Skip to main content
Pierre Devereux
Pierre Devereux
Known Participant
January 17, 2013
Question

Expression request

  • January 17, 2013
  • 1 reply
  • 2915 views

Hi Guys,

I tried to stay away from After Effects and concentrate on sound - but I have failed! I am hopelessly addicted to AE - there is no turning back!

I have a question about expressions. I have started getting my head around them, but was wondfering if one of you had some advice offhand on the following.

I have a scene set up - very simple, 3 Solids, one camera and a Null object - all 3d.

What I want to do now, without having to work out the math and angles (because I am lazy) is have the three solids duplicated, and placed at 45degrees on the "X" axis, in 3d space with the bottom edges touching the top edges of the layers below. I then want to duplicate again, and put a further 45degree on the "X" axis to create a ceiling. To end up with something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike this....

I would like to know if an expression can be used over a script that creates a specific shape, because I might like to add or remove solids depending on what I want to create.

To be honest, This is not something I need for a current project, but I am trying out a few things, and thought this would be an interresting place to start with expressions (having "wiggled" about as much as is alowed for one compositor!)

Thanks guys

Pierre

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
January 17, 2013

Not quite sure what you are getting at. If you're planning to do Platonic primitives, you'll have to get much deeper into the math side of things. There's only so many possible solutions for any n and p (n being the number of sides, p being the number of faces) and some of them involve combinations of multiple n-gon types (there is no determinate solution for just pentagons for instance). If all you want is to create tubes, arcs and other relatively simply geometries, you might wanna check my page's 3D elements section...

http://www.myleniumstuff.com

Mylenium

Pierre Devereux
Pierre DevereuxAuthor
Known Participant
January 17, 2013

Hi,

Thank you. I will check out the pages now. To be honest, I dont know yet exactly what I want either!

I am trying to get out of looking into Adobe Audition, so I am making excuses to find something to do! My plan for Adobe dominance, was to create a complete closed 3D world of solid layers, placing a camera inside it, and being able to do complete 360degree pans with the camera.

If this is even possible, I am not sure, but surprisingly, I have had some degree of success while waiting for replies. It was a very manual process, and it is not 100%, but for someone new to After Effects 3D capabilities, it actually looks really exciting and possibly even usable for ourr project.

Ill check your links out and see what I can find. Thank you for the reply.

Pierre

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 17, 2013

I'd look at Trapcode Horizon for creating your 3D world. It's a lot easier. Another option is to map an image to a large sphere and put the camera inside the sphere. Conoa Sphere is good for this. Trapcode horizon is an easier solution. One properly sized layer and a couple of adjustments and you're done.

If you want to evenly distribute 3D solids around a composition and you can get away with adjusting the position by hand a simple index * the angle of y rotatioin tied to an expression controller and a slider for Z anchor point added to a null used as the parent for your 3D layers would do the trick. Takes about 2 minutes to set up with the pickwhip. Rather than write it out, here's a screenshot.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices