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JANUARY 16, 2003 Jumbo Jillions Part 2
Turn the Lucky Chance layer and the Background layer into 3D layers by activating the option in the Timeline.  Select the Lucky Chance layer in the Timeline and press the R key to bring up the Rotation Properties once more. When you change a layer into a 3D element, the Rotation Property adds a few more controls. Your original rotation values are placed on the Z-axis, and Orientation controls are added as well. The Orientation controls, allow you to make subtle adjustments to a layer, but cannot be used to spin an object on an axis multiple times. This is because when the Orientation on an axis reaches 360 degrees, it resets to 0 degrees since the two values are identical. While the difference between Orientation and Rotation can be frustrating at times, Orientation can be very useful to add a gentle touch to a layer. At 0:00 in the Timeline, activate the Stopwatch Icon for the Orientation Property. Make sure the values are at 0, 0, 0. Move to 4:00 in the Timeline and change the Orientation values to 327, 11, 0. If you make a RAM Preview, you will notice that as the lottery ticket hits the final resting position, it doesn’t stop moving, a subtle backward movement add interest to the animation.  The backward movement is also a perfect way to catch a highlight or reflection from a light source. Let’s add one. From the Layer menu select New>Light. Make the light a Spot light, set the Intensity to 100%, the Cone Angle to 90 degrees and the Feather Amount to 50%. Leave the light color white. Turn on Cast Shadows. Lower the Shadow Darkness to 50% and the Shadow Diffusion to 50 pixels. This creates a soft spot light that doesn’t cast too dark of a shadow.   With the Light layer selected in the Timeline, press the P key on the keyboard to activate the Position Property for the layer. Move the Light to -6, -208, -475.  The nice thing about placing a light in After Effects is that the light contains a Point of Interest control. This is a handle that allows you to always point the light at a specific spot in the composition. By default the Point of Interest is located at the middle of the composition, which by chance, just happens to be the final resting position of the lottery ticket. Because of this, we don’t have to make any further adjustments to the light. We do however need to adjust some Material values for the lottery ticket. With the Lucky Chance layer selected in the Timeline, press the A key twice (AA) to bring up the Material Properties for the layer. As discussed in other After Effects exercises elsewhere on this site, the Materials controls allow you to adjust the apparent make up of the layer. This allows you to give the illusion that a 3D layer is made of plastic, metal, or other material. The default values will work well here, but the lottery ticket does not cast a shadow on the fractal backdrop, so turn on Cast Shadows for the layer.  Make another RAM Preview and view the final results, or click on the image below to view the final animation.
You can download the final project and files here. The file is compressed using Stuffit from Aladdin Systems. The Stuffit Expander is a free utility for Macintosh, Linux, Windows and Solaris. As this exercise has shown, having 3D capabilities in After Effects is extremely valuable as you can take a good 2D composition and make it a dynamic, impressive 3D one that will add a great deal of value to your project. When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicher Related sites: • Animation Artist • Animation Supplement • AV Video • Content Mastering • Corporate Media News • Creative Mac • Design Supplement • Digital Animators • Digital Media Designer • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Film and Video Magazine • Hollywood Industry • Mac Supplement • Production Supplement • Siggraph News • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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