Adobe After Effects CS4 Classroom in a Book

Chapter 11. Building 3D Objects

Lesson overview

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:

• Create a 3D shape from a solid layer.

• Create 3D text with expressions.

• Look at a 3D scene from multiple views.

• Create a guide layer to aid in object placement.

• Control the way a layer animates by moving its anchor point.

• Rotate and position layers along x, y, and z axes.

Adobe After Effects can work with layers in two dimensions (x, y) or three dimensions (x, y, z). So far in this book, you’ve worked almost exclusively in two dimensions. When you specify a layer as three-dimensional (3D), After Effects adds the z axis, which provides control over the layer’s ...