How to integrate 3D animated objects using ELEMENT 3D in After Effects

[Music] foreign [Music] Welcome everyone, Eran Stern here for SternFX and in this  tutorial I'll show you how to use element 3D   in After Effects to create a short teaser like the  one you just saw a moment ago [Music] [Applause] so this movie is part of a series called 3D in  After Effects where I will demonstrate how to use   different 3D tools including third-party plugins  to achieve more or less the same brief I also plan   to expand it and show other cool tools for the  3D design space of after effects that received a   lot of love in the recent years and will continue  to grow in the near future in other words please   subscribe to this channel to make sure you'll  get the full story and see few different ways   to integrate 3D into your After Effects workflow  but as I mentioned in the upcoming tutorials I'll   use the same concept to create teasers for the  Adobe video World Tour that will take place in few   famous cities starting with Atlanta in the north  USA so depending on when you are seeing this video   you may be able to join us over there more details  in the description of course anyway this video is   all about my favorite plugin which is element  from video co-pilot and how to integrate it   with 3D camera tracking inside after effects and  a bit of Cinema 4D now it's probably going to be   a long tutorial so there are chapters below that  will help you to navigate and Skip to different   parts if you want to but we are going to start  with camera tracking here inside after effects   so here we are inside after effects and this is  the footage that we are going to use there is a   link to download it for free in the description  I'm going to show you in few moments how I got   it but just to show you what I already cooked  ahead of time I'll switch on the visibility   for the Atlanta live text for what it's worth I'm  using the Futura condensed book font and I'm going   to switch it off and also show you that there is  an adobe video World logo in the form of a shape   layer over here both layers actually everything  here is still a 2d layer alright so let's start   with solving the camera for this shot so what I  did in this case is downloaded the 4kd Ultra HD   version and then I pre-compose it and placed it  inside this composition this seems to work in my   case but you are more than welcome to go your  own way so to this HD comp or compost position   I'm going to apply under animation the 3D camera  tracking effect by selecting track camera from the   animation menu and this is going to apply the 3D  camera tracker so this is a background operation   so you can do whatever you want in this project  assuming you're not going to close it and while   after effects is thinking about it I'm just going  to switch to my browser and show you where I got   this footage so this is from pixels.com by Kelly  this is the clip I'm just going to play it to you   from the beginning until the end if you want  to follow along you can use this free download   option and I recommend to download this 4K Ultra  HD and there is a method to my Menace although   we are using the full HD we can actually use some  more pixels when we need to create an environment   from this so it's going to be a little bit of a  cheat but trust me you should go with the Ultra   HD if possible alright let's come back to after  effects in the meantime After Effects already   finished to track this shot and before I'll move  further the first thing I always do after running   the 3D camera tracker is open up the advanced  option and check the average error and you can   see that in my case it is 0.32 pixels which is  very good so anything under one or maybe 1.5   should be considered a good tracking if you have  something different over here if you want to try   to improve your results you are more than welcome  to try the detailed analysis but in our case it is   actually working quite nice and I can also scrub  the timeline to show you all those 2D markers that   we are going to convert to 3D coordinates right  now so I'm going to hover over here on top of   this building and I'll click just to set my first  Target I'm going to move it to the middle of the   building and I'm going to right click on it now  usually the first step is to set ground plane and   origin but in this case I'm not going to use it  because it's not necessary I'm going to show you   how to do it in other tutorials for now I'm just  going to create null and camera that's it so I've   got a 3D null over here that is being tracked  to the building and obviously I've got the 3D   tracker camera which was generated by the effect  and everything from this point onward is going   to use the 3D camera animation but first let's  just marry the Adobe video World logo to this   plane so I'll make sure to turn it on and by the  way if you are working with me and you don't have   access to this logo you can use any logo you  want even your own logo see how generous I am   anyhow I'll make sure this is the 3D layer and  now I'll hold down the shift key use the parent   and Link Peak weep and point it to the track null  one that I've just created and this is going to   place it in the same zero zero zero coordinate  of this track now and I know you don't believe   me we just met so I'm going to press p and  show you that the position for this layer   is zero zero zero told you now it's a little  bit difficult to see what we have here because   