How to create a 3D spaceship hangar?

[TimiKaufi2000]

Hello everyone, 

I wonder how to build such a 3D Star Wars spaceship hangar like in this video: https://youtu.be/T2oLruhMQ3s I'm not interested in the little spaceship. 

My first questions are: How do you manage to build such a room? Is there a way to do that with Adobe After Effects? If you need other software and you know some applications please name it.

If you can do it with After Effects my further questions are: How do you move the camera with an object wich is flying through or something like this? 

Thank you very very much! 

Greatings

[Rick Gerard]

You can take some reference artwork into Illustrator and create images for the walls and floor with each wall or floor on a separate layer. Then you can import the AI file as a comp, arrange the layers in 3D, then export the Comp as a C4D file in After Effects. Inside C4D lite you can set extrusions, texture the surfaces, extrude things, and then create your hanger there. You could even do the whole thing with a few shape layers and some repeaters, but it will be a lot more cumbersome. Here's something I threw together. The shape layers and camera:

The C4D file after extruding and doing some texturing:

A simple animated camera move on the C4D file.

So trying to do this in AE without 3rd party plug-ins is possible, but C4L lite is going to take you a lot of fiddling, shape layers that are going to be detailed enough to look like your sample footage is going to be really time-consuming and require a lot of fiddling, You can pick up a little speed if you do your design in Illustrator, Then you can add your little spacesnips and characters but...

As I said in my reply to your post about engine glow, you'll be better off using Blender for the whole project. I've been using for 25 years and Blender for just a few and I could knock out a scene like your sample footage in Blender in about 1/3 the time that it would take me to do it in After Effects. Just using blender to create the OBJ file that you would use in C4D lite would save you a bunch of time. 

Check out http://blender.org.

As much as I love After Effects, it's the wrong app for a complete 3D world like that unless you need to add some footage of real people to the project. Even then, Blender would be the most efficient way to go. You could easily spend more than 100 hours on just the hanger scene. 3D modeling and animation takes a lot of time and a lot of fiddling and a lot of homework.

[TimiKaufi2000]

Many thanks for your detailed answer!
I have often heard of Blender in this context. In any case, I will take a closer look at modeling in Blender. But already for the import of the .obj files another question comes up: How can I import .obj files into After Effects? I know that there is a way to import .obj files as .psd files. Are there any other easier ways?

Greatings and again many thanks for your efforts!

[Rick Gerard]

To load an OBJ file into After Effects you first have to go to the menu and choose File>New>Maxon Cinema 4D file.

This will open up Cinema 4D Lite. When C4D Lite is open the Startup layout will have an Objects panel docked in the top right corner. Select File/Merge Objects from the menu and browse to your OBJ file. If the file was saved properly from the original file with the accompanying MTS (materials) folder, it will open up on the C4D stage and be ready for any other things you need to add to the scene. Back in AE you just drag the C4D file into the timeline and Cineware will be applied and your comp will look like the animated screenshot I posted.

If you have purchased a 3rd party app like Element 3D you do basically the same thing. Open up the 3D UI from the Effects Control Panel and import the files you want to use.

[TimiKaufi2000]

Thank you,

I tried it with an example LEGO model (.obj). I thought a whole hangar is too big for beginning. However I think I did something wrong... I can't move the model or move a camera... Is that normal because I have to do all the animation stuff in C4D?

Sorry, if I'm not acting very smart but this totally new for me and I don't understand anything ritght now.

[Rick Gerard]

You cannot move the camera because there is no camera in your timeline. 

You really need to spend some time with the tutorials. It would take me 40 posts to teach you how to work with Cineware and AE. If you want your 3D model to move in the scene you have to animate it in C4D lite. If you want to move the comp camera around your model you have to choose Centered Comp Camera in Cineware and have a comp camera. If you want to get rid of the grid lines you have to choose Open GL or Software Draft (faster rendering) or Software in Cineware. There are some good tutorials in the welcome screen that pops up when C4D Lite opens up and the Help menu can point you to more.

It does not look like the textures came in with the model so you'll probably also have to work on that inside C4D. 

This kind of animation requires a solid understanding of the principals and the user interface of both apps. I don't know anyone that ever figured it out by just poking around in the UI or asking questions on some forums. Spend some time reading the manual and doing some homework. 

[P.M.B]

Rick, you're a saint.

[TimiKaufi2000]

Yep.

[TimiKaufi2000]

Thank you for your tips! I'll spend times with some tutorials. Thank you for your help!