Animation - Isometric Design Question?

[joe_1137]

I'm looking to animate this isometric design so that the front face of the letter extrudes outward and then pulls back in—basically shifting from a flat letter to an extruded 3D version and back again.

I’m struggling with selecting the specific anchor points to adjust on the timeline. Would it make more sense to redraw the shape directly in After Effects, or is there a way to just highlight and animate only the necessary points from my existing design?

Any advice would be appreciated!

[Rick Gerard]

After Effects will not render isometric views. Your only option is to add a camera with a very long lens to the comp. This will force the perspective to something close to isometric views. Set the focal length to 20,000 pixels or more.

The only real limitation is the extrusion depth. You will be limited to 1000 pixels.

[joe_1137]

Thank-you for your response I am looking to match the deisgn excactly so woult it be better to redraw in after affects do you think?

[Rick Gerard]

I would create a layered Illustrator file and import and animate the layers. Maybe this short, old tutorial will help. It explains how to create animations from blended shapes in Illustrator. 

Maybe this one that uses the same workflow will give you some more information on the workflow:

[joe_1137]

I hope the images better explain what I am trying to achieve, I’ve created an isometric design in Illustrator and want to animate it in After Effects to match the style exactly. I’m very new to AE and my goal is to make the letters extrude in and out smoothly

I’ve been trying to isolate and animate just the front anchor points (so they push in and out over time), but I’m struggling to highlight or move only those points. I was planning to keyframe their position over time, but I can’t seem to isolate the front anchors on their own. Is there a better way to do this — maybe with a mask or a different technique?

If I can get one letter working, I think I’ll be able to figure out the rest. Any help would be massively appreciated!

[joe_1137]

I have simplified the graphics in illustartor imported and converted to shape layers, as I originally mentioned I still can't select only those isolated anchor points, once I can do that I will put a keyframe for position in and out? does that make sense?

[Rick Gerard]

Those animations can easily be created using the Morph workflows I shared. You need one object in Illustrator with the starting frame design and one with the extruded shape of the ending. Then, apply the Blend tool, select the number of steps you want to set for the duration of your animation and follow the steps in the tutorials. 

That is the easiest way to create isometric 3D animations in After Effects. Just ensure you start with one surface for each surface you want to extrude. I don't have time to create a new tutorial for you, but if you share an AI file with me, I will try to create the AI file you can import and animate. I need the Illustrator file with your desired starting frame.

One more suggestion: In the future, you can drag or copy and paste your screenshots to the reply field on the forum and adjust the size so we don't have to download images to see them. The "Drag & drop here or browse files to attach is only efficient for uploading short videos (MP4) or project files.