Distortion effects in 3D space?

[Steve5D7C]

Is it possible to apply basic distortion effects such as ripple and displacement in 3D space?

I'm attempting to create some animation with a painting that features a water surface receding into the distance. I want to apply some basic wave type animation to the water.

There seems to be a Catch 22 -- if I make an adjustment layer 3D then apply effects, the effects are still created in 2D space. If I precomp the adjustment layer so the effects are applied upstream from it being made a 3D layer, it's no longer an adjustment layer...

I simply want my distortion effects to have some perspective and foreshortening, not be in the 2D space of the camera plane.

Is there actually a way to achieve something like this and if so how?

[Mylenium]

There is no such thing. You have to work with plug-ins that are explicitly designed to produce 3D-ish effects. Boris Continuum for instance has a 3D Ripple effect.

Mylenium

[Rick Gerard]

You can kind of fake it with light and shadow but to actually distort layers you'll need to spend some money. FreeForm Pro is probably one of the best. The Boris FX and others are pretty good. You can use Lockdown to bend layers around complex shapes like an actor's wrinkled shirt. 

You could always use Cinema 4D Lite that comes with After Effects to generate a distorted surface. It takes a while to learn how to use the texturing tools in C4D, and distortions are pretty limited.

If you want to go real 3D, Blender is an extremely powerful 3D app with great distortion effects and it's FREE at http://blender.org. You can also integrate AE's camera animation and extract Blender cameras if you need AE for further compositing.

If you don't have a budget and we can see a sample of the look you are trying to achieve, maybe we can help you fake it with AE's standard set of effects. 

[ShiveringCactus]

Not a ripple, but I shared how to use Expressions and Mathematics to link the radius of the bulge effect to the distance between a 3D camera and a 3D Null for my Black Hole tutorial:

https://youtu.be/jNX0zYLIEcU

It should give you the basics for what you're after.

Alternatively, you could try:

• create a new layer and apply fractal noise or wave world set to height map.
• Make it 3D
• Making sure this layer is selected, go to File > Scripts and run the 3D Precompose script.  This will create a precomp with a linked 3D camera.

You now have a 2D distortion map, which moves in 3D space which can be used with the displacement map effect.