Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method

Andrew Devis

©2011 CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

In this second tutorial on extruding 3D text and shapes in After Effects, Andrew Devis demonstrates how to use the shatter effect to create some stylish and fast rendering 3D text and shapes. In addition to this, Andrew also shows how to apply and animate textures to the extruded items as well as how to create shadows from your creation.

Comments

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Re: Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method
by Marcus Johnson

Excellent Tutorial.

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Re: Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method
by Alperen T. Ayhan

Hello Andrew,
That was very fascinating tutorial.. Simple and efficient.. Thank you very much for inspiring us..

Alperen T. AYHAN
http://www.produck.net
Always cinema...

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Re: Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method
by Jeffrey Di Lullo

Great Tutorial! I'm having an issue with aliasing. I am feeding the Shatter effect with a photoshop layer (company logo). All the edges are smooth but once it goes into the shatter effect, the edges get "steppy" especially on the smooth edges of the lettering (very noticeable on the back side of an "s").

Any thoughts?

before:

1814_screenshot20110330at2.21.55pm.png.zip

after:

1815_screenshot20110330at2.22.30pm.png.zip

Jeffrey Di Lullo
jeffedits.com

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@Jeffrey Di Lullo
by Andrew Devis

Hi Jeffrey

To be honest it's a little hard to see from the pics, but as I say in the tutorial, the larger sized the original the better as this makes it easier to zoom in without the problem you have.

Generally, text should be vector based in AE while pixel based in PS! So, what you could try doing is getting hold of the original font and using that or, if you can't get that, copy the original in Illustrator and create a vector to work with that you can scale up as large as possible.

Sorry not to be more help.
Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

•

@Andrew Devis
by Jeffrey Di Lullo

Andrew,

Thanks for writing back. I guess the issue is the layer that I feed into shatter starts with nice smooth curves but in shatter the curves look aliased and flattened.

You are right about the vector stuff. When I feed text into shatter it looks just fine.

I did try scaling but the curves are still flattened (i'd post a whole image but it for a project that I'm working on).

The nice thing is I ended using the duplicate method (thanks for that one!) and it worked great and it allowed me to do an animation to the "3d" logo.

Thanks again!

jd

Jeffrey Di Lullo
jeffedits.com

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Re: Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method
by Carl Endres

First let me say I really enjoy all your tutorials Andrew, I always learn something new, they are well produced and very informative.

I'm having a strange thing happen when working thru this shatter tutorial. When I go to apply the texture for front, back and sides, only the front and back textures appear. The sides just disappear. This only occurs when applying the texture.. the sides are there and are solid prior to applying the side texture. I'm using the same layer for all 3 sides. If you have any ideas of something I may be doing wrong, let me know your thoughts. I am using CS4. Thanks in advance.

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@Carl Endres
by Carl Endres

Please disregard my request for help...I figured out what I was doing wrong. Originally I thought I needed to precompose the original text layer rather than create the "bake layer" from a solid. Thanks again for doing this tutorial, I'll definitely be putting it to good use - Carl

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Re: Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method
by Larry Chapman

I still don't understand why AE doesn't have a native extrude effect? We are forced to buy a plug-in or kludge . . .

-- Larry Chapman

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@Larry Chapman
by Andrew Devis

Hi Larry

Believe me, it has been requested numerous times - but I don't see it coming any time soon :o(

The fourth part of this series looks at Repousse in Photoshop, and that is a real option for nice looking text but, and it is a big BUT, if you want shaddows it's a nightmare in both workflow and the length of time it takes to render.

The next part (part 3) of this series looks at Zaxwerks Pro Animator, and although it is a plug-in, it produces fantastic results with very little effort. So, if you do a lot of this kind of motion graphics it may well be work having a look at that http://www.zaxwerks.com and investing in something that could save you a lot of time.

Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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Re: Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method
by Georg Hasslacher

really helpfull andrew, the shatter effect is so amazing. But it also works with animated text?

Georg

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Re: Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method
by Bret Williams

It doesn't work with animated text. As I learned the hard way last week. As he mentioned, it uses the first frame of a layer as the shatter map to determine the shape of the breakage. So, if the text animates, it will animate out of the matted area, creating garbagely goop.

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Re: Extruding 3D Text & Shapes 2: The Shatter Method
by Joey Foreman

Thanks for the technique, Andrew. Just used it on a corporate project.

Joey Foreman
Editor/Compositor/VFX Artist

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@Joey Foreman
by Andrew Devis

:o) Thanks for letting me know Joey, I love to hear that these tutorials are helpful.

Andrew

... because it's all about stories ...

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