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philc30713433
philc30713433
Known Participant
August 22, 2018
Answered

Helix in 3D? Circle turned and reveal depth... Actually, it's a Slinky™

  • August 22, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 1241 views

Hey there, I'm trying to make a science-y looking animation.  i would like to have a dot that's traversing a circle, and then move the camera 90" and show off that it's in fact a helix when you change the perspective.  Basically I just want to create a Slinky™.

I tried doing this by tracing a circle and then adding a time element to the path, and that didn't really go anywhere because I couldn't carry the time into z while using a 2D circle.

Next, I used an extruded circle with a convex bevel moving in a circle.  Then I added an echo, hoping it would leave 3D echoes of the 3D sphere object.  When i turned the camera though, it disappears because the echo only renders in 2D. In this attempt, I was using [sin(time), cos(time), time*100] to trace the helical motion which worked great.  I just could get a trail or echo to flow the point through 3D space.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to make an effective helix / Slinky™ in After Effects (without purchasing a $999 add-on program)?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Mylenium

You can use the Cinema 4D Lite that comes with every AE.

Mylenium

3 replies

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 22, 2018

Another option is to create a composition that is three times as wide as your main comp. Animate a dot drawing a line using shape layers to create a left to right motion so the lines are running slightly uphill.

Nest that in the main comp and apply CC Cylinder. Now all you have to do is animate the effect.

    Mike_Abbott
    Mike_Abbott
    Legend
    August 22, 2018

    As Mylenium recommends. Arrange as below in C4D:

    Mylenium
    MyleniumCorrect answer
    Legend
    August 22, 2018

    You can use the Cinema 4D Lite that comes with every AE.

    Mylenium

      philc30713433
      philc30713433Author
      Known Participant
      January 18, 2020

      Thanks for pointing this out... I realize it's been more than a year. This started a digital animation journey for me which has been a lot of fun. And to be frank, I had no idea that C4D Lite was included in After Effects before you said something...  I feel like Adobe sometimes loses the trees for the forest... Their applications are sooo powerful and can do so many different things that they have trouble communicating the existence of much/many of them. 

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