Move the word layers to rest on the floor and each other. Drag it down to the bottom edge of the comp. Select the Floor layer, press R, and change its Orientation to 270° on the x-axis. Close the Footage Viewer, then click the 3D Layer switch for all the layers. Hit F for Mask Feather, unlink the Chain, and set the Vertical axis to 300 pixels. Grab the Selection tool (V) and drag the mask down about a fifth of the way from the top edge. Use the Rectangle tool (Q) to draw a mask around the entire layer. The one used here is free, found in the concrete section of 6 DESIGN 3D SCENEĭrag the texture image into the Timeline, rename it “Floor,” then double-click it to open it in a Footage viewer. Import a texture image to use as a floor. Repeat this process for the other word-now we have only two layers, which are much easier to control. In the Timeline, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the layers that make up the word “Game” to select them, choose Layer>Pre-Compose, and name it accordingly. Double-click the new Game Night comp to open it, press Command-K (PC: Ctrl-K), set the size to 720×540 px, the Duration to 5 seconds, and click OK. Choose Composition in the Import As drop-down menu and click Open. In After Effects, go to File>Import>File and select the Illustrator document. Rearrange the layers and use the Selection tool to move individual letters so the word “Game” appears to be sitting on top of the word “Night.” When finished, be sure to Save the document. When done, click OK, then repeat this process for each letter. Adjust the Extrude Depth value and add some extra lights if desired-this is a creative process-you’re in control of the final look. Adjust the rotation and camera perspective values to angle the letter slightly and give the extrusion some perspective. Select a letter, and in the Appearance panel (Window>Appearance) click 3D Extrude & Bevel.
Now that every layer has its own 3D effect, we’re free to adjust the Extrude & Bevel properties on each letter to make the design much cooler. At this stage you might want to choose View>Hide Transparency Grid to make the 3D shapes easier to see. This applies the effect to each letter individually. Shift-click all the other letters on the artboard to select them and choose Effect>Apply Extrude & Bevel. Select the first letter shape, choose Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel, and then simply press OK to exit the dialog-we’ll return shortly to adjust it. Now we’re ready to apply the 3D effect to each one of the shapes and tweak it as necessary. Drag Layer 1 to the Trash icon to delete it, as we don’t need it. Shift-click all the resulting sub-layers to select them and drag them up above Layer 1 in the Layers panel. Now we need to divide the type so that each letter is on a separate layer, so go to Object>Ungroup, then from the Layers panel flyout menu, choose Release to Layers (Sequence). Select the type with the Selection tool (V), then go to Type>Create Outlines. Set the Fill color to white and the Stroke to none. Here, we’ve used a font from called Newspeak-Heavy, which will look great when extruded. Select the Type tool (T), click on the page, and add your type, choosing the font and size to suit your design. Under the Advanced option, choose the Dark preset for the Transparency Grid-this will ensure our white text will be visible as we work on it. All files are for personal use only.Ĭreate a new Adobe Illustrator document (File>New), name it “Game Night,” select Video and Film in the New Document Profile drop-down menu, and set the size to 720×540 pixels.
If you’d like to download a finished movie for this tutorial, just click here.
Add to this mix some cool particles, lights, and shadows (and some Energi studio techniques) and we’ll show you how to turn simple text into a cool extruded-3D scene inside After Effects.
While there are a few plug-ins that handle such a task (Zaxwerks Invigorator PRO being one of my favorites), there’s a cool way to achieve a true 3D look (more or less) using the 3D effects in Illustrator. As cool as 3D is in After Effects, there’s no doubt that an extrude tool is something we all wish for.