after effects is hiding it with this 3D Gizmo  so I'll go to the view menu and momentarily I'm   going to switch off the layer controls there  is a keyboard shortcut that I'm going to use   from now onward command shift H here on the Mac  Ctrl shift h on the Windows side this is just   going to show us what we want to see without any  obstructions all right I'll press shift s and this   is going to also show this scale and I'll scale  it let's say to 500 percent I'm also going to   press shift R so I can see the orientation and  rotation and I'll play with the Z orientation   or Z just a tiny bit and if I want more control  I can hold the command or control key which is   going to divide my mouse Movement by 10. so  something like this looks like it is working   and I'm also going to select the layer switch the  blending mode to screen let's just drill it up   close everything and press spacebar to preview the  result which looks great and it was very easy to   achieve but it doesn't have anything to do with  the promise of this video element 3D alright so   now let's use element 3D to bring 3d titles on  screen as well as integrate 3D objects all right   so what we need for element 3D of course after  installing it is a new solid make sure nothing is   selected and then go to layer new solid also there  is this very famous keyboard shortcut of command   or control y I'm going to name mine element  because after all this is the official name of the   plugin not element 3D just element I'll make sure  it is set to comp size click OK it will create it   above all the layers because nothing was selected  and then I'll go to effect and in my case at the   bottom of the list I'm going to choose video call  Pilot element first I'll open up the custom layers   over here twirl down the custom text and masks and  for path layer 1 I'll set it to use the text layer   over here in my case Atlanta or layer number  five and then I'll close it now to work with   element we actually need to click on the scene  setup if you've seen it before you already know   how to work with it if not I'm going to give you  all the information you need to complete at least   this tutorial all right so what we need to do now  is click on the word extrude and this is going to   take this custom path one that we've just defined  you can see it over here and extrude it like so   now let's give it one of the presets so it  will look more nice I'll open up the bevels   and under the physical I'm going to use one of the  built-in one which is this guy racing double click   to apply it and just to show you how easy it is  I'm going to click OK and right now we have our   3D text already working with the 3D coordinates  or vanishing point of our 3D tracker camera this   is because element is 3D sensitive meaning that  it is already calculating and aware of whatever   camera you already have in the shot and just to  prove it I'm going to press spacebar so we can   see that the text is really in the scene it's not  exactly doing what I want but it's already there   to help us move it I'll select again the layer  which is the element layer open up group number   one this is the group that hosts this 3D text  and then under group utilities I'll drill down   the create group null and click create and this is  going to create a null object which is connected   via Expressions to this text meaning it will  help us to control it here inside the comp in   a much easier fashion I'll rename it by pressing  return title so I know what I'm doing and then   I'll press command shift H to bring back the  after effects layer overlays and now if I'm   going to move this or maybe rotate it or take it  up or down you can see that it is controlling the   text all right I'll undo a couple of times and  then I'll press P to show the position of this   null and what I want to do is just take it a  little bit back so something like this I guess   numbers are not really important here because you  may have something else on screen but in my case I   just want to place this guy let's say above the  building I'll create a keyframe for it and then   I'll move to three seconds in my timeline and just  scrub this Z value so I can move and also let's   just make sure that we are going exactly through  the triangle inside the a letter all right now I'm   going to pause here for a moment because I'm not  sure if you can see this but when I'm moving too   far we have this camera cutoff problem because  the layer is probably too close to our camera   now there is an easy fix for it inside the element  and if this happens to you select the element   layer go to the lender settings and the last one  or almost the last one where it says camera cutoff   is where you should find this camera near plane  you need to play with it until you are eliminating   the problem so this is what I'll do over here  and then I'll close it and now I can keep pushing   those letters these texts until it's just going  to go outside of the screen so something like   this I think works very nicely maybe I want  to lower it just a touch at the beginning I think it looks good but I want to make it  look even better by reflecting what we have   over here the environment and this is why I have  this Ultra HD copy here in the timeline so to do   this I'll select the element layer and first I  need to Define it as a custom layer so I'll open   up the custom layers this time we want to use the  second option which is custom texture Maps I'll   make sure that