After Effects Apprentice- 17 Video Walls in Cinema 4D Lite

On September 15, 2018

Release date:2016, February 17

Duration:01 h 57 m

Author:Chris Meyer, Trish Meyer

Skill level:Intermediate

Language:English

Exercise files:Yes

Want to play video against “walls” or other objects in your After Effects animations? You need to learn how to map video to 3D space. Although After Effects supports 3D, its native implementation is rather limited. Fortunately, After Effects CC comes bundled with the 3D application CINEMA 4D Lite and a pipeline to integrate its output directly into the After Effects timeline. In this first of three project-oriented courses for C4D beginners, After Effects expert Chris Meyer shows you how to map video into the face of a 3D object, and then composite animated 3D text over it in After Effects.

These courses are designed for users who are familiar with 3D space in After Effects, but who have never used CINEMA 4D. This course includes an overview of the C4D Lite user interface, as well as setup information you need to know whenever you use live C4D layers in After Effects. A bonus chapter shows how to set up a C4D Lite and After Effects scene to maximize production efficiency—and minimize render times.

Look for the upcoming courses After Effects Apprentice 18 and 19 for more C4D Lite projects.

Topics include:
Setting up your After Effects and C4D Lite projects
Creating a rectangular spline for the video wall
Using texture and lighting presets
Creating a simple 3D camera move
Creating 3D text in After Effects
Converting a parametric object to polygons
Compositing video walls

Table of Contents

Introduction
Welcome 2m 2s
Using the exercise files 1m 20s
Registering and updating C4D Lite 1m 48s
C4D Lite user interface overview 8m 8s
1. Project Setup
After Effects project and composition settings 3m 50s
C4D Lite project and render settings 4m 54s
2. Creating the Video Wall
Creating a rectangular spline 3m 14s
Extruding and beveling the spline 6m 3s
Checking your work 2 m 43s
3. Lighting and Materials
Loading a lighting preset 6m 32s
Applying a material preset 4m 17s
Creating a custom material 3m 50s
Mapping a material to a surface 5m 40s
4. Crafting a Camera Move
Creating a camera 4m 37s
Animating a camera move 5m 19s
Refining the camera move 6m 19s
5. Refining the Scene
Taming specular highlights 3m 23s
Reducing luminance clipping 2m 49s
Increasing the shadow density 4m 18s
6. Compositing with Text in After Effects
Render quality 5m 25s
Extracting the camera move 3m 7s
Creating 3D text in After Effects 3m 55s
Applying a text animation preset 4m 36s
Bonus: Production Considerations
Production challenges 3m 19s
Converting a parametric object to polygons 2m 23s
Creating a placeholder 2m 54s
Assigning an object buffer 4m 54s
Compositing tricks 6m 9s