Creating a ground plane, a camera, and the initial text – Working with the 3D Camera Tracker

You have a 3D scene, but it needs a 3D camera. You’ll add a camera when you create the first text element.

Note

You can also add a camera by clicking the Create Camera button in the Effect Controls panel.

1. Press the Home key or move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the time ruler.
2. In the Composition panel, hover the cursor over the water next to the large rocks until you see a flat target similar to the one in the image following step 3 on the next page. (If you don’t see the track points and target, click the 3D Camera Tracker effect in the Effect Controls panel to make it active.) Your track points and targets may look different from ours.

Tip

You can Shift-select track points to determine which ones are used to create a plane and target.

When you hover the cursor between three or more neighboring track points that can define a plane, a semitransparent triangle appears between the points. Additionally, a red target shows the orientation of the plane in 3D space.

3. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (macOS) the plane, and choose Set Ground Plane And Origin.

The ground plane and origin provide a reference point, setting a point where the coordinates are (0, 0, 0). Though nothing appears to change in the Composition panel using the Active Camera View, the ground plane and origin make it easier to change the camera’s rotation and position.

4. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (macOS) the same plane, and choose Create Text And Camera.

After Effects displays a large text item lying flat in the Composition panel. It also adds two layers to the Timeline panel: Text and 3D Tracker Camera. The 3D switch is enabled for the Text layer, but the Shoreline.mov layer remains 2D. Because the text elements are the only ones that need to be positioned in 3D space, there is no reason to make the background footage layer a 3D layer.

5. Move the current-time indicator along the time ruler. The text remains in position, tracking with the camera. Return the current-time indicator to the beginning of the time ruler.
6. Double-click the Text layer in the Timeline panel to open the text attributes in the Properties panel.

7. Change the font to Impact Regular and the font size to 48 px. Select the check box next to Stroke, set the stroke width to .5 px, and the stroke type to Stroke Over Fill. Make sure the fill color is white and the stroke color is black (the default colors), and that Tracking is set to 0.

The text looks great, but you want it to stand on end. You’ll change its location in space, and then replace it with the advertisement text.

8. Select the Text layer in the Timeline panel to exit text-editing mode. Then, in the Properties panel, change the Orientation values so the text is upright. (We used 12, 30, 350 degrees, but yours will likely be different.)

Note

If you selected a different target for your ground plane, you will need to use different values. Instead of entering values, you could use the 3D Transformation Gizmo to adjust the individual axes in the Composition panel.

Any new 3D layer you create uses the ground plane and origin to orient the layer in the scene. When you change the Orientation values, the text changes its orientation in space.

9. Double-click the Text layer in the Timeline panel to make it active in the Composition panel.
   When the text is editable, it appears to have a light red mask surrounding it.
10. With the text selected in the Composition panel, type THE OTHER GUYS to replace it. Then select the THE OTHER GUYS layer to exit text-editing mode.
    So far, so good. But you want the text to be centered in the scene. You’ll reposition the text.
11. Using the Selection tool, drag the text up the screen, so that it is over the water. Or, if your ground plane matches ours, you can type –6270, –1740, 1188 for the Position property.

If the text stays in the same position, it won’t be visible as the camera moves away. You’ll animate it to remain visible a bit longer.

12. Click the stopwatch icon ( ) to create an initial keyframe for the Position property.
13. Go to 2:03. Change the Position property to –7115, 1800, –1150, or use the Selection and Rotation tools to position it as it appears in the image below.

14. Manually scroll through the timeline to preview the text. Then close any open properties, and choose File > Save to save your work so far.