this is set to the pixel videos  layer this is the original 4K because we want   more pixels it's not a real hdri image so it's not  real 360 but I think it's going to work quite nice   it's a bit of a fake but we all love some cheats  right all right so let me show you how this works   I'll click on scene setup again to go inside the  scene setup interface and then I'll click on the   word environment it's actually a button which  will allow me to select an environment layer so   this is the default one I'll switch it to custom  layer 1. click OK over here click OK over here   and already we can see that this looks much more  believable it's not the real reflection and we   need to fool our Audience by changing a few of the  parameters over here and you can do it under the   render settings of the element effect so I'll open  up I'll expand the physical environment first I'll   change the exposure here let's just make it a bit  more brighter something like this should work and   you can also rotate it so I'll click and hold on  the Y rotation just to choose something else so   we won't see the same buildings now I know that  in reality in front of these downtown buildings   there is actually some grass and different  stuff but I'm going to assume that most of   our viewers don't know or don't care and this is  why I'm going to just choose a different portion   and I'm also playing with the X rotation just to  make sure that I'm keeping the same horizon line   so something like this I think works quite nice  and once it's moving you can hardly know that   this is not the real deal the real reflection I  really dig this I think it looks great and I also   think that we are now ready to the next stage  which is integrating a 3D model with animation   so I'm not sure if you know it but apparently  Atlanta's symbol is a phoenix it represents the   city literally rising from the ashes which  happens after General Sherman burn it down   during the Civil War only 400 buildings survived  so we have much more than 400 buildings now but   let's find a free Phoenix preferably animated  bird and to do so you can use the link in the   description I already open it over here this is  the sketchfab.com website you need to create your   own user in order to download some free models  and this bird this animated bird is the one that   we are going to use now I'm going to show you  how to convert it to something that element 3D   can understand using Cinema 4D but if you don't  have access to Cinema 4D you can do the same thing   using their free blender 3D application but first  we need to download the model so let's just click   on download 3D model and I'm going to use the  original format the fbx I'll click download   I'll point it to my favorite place in the world  which is the desktop and then we can use it so   I'll close this I'll click on this ZIP to expand  it and then I'll switch to Cinema 4D which is   already running in the background on my machine  I'll go to file open project I'll navigate to   my desktop and over here we have this thing that  we just downloaded so under the source option we   have this fly dot fbx I'll click open and I'll  accept the defaults just going to click OK it   won't look like much in this case we have couple  of missing textures that we need to reassign I'm   not going to do it over here I'm going to show  you how how to attach them inside element 3D in   a moment but for now all I want you to do is go  to the file menu and under export here in Cinema   4D you need to choose this option wavefront obj  click on this Cog wheel to make sure that you   can see the obj export settings and then make sure  that you enable all frames under animation this is   very important by default it will say no animation  so make sure all frames selected the similar thing   can be achieved using blender I'm not going to  show it to you because to be honest I'm not using   blender but I know for a fact that this can be  easily achieved over there as well I'll click OK   and then I'll step one level up over here I'll  create a new folder I'm going to name it obj   click create and I'm just going to name this one  Phoenix and click save it will take few moments   for Cinema 4D to complete this and now we can  return to After Effects and launch the scene   setup again inside element 3D so we are going to  use the same layer to create this I'll click on   scene setup and before I'll do anything I'm just  going to close this group folder I'll double click   on it and name it title just so I'll know which  one is doing which function and then I'll create   a new folder make sure to take it outside of the  title folder name this one you guessed it Phoenix   click ok set this to group number two this is  very important so our title is group number one   the Phoenix is going to be group number two and  finally I'll go to the file menu here inside the   element plugin and choose import 3D sequence  I'll navigate to the desktop where I have this   obj sequence select the first one click import  3D again I'm going to accept the defaults click   OK and now we can see that we have the animation  and if you want to check that this is actually   working you can scrub the start frame just to  see that everything registered correctly now   this is the important part we need to match the  missing materials over here as well as defined   few other stuff in terms of how they are looking  so I'll select the first one and then I'll go   to my scene materials we can see