Trouble is, my Geometry Option is greyed-out.... and my boxes don't cast shadows after I added a light (to be clear; they have shaded SIDES, but don't cast shadows onto the "floor" or each other). I made sure the cast shadows option was checked etc? Any pointers please ? :-)

[@fiftypnce]

Ignore my comment about Geometry Option, which - in Classic 3D - isn't needed for my intentions. I also made sure the floor (which is a solid) is set to receive shadows. No joy :-( something's amiss.

[@ParkEdward]

@@fiftypnce ever find out how to do this?

[@fiftypnce]

@@ParkEdward sadly no! I actually abandoned the task and used Blender to achieve my animation lol! To be honest, I'll bet the 2019 AE has resolved the issue. One day I'll revisit 😉

[@christinawhite4525]

I'm trying to build an object. A tall thin rectangular object, but the top is twisted by so many degrees as to give the object a cork screw shape. Sorry I don't know how else to explain it. Is there a way to do that in after effects?

[@schoolofmotion]

That would be tricky in After Effects, but crazy easy in Cinema 4D using an effector. You should try it out. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIXcl55nq9Z4lbc

[@amy_ambrosio]

I don't know why the faces of the cube are not getting in the correct place, I mean, I'm repeating everything you've done but still it doesn't work (the sizes, the 500, etc.) ):

[@saansharora2912]

How do i render this ? its rendering from the front view

[@schoolofmotion]

So! Some times you can accidently set the view to just front view in the composition. At the bottom of the composition window you should see a drop-down menu for changing your views. Make sure that it's set to Active camera. Also, check out this forum post. It may be able to help! video.stackexchange.com/questions/4644/how-to-change-active-camera-in-after-effects-or-render-a-different-camera

[@PrimmsHoodCinema]

You're never gonna see this. But plz... How do I export a cube? I want it to be an overlay but still remain a 3d object.

[@BTNMNKI]

I'm getting a ton of flickering issues with this project.

[@Benjiemation]

I'm not sure it's just me but when I'm adding the expressions on the effects's scale I receive this error message "error: expression result must be of dimension 3 not 1" Why is this occurring on my box precomp?

[@schoolofmotion]

It seems like its not reading an array. Make sure the expressions ends with 3 values in an array like so: [x,y,z]; In-between each of the commas is one array value. x,y,z in my example are the predefined variables. hope that helps!

[@Benjiemation]

​@@schoolofmotion​So I noticed I didn't have the null objected parented as and it seems to be working now

[@saadmohammad6141]

starts at 1:34

[@asiammilin6138]

Aaron 70218 I tNice tutorialnk you accidentally closed it and then it crashed. Could you give more details?

[@BerishaFatian]

You can simply make this with a shape layer 3D

[@Anna-es3kr]

Hi Fatian, could you please suggest me a tutorial for doing this in 3d? I'm not finding it...thank you!!

[@Evie_Ruby]

23:17

[@Evie_Ruby]

28:03

[@ErikvanRavenstein]

20:28 hihihi

[@Geepstar]

I am fresh. No background in designing (exept for buildings - architect) . could you show me the very quickest way (link will do, or movie) to make trailers, intro's etc. for vlogging? The shorter your tuturials the better. I am now at 1:01 of this video, and allready a fan.

[@Geepstar]

(you are only going damn fast hahaha)

[@Geepstar]

I am making vlogs 1080p 50 fps, so I selected 50 fps.. why you select 24? If I may ask?

[@Benjiemation]

​@@GeepstarI believe 24 fps is standard for animation higher fps are good for video recording.

[@Geepstar]

@@Benjiemation I am ready for 16K 120 fps ;-) (at least)

[@Evie_Ruby]

12:35

[@saparzhanshantay7246]

Come in new creative make to After 😊

[@mrcd59]

22:15 This expression don't work

[@BTNMNKI]

I had the same problem. Try resetting the effect and then redoing it. Then go to the start of the comp and tyr carefully changing one slider value at a time. This comp isglitchy as f**k and and the box will flicker and disappear quite a bit.

[@tristankalaquian6807]

Harry Osborn ?

[@HyperBassYT]

Well, I know he's bald. To make it easier to greenscreen him 😂

[@YeHnJaCk]

good tutorial, but it wouldn't hurt for the tutor to take some geometry or algebra classes

[@andhersoncabrera]

sa lol

[@navidn2m708]

mouth noises are like sh...t

[@simplysurfing]

Hahahahahaaaaa its ridiculous the number of calculations and planning needed for a BOX. That's is why Ae is no good in all this....its king at what it does.....2 or so called hyped 2.5d...It takes me 5 secs to draw a box in a 3D app, its king at what IT does. Thats why that that tool for that that purpose or else wont all AC technicians turn up with just 1 hammer.

[@gamingkurutta6341]

Dr bluewofsofte lol was gonna say the sa