3D Extrusion in After Effects by Maltaannon
September 30th, 2007

Of all the ways to create 3D text in After Effects this has to be one of the bests. Using some very ingenious scripting, Maltaannon figured a way to make the Shapes in After Effects CS3 extrude into 3D space.

It even comes with a handy preset to make things even easier. Maltaannon was working on this ingenious project for several weeks before I released my 3D Text Tutorials so it was really well thought out and comprehensive. Keep an eye on this guy he is a crafty one.

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Andrew Kramer
POSTED:
18 years ago
51 Comments
NMOEROÓ
12 years ago
hey andrew (english is not my mother lenguage so please excusme if something wrong)i guess is been a long time since this tutorial but here from the center of the heart of africa we really apreciate a lot what you are doing, is inspiring and high quality. reading some groos response i really felt upset for the people hwo gets free and )more something so good and estusiastic and pro)and not only dont know how to say a simpkle thanks, but even dare to talk bad about the present they took, sorry for that people.
i love motion grafics and triying your tutorials i´ve learned a lot. your dedication is priceless. i can only imagine how big has to be the passion you put into all this, thank you and all your friends for keeping with the amaizing hard job you do loock like soo easy.
all my life i´ve been dreamen about how to do stuff like science fiction and action movies special efects and thanks to you i am now seing my dream coming true bigger and bigger every day.
if you want to make a movie in the middle of the african jungle you have a place and a friend here. regards to Sam Loya (i see you in the oscars ...soon...)
Theo
14 years ago
I can't wait to try this. Thanks very much!
14 years ago
Does it works on cs5 ?
Maltaanon's a great guy.
Dobby
18 years ago
I've searched for how to creat a normal 3d text in After Effects for a very very long time. Thanks you to show me that!
You are very cool!!
Nick
18 years ago
Thanks again Andrew. Reading these comments it's plain to see there are lots of 8 year old Korean kids with pirated copes of AE following along. But please be rest assured, there are plenty of professional folks who appreciate what you're doing too. I've done a lot of tutorials and I've never come accross any that are as intelligent, elloguent, and just plain fun. I'm trying not to be a kiss ass here, but I want you to know, regardless of the idiots you always get on blogs, that your work is appreciated. Keep it up.
Sandy
18 years ago
hey I always kept an eye on Maltaannon.........hahahah

both of you are just SUPERB..........sorry for the CAPS.......

U all rock man.........thnx

Best Regards
Sandy
18 years ago
hmm, site is down, lets help the guy out
putemonsteret
18 years ago
It's an awesome preset. it's not fully 3D as you can't orbit all the way around the layer but it is still good
Jack McKinney
18 years ago
That's really great stuff. Thanks so much for putting in the effort, Maltaanon and to Andrew for posting it. For certain situations, this is a great effect (no matter what anyone says). It's nice to see this place becoming a hub for people sharing tutorials and solutions above and beyond the absolutely amazing stuff that Andrew gives us for free. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you for the time and effort. I learn something every time I come to the site. Keep up the amazing work.
Plantypirate
18 years ago
Hopefully this'll answer all of the 3D in After Effects questions:

http://www.zaxwerks.com/invigorator_pro/index.shtml

Yes, to go fully 3D you DO need plugins.
18 years ago
Im sure it's impossible because After Effects is only able to postition 2d layers in 3d space in opposite to 3d applications AE can't even handle polygons.

It may be possible with a very powerful plugin but the possibilitys would be limited...
Logan
18 years ago
Hey im curious is it possible to put 3dsmax objects into after effects and navigate around those objects in after effects?
Trevor
18 years ago
Nice, Andrew. Too many people take for granted what you provide. I, for one, am a huge fan of stepping out of the box, and that's what you force us all to do when you dive into other programs. If someone thinks they're just going to "make it" with just one program and refusing to learn others, then you're highly mistaken. Thank you very much for all your tutorials, Andrew.
Plantypirate
18 years ago
Fear not, VFX amigos!! This tutorial can be viewed over at http://library.creativecow.net/articles/drozda_jerzy/CEShapeExtruder.php. If we all watch it there we can save the poor guy's bandwidth too!!