that we have two  missing materials here so under texture diffuse I   click where it says non-set and then I'll use this  pull down menu to locate it or load it from file   I'll navigate to the folder of the phoenix bird  and over here under the texture I'll make sure   I can see the entire name here I'll select for the  first material this guy which is 0 1 a you can see   that there's also zero one B I'm not going to read  the entire name it doesn't really matter I'm just   going to say select texture and then click OK and  then I'm going to do the same for the other one   so making sure to select it click on diffuse not  set click on this option load from file this one   is the other one which is 0 1 B all right I'm  going to select the texture and then click ok   I'll zoom in just so we can see this it almost  works but we have some problems where it comes to   the opacity or actually transparency so we need to  define the alpha channel here and the way to do it   is here inside the element edit attributes scroll  down all the way until you can see mat Alpha click   to check it and I'm also going to recommend  to go a bit higher and play with the alpha   threshold just a touch and this should fix it at  least for this material I'm going to do the same   for the other one so select the material itself  make sure to check matte Alpha and also play with   the alpha threshold Just a Touch alright while we  are here I'm also going to enable the illumination   by using the same color the same diffuse map for  both materials and this is going to allow us to   make this bird a bit more nicer and glowy when  we are going to click OK and we'll see it here   inside After Effects so after these very long  preparations we are ready to animate it I'm   just going to show you that this is now part of  our scene but it is completely different group   because we said that we assigned it to group  number two as before I want to create a group   now so I'll open up group 2 group utilities  click create to create this null and just to   help myself with this project in the future I'm  going to rename this layer alright so now I have   an individual null that controls the phoenix bird  which is completely separate from the previous one   I'll return to the element plugin let's go to the  lender settings just to show you what we did with   the glow and how this is going to help us here I'm  going to open up the glow enable the glow and you   can see that both of them are getting a little  bit more glowiness materials just by enabling   this illumination material and I've done it now  just to show you that we can control each one   of the materials because I think that the Atlanta  word is a little bit too glowy so to fix this I'm   going to hop back into the scene setup I'll close  the Phoenix I'll select the title I'll open up   the material I think I need to just select this  layer the glass tint and scroll down until see   the illumination and let's just take it to I don't  know something around 50 percent so it will glow   less glowless but now it is time to be creative  what we want to do now is to basically animate   this null object so it will appear as this bird  is flying just between those buildings so what   we need to do is just play with the position I'm  going to also add the scale and maybe the rotation   just by pressing P shift s and shift R right  I'm going to start with the position I'm going   to take the Z position and drag it so it will be  behind the Atlanta title and maybe also move it   something like this you can by the way  hold down the shift key to move it even   faster and let's also give this Earth a bit  of an angle something like this maybe I don't   know 20 degrees on the Y rotation I'll record  keyframes for this and then I'll move forward   over here after we are clearing in terms of the  animation from the title I'll move my bird over   here it's not my bird this is actually everyone's  bird specifically Atlanta's so the phoenix bird   and I'm just going to move it closer to us  maybe also change the orientation for the   X this time so just find something which  looks a bit more interesting I don't know   something like this I think should work and  then at the end send it all the way back again   now it's a bit difficult to see what we are doing  we may need to scrub those values until we'll see   this bird because we are actually moving it too  close to the camera so let's just park over here   and then just change the angle something like  this and then of course we can take those two   keyframes and move them now it will look a  bit weird because we are creating some sort   of an arc we may want to control it a bit more  precisely giving our viewers more time to see   the bird so I'm going to copy and paste this  keyframe and then sending it a little bit back and we can also play with the scale by the  way so something like this now if I'm going   to preview it it would look very strange I just  want to show you what I've managed to create   um the beginning looks quite promising but now it  starts and then it goes big and then it do this   very very weird number of flying outside of the  screen we can barely see where it is let's just   see if we can spot it who knows where it is anyhow  um it is a bit more challenging and difficult to   control the animation you can see over here we  actually lost track of the bird and where it is   so here is my recommendation how to try and fix  it first what we need to do is select the word   