extruding ai files
by Ross Kidd
on
Oct 17, 2008 at 3:40:40 pm
Hi,
I want to know the quickest way to turn my ai files into 3d files.
I have the page of a book with an illustration on it, the book page when flipped in ai then shows the illustration as a mirrored image on the other site.
What I have been doing is creating the back of the page as a solid and then making it the child and flipping it and this works fairly well however is a bit time consuming and wondered what is the best program to import my AI pages and extrude them to 2-3mm thick making them properly 3D.
Re: extruding ai files by david bogie on Oct 17, 2008 at 5:41:26 pm
Can't be done in After Effects.
Umm, not easily and not the wya you think it should be done.
You would be creating a thin rectangular cube in a precomp and then turning it. But a cube cannot be twisted in 3D space. AE does not do 3d distortions. You need a 3D application and AE is only about 2.5D.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: "For crying out loud, read the freakin' manual."
Re: extruding ai files by Kevin Camp on Oct 17, 2008 at 6:59:36 pm
to make sure i understand what you are doing....
you have a layer (illustrator file), you make it 3d, create a new solid (for the back side) and make it 3d. parent those together an the rotate them on y axis to turn the page... or maybe there is a null involved to set the rotation anchor. but this is basically it, right?
if the back side is just a solid color (white perhaps), then you could use dan ebbert's expression (found here) and the solid composite effect to effectively hide the illustration as the page flips. here's what to do:
bring you illustration into a comp and make it 3d
add the solid composite effect (effects>channel>solid composite) and set a color for the back side of the page.
option or alt click the source opacity stopwatch to enable expressions and enter if (toCompVec([0, 0, 1])[2] > 0 ) 100 else 0
option or alt click the stopwatch for opacity (within the solid composite effect) and enter if (toCompVec([0, 0, 1])[2] > 0 ) 0 else 100
now if you rotate the layer on the y axis, as the layer faces away for mthe camera, the 'front' should hide and the solid color should show.
if you have many pages, you can make this a preset by selecting the effect in the effect controls, then choosing animation>save animation preset. then you can select multiple layer and choose animation>apply preset.. (or choose it from the effects & presets panel) to apply the effect and expressions to all selected layers.
Re: extruding ai files by Kevin Camp on Oct 17, 2008 at 7:16:53 pm
i should have also noted, that there is an effect called cc page turn, that will 'bend' a layer a it turns and also allow you to choose a backside.
it would work fairly well if the 'book' was full frame, but it starts to be difficult to use if you need to see more of the book and the binding and such or want to use a 3d camera to position the book in 3d space (page turn is not a 3d effect). it's a decent effect, but has limitations, so it comes down to what you are looking for...
