Need help creating a 3d logo in AE CS6

Stephiebby · Apr 13, 2013

Hello,

My name is Stephanie and I'm trying to make a logo for a friend of mine in After Effects CS6. I have only been using this program for about a month so I still do not know everything about it, but I'm slowly learning more and more.

Anyways, I finished creating the logo in Photoshop, saved it both as a jpg and as a psd file. I looked up some tutorials on how to make text 3d in AE but I've found that since it is not a text object anymore that under "Geometry Options" there is no option to bevel or extrude, as all of the tutorials I looked at used this method.

Is there a way that I can take this basic black wording over a white background (which I will eventually make transparent) and make it 3d with depth?

I apologize if this is not the right section to ask this but I haven't used these forums too much. Also I said, I tried looking around for the answer but I don't want to spend hours looking if it cannot be done.

Thank you!

Jessica Lares · Apr 13, 2013

You need to make it transparent now in Photoshop. It might be a background layer now if you merged it, so you just need to select it in the layers box and make it a layer. Just use the Color Range feature, select the white, and it should do it very cleanly without any issue.

After that convert it to a shape and you should then have the bevel/extrude features in AE once you reimport it.

Stephiebby · Apr 13, 2013

Jessica Lares said:
You need to make it transparent now in Photoshop. It might be a background layer now if you merged it, so you just need to select it in the layers box and make it a layer. Just use the Color Range feature, select the white, and it should do it very cleanly without any issue.

After that convert it to a shape and you should then have the bevel/extrude features in AE once you reimport it.

Alright, I'll try that now and see if that works. Thanks!

Stephiebby · Apr 13, 2013

Jessica Lares said:
You need to make it transparent now in Photoshop. It might be a background layer now if you merged it, so you just need to select it in the layers box and make it a layer. Just use the Color Range feature, select the white, and it should do it very cleanly without any issue.

After that convert it to a shape and you should then have the bevel/extrude features in AE once you reimport it.

I tried using the convert to a shape option but it is greyed out for some reason. I tried selecting the image with the magic wand tool but that still didn't work. Is there a specific way to get this option to work?

Jessica Lares · Apr 13, 2013

Figured it out!

So, you want to select your text out, and then go to Window > Paths.

And then click on the options button on the top right and click "Make Work Path".

Then click the Pen Tool, right-click on the logo, and then select Define Custom Shape and give it a name.

And then just re-add it using the Custom Shape Tool. Save it and then try reimporting to AE. That should work.

Stephiebby · Apr 13, 2013

Jessica Lares said:
Figured it out!

So, you want to select your text out, and then go to Window > Paths.

And then click on the options button on the top right and click "Make Work Path".

Then click the Pen Tool, right-click on the logo, and then select Define Custom Shape and give it a name.

And then just re-add it using the Custom Shape Tool. Save it and then try reimporting to AE. That should work.

What method should I use to export so it is read as a shape? It keeps just importing as an image file.

Jessica Lares · Apr 13, 2013

Stephiebby said:
What method should I use to export so it is read as a shape? It keeps just importing as an image file.

Ahh, right! I would try Export > Paths to Illustrator and then use that file.

Stephiebby · Apr 13, 2013

Jessica Lares said:
Ahh, right! I would try Export > Paths to Illustrator and then use that file.

Should I be importing the .ai file it made into AE? Or do I go into illustrator and save it as another file type?

When I try to import the .ai file it is just blank (even though I used the live paint bucket tool to fill the paths in with black).

Jessica Lares · Apr 13, 2013

Stephiebby said:
Should I be importing the .ai file it made into AE? Or do I go into illustrator and save it as another file type?

When I try to import the .ai file it is just blank (even though I used the live paint bucket tool to fill the paths in with black).

You want to go into Illustrator, copy the path, and then paste it into After Effects.

Stephiebby · Apr 13, 2013

Jessica Lares said:
You want to go into Illustrator, copy the path, and then paste it into After Effects.

It still doesn't have the option to extrude. Is there something that I'm missing?

Heres what it looks like now:

Jessica Lares · Apr 13, 2013

It looks like you still have your background.

Stephiebby · Apr 13, 2013

Jessica Lares said:
It looks like you still have your background.

I think that is the background of the AE comp, Is there a way to make that transparent?

Jessica Lares · Apr 13, 2013

Stephiebby said:
I think that is the background of the AE comp, Is there a way to make that transparent?

It's next to where it says Active Camera on your screenshot. On the left there's a checkered button.

Although I'm not sure where to go from here.

Considering I just tried to make a basic shape to see if the options would work that way.

Creating beveled and extruded text and shape layers

In the Ray-traced renderer, 3D text and shape layers can have an extrusion or bevel. For a beveled and extruded text or shape layer, do the following:

Create a Ray-traced 3D composition
Create a new text or shape layer
Enable the 3D for the layer
Adjust controls for bevel and extrusion
To control their appearance, use these properties in the layer's Geometry Options section in the Timeline panel:

Bevel Style: The form of the bevel. Options are None (default), Angular, Concave, and Convex.
Bevel Depth: The size in pixels (horizontally and vertically) of the bevel.
Hole Bevel Depth: The size of bevel for inner parts of a text character, such as the hole in an "O". It's expressed as a percentage of the Bevel Depth.
Extrusion Depth: The pixel thickness of the extrusion. The side (extruded) surface is perpendicular to the front surface.
These new 3D objects are based on the geometry of swept surfaces, which is a radical departure from the pixel-based text and shapes in the Classic 3D renderer. As such, masking, effects, and track mattes don't make sense when applied to geometry. The geometrical properties of text and shapes are preserved, so character styles like kerning, font size, and subscript are supported.

The following issues are known:

Fill or stroke gradients are not supported on 3D shape layers.
Even-odd winding in shapes does not currently work properly. You might need to use a Merge Paths operator instead.
Shapes with self-intersecting paths might not be filled correctly. Also, objects with compound paths containing multiple nested holes might not render correctly.

So I'll let someone else chime in.

12dylan34 · Apr 14, 2013

The only thing that After Effects can extrude is text layers and shape layers, meaning that you need to be able to convert your graphic into a shape layer. For this, it must be a vector graphic format, preferably .ai. You CAN'T extrude an Ai file without first converting it to a shape layer.

NOTE: A "shape layer" is something very specific in After Effects, and not just a solid with a mask on it.

Import your .ai file into AE, drag it into a comp, then, with the layer selected, go to Layer > Create Shapes from Vector Layer. It will think for a minute, then create a shape layer version of your graphic. You will then be able to extrude the shape layer.

If it doesn't work, then your .ai file doesn't actually contain a vector graphic. From your screenshot, it looks like you might have chosen auto-trace instead of the correct option that I listed above.

If you can't do it, collect your project (file > collect files), zip up the folder that it creates, and upload it to your next post and I'll take a look.

I've attached a screenshot if that's useful to you.

I'm 99% sure that your issue is in what you're trying to extrude. If I were you, I would just quickly remake that logo in Illustrator (which is really the correct tool to use for logos), then save that and import it into AE.

12dylan34 · Apr 18, 2013

Jhoni said:
In all the discussions i will only say that for making designs you not need have a good tool , you must have creative mind which provide you the idea of making logo design. Once you got the idea than you can simply done it in Photoshop or any other designing tool.

If it just needs to be a still, I agree. After Effects isn't going to give a lot of options as to customizing the look of the 3D all too much. Photoshop for a still, or a dedicated 3D program for motion, I would say.

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Need help creating a 3d logo in AE CS6

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