Interacting 3D elements - CC Sphere and 3D Rotate Around Circle Animation Preset

Easiest way to do it would be to simply make the CC Sphered earth Auto-Orient itself to the camera.   Right click on your earth layer > Transform > Auto Orient > Auto Orient Toward Camera.  Tadaa!  You can move your camera all around and the earth will always look like a 3d object.  Hope this helps

I know this is an old thread, but am looking to do something similar to the orbiting text that you have created, but with an object or image rather than with text. I have been working with after effects for a little while now, but mostly motion tracking and compositing. So creating an animation complete from scratch is new to me. Any help is appreciated!

Oh, silly me, i had "Appear in Reflections" checked for the sphere. I thought that could only happen with an environment map. I unchecked it. Was kinda cool the way it reflected on the back of the text. . . think I'll turn it back on!

CC Sphere is not a 3D object when viewed from the side in AE space.

The only true 3D objects in AE these days that I am aware of are in Video Copilot Element and Zaxwerks Invigorator. And they really exist in their own 3D space within AEs (if that makes any sense }.

Check this out..

http://vimeo.com/47007644#

http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/

UPDATE

I know you can have several 3D objects in Element. Im pretty sure you can make a Text Ring . You should be able to use that Earth preset I sent you the link to. AND you can assign the Earth image to an Environment Map that can be reflected in the text. I think there is a 14 free trial if you want to explore it in depth.