Ciao.
18 years ago
yeah i agree with clight, is there anyway you could put the 3d extruder up on your site? i can't remember all the steps.
18 years ago
I'm bummed about Multaannon's site being down. The 3-D Extrusion is great, but he also has other cool tips. Volumetric Lights is totally cool.

Andrew, maybe you might offer to add his tutorials and presets to your list of products?

Could be an opportunity there.

c
18 years ago
Looks like Maltaannon.com is closed due to lack of funds...
18 years ago
Thanks Andrew for sharing this with us.
bwoogie
18 years ago
this effect looks good at an angle. but is it possible to make it still looks 3d when the camera goes on the side of the text? or am i missing something?
18 years ago
Your okay Helge, the post was for other individuals...
Helge Kallevik
18 years ago
Now i feel like crap for asking about tuts Sorry andrew!
18 years ago
To a very few individuals, you know who you are:

I don't know when some people started thinking it is okay to be rude on this website but it needs to stop right now. Please don't forget that we are all contributing freely to the creative community and website hosting is not free.

If anyone intends on being a jerk I will IP-BAN you from viewing the free tutorials on this site. Using a fake name will not help. Just be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed so you know when a new tutorial is out that you cannot watch.

Lets all lose the "Gimme, Gimme" attitude and start being thankful for what IS being contributed!

Lets bring back the fun times.
18 years ago
Ah, guys I was being sarcastic...

I do apologize to Andrew and the rest of you kinda ranting on about the comment made by Vladik... just bugs me that someone takes the time and effort to put up great tutorials and for FREE and they get hacked on them for it. As for talking crap about Maltannons tutorials? As a matter of fact I checked out the turtorials and they are great. Plus if you bothered to read closely before putting foot in mouth you will notice that i never once mentioned Maltannons tutorials.

So again I apologize to you all (except Vladik and Lifetype who needs glasses) for ranting. Won't happen again.
18 years ago
That's funny, I did write some tutorial a few months ago about a specific technic ... It's in french and about shatter, but that's some tutorial too ... I don't want to do any commercial, but if that's useful for anybody, I'd like to give help ... even if the level is not the same than yours actually ^^

http://shaalmarundi.free.fr/phpBB2/voir_tutoriaux.php?id=15
Helge Kallevik
18 years ago
Duuude, when is the house tut coming? Anticipatioooon!!
ScottB
18 years ago
First time poster. Love the website Andrew and thanks so much for the time and effort you give to teach us poor struggling AE artists.
18 years ago
Thank You Maltannon, this helps a lot, it takes ages to render, but then you have something nice.


@ngabor: Well, thats one way too. And it's a little bit faster.
Cabbe
18 years ago
as someone else said this preset is pretty much useless if you plan to move the camera around objects or close to objects

but if it's just some minor zoom or movement far from the cam then it's aight
BANDAR
18 years ago
Great job Maltannon ,,, you realy solve the pozzil ...

And thank you Andrew for sharing this great tutorial ... and we still wating for your up next tutorial ... my special thanx to you ...

by the way ... it will be nice to tell us what is your planned tutorials for the future ... you know ... Thriller ... :p
Matt
18 years ago
ngabor
18 years ago
Hi Andrew,

I saw this on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yimdi6QOSAc&mode=related&search=

Check this out! It's a smart trick.

regards

p.s.: please don't get hurt! I'll hunt that guy down who hurts your feelings
18 years ago
Just wanted to say thanks for all the great tutorials and products Andrew. Your site has really given me the creative 'jump start' to learn Adobe CS 3 Production Suite and some 3D graphics programs. As a Noobie I say thank you.

