After Effects help

wheatgrinder · Nov 9, 2011

Hey all,

I need an attractive 3d Ribbon effect. i have AE CS5.5 and trap code particular 2. I can make light streaks all day long, but nothing that looks like a ribbon. This morning I started playing with the GRID emitter following a light moving around in 3d space that seems to be getting me close.. any other ideas?

Dreadylocks · Nov 9, 2011

Have you browsed the red giant people's free presets? There might be something in there you can use and/or tweak.

PaulGriffith · Nov 9, 2011

Hmm, sample of what you're wanting to do?

Edit: Misread what you posted, and gave awful advice haha. Sorry!

jmoschner · Nov 9, 2011

You can do it with particular. You will probably need to make a custom sprite to use for the particle shape. Set velocity to 0, make the source a light, and then draw away. You will want to make sure you have a camera in the comp and set the light itself to off. you may also want to play around with the shading options and transfer options.

wheatgrinder · Nov 9, 2011

@jmoschner,

When I use a sprite they seem to always orient towards the camera ... is there a way to make them orient to the direction of travel or something?

PaulGriffith · Nov 9, 2011

Sprites auto orient towards camera, textured polygons stay put.

wheatgrinder · Nov 9, 2011

ohyeah, the polys! Thats the ticket I bet. I looked high and low for a "ribbon" tutorial that didn't require additional plugins or a 3d prog..

wheatgrinder · Nov 9, 2011

a thin textured poly following a light moving in 3d.

a bit of expression as the position of the light is x,y,z values, and the position of the particles is x,y value with a separate z value..

I love this video game!

Will Vincent · Nov 9, 2011

What if you precomposed a sprite, then orbit around that 2d precomp in 3d space?

jmoschner · Nov 10, 2011

wheatgrinder said:
@jmoschner,

When I use a sprite they seem to always orient towards the camera ... is there a way to make them orient to the direction of travel or something?

Not really.

Do what they said go with the textured polygons

Anim8 · Nov 11, 2011

Ive got a few things I created in 3D for a past project I can give you if you want them.