To clarify, I renamed this layer in my example “3D scene. In the layers panel, you should see a base layer containing a photo, then two text layers above it. I dont have time to create a screenshot for you right now but once you understand the interface what you want to do is pretty straight forward. This layer will be used for the 3D Element plugin. Navigate to After Effects Animating Strokes Files and open Stroke Animation.aep 3. I strongly suggest that you start by typing 'animate shape layer' in the Search Help field in the top right corner of After Effects and do some studying. If you are able to get your hands on Element 3D, set up your file properly, by creating a background solid color (or any background you choose), and another solid color layer. You can find more about them and their products at Step 1 – Getting Started This will then import each layer so you can 'create shape from vector layer' for each illustrator layer. Make sure to change import as to Composition - Retain Layer Sizes. Not only do they make 3D plugins, but they have collections of effects and visuals for use in your After Effects projects, as well as tutorials. When you're ready to import into After Effects, go to file -> import -> file. by default its in the center of your layer (not your shape which is a. so this makes it harder to see where your gradient is. The drawback is that in order to do this in After Effects, you need to use Element 3D.Įlement 3D is a plugin for After Effects that allows you to import and use 3D OBJ files in After Effects. there is a gotcha with gradient for shapes and that is you wont be able to modify the color mapping using the visual bar unless your selection tool is active and the gradient is highlighted in the timeline.

The advantage to this is that you can move a camera around and get dynamic angles without using multiple files. I was recently working on a project that required an outline of an object to be animated in Adobe After Effects, but instead of using an image, I decided to use an existing 3D object (an OBJ file) to create a dynamic outline. For this blog post I thought I’d try my hand at a simple tutorial.

Add stroke to layer after effects