![]() You can go into the Object menu on the left panel and check all of the various objects that make up the airplane’s visual models. When you open this file in Plane Maker, you will be presented with an external view of the airplane. acf is a text file, it is meant to be opened only with Xplane’s Plane Maker. In other words, you can make the airplane look like an elephant, and still make it fly like a glider.Įven though. The 3D objects are for visual effects only, and have no impact on the flying characteristics. One important thing to realize is that the flight model and the visual model are completely decoupled from each other. This file contains all of the aerodynamic definitions as well as the names of the 3D objects that make up the visuals. The root file of each airplane has the extension. They can be opened with an editor like notepad or vim. Looking for more on After Effects? Check out these articles.The nice thing about Xplane is that all of the aircraft-related files are in plain text form. Then you can customize things like adding a bit of a glow effect and using various curves and color correction options to get the look that you want. In his example, Campbell throws some nice blurred shape layers in front of and behind the text to create a nice vignetted stage. Once you get the lighting how you like it in the main 3D comp, you can create a nice background for it and customize colors and effects. You can also customize the light by rotating the environment layer. exr file and drop it into your composition, and right-click the layer it creates and select “Environment Layer.” This will now influence the lighting of your 3D object. ![]() Campbell graciously includes an HDRI map in the project file download so you can follow along. That’s because now you need to customize the lighting and the environment of your object and give it good reflections.Īnother cool tip that I was not previously aware of is that you can now use HDRI maps in After Effects. Using the Geometry Options parameters, you can now extrude your text, add bevels (there are a few different types, but Campbell uses concave), and customize the actual 3D look of your element.Įven though you now have a 3D object, it might not look like much. ![]() Clicking the dropdown for the layer now reveals the “Geometry Options” section. This will now give you some new geometry options on your shape layer (after you’ve toggled the switch to make the layer a 3D object). Once you have your logo file or text layer converted to a single shape layer, you can start building your 3D scene.įirst, you need to open your composition settings and change the renderer from classic 3D to CINEMA 4D. eps file) and select “Create Shapes from Vector Layer.” Cool tip. Just right-click your vector layer (.ai or. This is extremely useful for a lot of things. This is definitely quite a game changer for those of us who don’t always want to open up an entirely different piece of software to create some convincing 3D environments.Īnother tip I got from this video was that you can take a vector object and convert it to shape layers with a single click. What’s even better is that you can now get really great simulated studio lighting using HDRI maps as your environment within After Effects as well. The days of duplicating layers and shifting each one a little bit further back in z-space to fake a 3D look are over! Now, with a 3D object and the Cinema 4D render engine turned on, all it takes is a little extrusion and some lighting, and you’re good to go. ![]() This is a huge addition that I’m sure will bring quite a bit more functionality to After Effects over the years. I have to admit, until the more recent greyscalegorilla tutorials about this very subject, I didn’t even know that there was now a Cinema 4D render engine built natively into After Effects.
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