I found some time to play around with the powerful 3D Orbit preset and a free icon pack. I created small groups of Icons that were linked to a Null Object and then after making 6 groups, I used the 3D orbit preset to control the smaller spinning groups with a larger spinning group. Similar to how the moon orbits the earth and our earth orbits the sun. ( and our sun of course orbits William Shatner.)

Now, I also used expressions to offset the the layers in each group so the icons did not overlap each other like in this tutorial. Then by animating the values of the orbit preset as well as the scale and rotation of the Null Objects, you can come up with some fun stuff. I also set the layers “Auto-Orient Towards Camera” so they would not turn into flat paper and collapse the universe.

Now if it still doesn’t look good… just add some lens flares and take the rest of the day off! That’s what I did, CYA

Watch Sample Video