How they did this? (AE-3D?)

[MehmetROzd]

Hello folks,

This is my new post on the community 🙂 I really link flipped-style animations in AE but at this time I found a template that used a very different technique and I want to know how. 

The reference template;

https://videohive.net/item/magazine-animation-pro-ii/24783523

And here is the layers. 

Image - 1 

As you see, there are compositions luma matted and animated with Bezier warp. The page animation was created in 3D software probably and linked as sequence files.

Image - 2 

As you can see renderID pass renders are processed with Shift Channels preset. 

The detail I want to know is how he imported the rendered sequenced but how he replaced curved composition with rendered animation. 

I just made a quick test, when I masked with luma, the composition linked to rendered images but was not curved. How can I replace my composition with rendered images and looks curving animation?

I'm using AEtransfer plugin for 3Ds Max export to After Effects. The plugin can export the animated objects with the keyframes perfectly but it only exports solid flat planes, boxes, etc. but not curved objects. 

So I'm %100 sure he made the animation in a 3D software but I don't know how he match compositions with the render. 

Please share your thoughts. I really want to learn this technique.

Thanks and best wishes. 

[Mylenium]

It was probably matched with a ton of tracking with the original 3D artwork having grid textures or by creating Nulls in the 3D program and then transferring the data to the Bèzier Warp. Looks perfectly doable. It's just a lot of repetitive busy work.

Mylenium 

[MehmetROzd]

I was thinking the same way for the first time but I check all over the template and couldn't find any imported data on the layers. Also, no null object or expression anywhere in the template. But I don't know if there is any way to check if any other data is imported or not. I'm stuck.

Thanks,

Mehmet

[Mylenium]

I'm sure they simply cleaned out any auxiliary data and compositions once the actual project was finished to not give away their game. 😉

Mylenium

[MehmetROzd]

Did you see any tutorial about the technique you mention? I couldn't find good results about data transferring.

[Mylenium]

I'm not aware of a specific tutorial, but based on the options in Cinema 4D In would simply use XPresso to bind Null objects to points of a deformed plane for the page (or use other methods like MoGraph effectors), then bake the animation to world positions and export it using the AEC export/ Cineware and extract the info in AE. From there you can just copy & paste the keyframes to your Bèzier Warp handles or link the animation with pickwhip expressions, then modify things further as needed. I'm sure it would be possible to do something similar with MAX. Again, it's just going to be a lot of manual labor as you can easily end up with hundred or more Nulls for even a simple project just to transfer the data. I'd only do it if I had to re-used the same project a million times or would want to sell it. Otherwise just re-rendering a 3D scene with substituted textures seems a lot easier.

Mylenium