What techniques/effects are used to make something like this...?

Hello - first of all just want to say hi and thank you for the tips and advice i have picked up from this forum.

Has proved to be very, very useful and up until now i have managed to find solutions to questions i had by just searching the forums.

Only been using AE for about 6 months, so a total newbie to it and i have been hunting to find out how this was done.... https://vimeo.com/146081721

As you can tell by the fact i have now joined up to post that i have been totally unsuccessful in my search so over to you experts. Any ideas? Do i need external plug-ins etc?

Any help much appreciated

Thank you
K

Hi Roei - thanks for the reply. Yes i did look into that but couldn't work out what part i needed to learn from the tutorials listed. Think it may be a bit early for me to take on 3D software as well as AE at the moment!

Sorry i should have phrased my question better and asked if there was a way for a similar thing to be done just in after effects, which you have answered anyway with cell animation so i might start looking into that.

much appreciated
K