PS: What happen to the 3D Max and Cinema 4D tutorials?
18 years ago
Awesome! I knew something like this was possible, and I have been waiting for a long time for someone to develop the idea. I love the kind of 2.5D concepts this uses. It reminds me of Trapcodes particular which calculates the 3d positioning of particles internally inside a 2d comp. Thanks to Maltaannon and Andrew for this awesome tweak!

P.S. Andrew. I was thinking about how much more natural motion graphics look with a camera that is not unnaturally smooth. I took some handheld footage and generated a camera solve from it. Instead of using the solve in the typical fashion for integrating cg into live action, I applied the real world camera to a completely cg composite in aftereffects. It took some coorsion, but the results are awesome! The video looks much more realistic even though it is a simple composite, and if I had to animate the shaky camera with a digital rig then it would be next to impossible to achieve the same results. I'll have the video posted on youtube in a day or 2. Let me know what you think!
18 years ago
I have been using blender for about 4 days and picked up the basics of the text function in that, so maybe you could give it a go. It's free!
Jesper Frydenlund
18 years ago
Hate to be the party pooper - but this effects is pretty useless. At least to me.
It is so fake looking. Try applying it to an object and move your camera around to the side of the object, still looking at it.....
Great effort, tho.
18 years ago
Maltaannon, lots of info in your tutorials, thanks! Andrew, thanks for posting that. I too am waiting to see more with 3D, but with integration in AE. Is there a way to import 3D objects from other programs and view them in true 3D space in AE?
Salmon_Sandwich
18 years ago
No Andrew don't rub citric acid in your eyes!... I heard battery acid is so much more effective, and it's an average household item! It's a win win situation!... Unless you have regrets about burning your eyes out, in that case you cannot sue me.

Anyway that ShapeExtruder will come in handy, alot.
It's ok, you will still be Number 1 in our hearts.
18 years ago
Just saw this new promo on Discovery "LastOneStanding." I have seen the effect done in affter effects, but not with 3D. The effect is that a sentence like, "Fight like a Champion."
the sentence is split "fight like a," and "Champion." The two collide together and the "C" in champion shatters. How would you do this with 3D?
Superbad
18 years ago
Wow this is really awesome! I am having problems using it though.. I put it on my text and it says "missing:" before the plugin name, but I have it installed and I'm using CS3.. Any idea why?
Kyle Troxell
18 years ago
He's Andrew Kramer, very smart and witty, he can do what he wants?

Do you have an army of people who go to your website everyhour on the hour?
or
Did you have 500 some odd people from across the world say congratulations when your child was born o_O

But Andrew, are we gonna get into (not right away but after awhile) building a 3d object, like a plane or robot, and tracking the cameras and putting that robot into footage? Or something like digitally destruction like in War Of The Worlds when they blow up the bridge?
18 years ago
Yeah Just Like an Ordinairy Emo
but hell yeah Maltannon is bether he has just only AE and you whit 3D programms and stuf whaha You just like an Noob

No just kidding..Just make more AE tutorials
18 years ago
wow, I just thought I would share some cool stuff... Then you have to go and hurt my feelings like that... I'm going to rub citric acid in my eyes now
Barry Barrera
18 years ago
everything is cool but please lessen the too much talking...haha...thanx man
18 years ago
It's so ow so great man This time Screw andrew...
Love Maltaanon
mauricio
18 years ago
Hi Andrew!!
I from Uruguay (South America)
Congratulations for your Webiste and yours sapience.
I very happy for learn AE in this site.
I really appreciate your job, you are my idol in this area.
Thanks for all. My english is bad, but need say thanks you!!!
18 years ago
this is wot i like see thanks andrew
bwoogie
18 years ago
All kinds of great extras today
Scott bishop
18 years ago
Nicely done Maltaannon
18 years ago
Hey! Thanks Andrew! I really appreciate it and I love your work also! And thanks for allowing me to use your Real Clouds in the tutorial also!
Gary
18 years ago
yehhh!!! sweet