position make sure all the keyframes are selected  by clicking on the word position and then right   click on one of those keyframes and then go to  the keyframe interpolation option by default After   Effects is setting our temporal interpolation to  linear but the special interpolation the one in   space are being set to auto BC I want to start  with linear for both of them which I think is   going to give me more precise control you can  see that now if I'm just going to let's just go   back to the element layer and momentarily switch  off the visibility for group number one so we can   actually concentrate on the bird we can see that  now we're basically stopping in the middle and   then our bird is doing whatever it needs to do  but now I can say goodbye to this keyframe and   also maybe to this one I don't know let's just  leave it in place and now because I switch it to   linear I will have much greater control when it  comes to animating it so I'm going to just move   this keyframe every time a bit more and then I'm  going to use the Z control here for the position   and the reason that I'm doing it in stages is  because we have a motion in our camera I know   it looks a little bit tedious but once you get  the hold of it it's actually quite simple and   you know the big thing here is to just make sure  to change the special keyframes to linear this is   going to help you to control the null object this  is not the most interesting part of the tutorial   but it is very important it will help you to  achieve the desired animation when it comes to   this thing now we can push it even further into  this space or we can cheat a bit by just scaling   it and I think this is what I'm going to do in  this case I'm going to raise it so it will be   up in the sky move it attach scale it a bit more  over here we want to change the scale back to 100   and I think that this is it it looks much better  again let's just preview this part so it flies   from wherever and then it takes this route stops a  little bit and then do whatever it needs to do so   we have this pose and we can control the amount of  time how much it takes it to post but to judge we   actually need to see the entire thing in concert  so let's bring back our title and this is what I   love with element 3D I can just preview it almost  in real time and see exactly what I'm getting so   it's not perfect I know but we are getting  there now after I'm satisfied then there is   a little bit more work to be done here but let's  call it good enough I'm going to select the word   position hold down the command control on Windows  and click on these keyframes and this is going   to reconvert them at least when it comes to the  linear interpolation to a continuous bezier with   which means that the speed between every keyframe  each and every keyframe is going to be consistent   all right so maybe we want to just move it a touch  more I guess to the right here so we'll have a   continuous motion maybe I lower it down let's just  preview this part I think that it is starting to   look good so what I'll do here is pose over at  this section and then I'll add a point light   let's just add a basic Point light I'm going  to accept the default I'm not going to cast   any Shadows it's going to make it much more  nicer and Vivid I'll press T to show the light   option intensity and then I'll raise it to even  be more brighter let's go with 150 and of course   you can play with the position of the light but  you can already see that it brought some light   to our scene the last thing that I want to show  you under the element render section just going   to close everything is of course the render  settings so we can change the glow intensity   and for some reason I can't see this is affecting  the bird so again let's just visit once more the   scene setup make sure that each one of these  materials is set to illuminate all right I   forgot the intensity this is why so I'm going to  set it to 100 intensity for the glow material this   is the illumination quality of the material and  now it is looking the way I would like it to look   much better much more nicer and glowy I'm also  going to open up the ambient occlusion enable it   maybe raise the intensity to 5 and last but not  least I'll twirl down the output I'll set the   super sampling to 2 and enhance multi-sampling  to check I'm basically going to check it if you   want you can also enable motion blur but this  is it we are ready to render so I'm just going   to press spacebar and let After Effects cache  those frames to see how this is working [Music]   I'll maximize the screen so we can enjoy  the full version the full quality of what   we've managed to create and this is how  you can use element 3D with after effects   with a little bit of help from Cinema 4D  to create this lovely teaser for Adobe   video World which is going to take place at the  beginning of December 2022 in Atlanta foreign now this is just the tip of the iceberg  when it comes to working with 3D objects   inside after effects if you want to see  and learn about all the tools make sure   to subscribe and also like this video if it  was helpful for you any comments let me know   down below and I'll see you next time thank you  so much for watching [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: SternFX

Views: 7,111

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Id: vCGVHBlfGvM

Length: 33min 46sec (2026 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 22 2022