After Effects 3d Textures

It's easy to create a video texture inside of 3D text within Adobe After Effects CC. To start, create a composition from a video file. In this example, I've got this pool of water that I want to use as a texture. Drag the video file from the project window area directly into an empty composition. Right click on it, and choose environment layer. Now to give you an idea of what's happening in the background. After Effects wraps the video frame around the environment. Depending where you're camera is located and its settings, you will be looking at an area of the sphere. The best way to think of this, is to imagine a video camera inside the middle of a sphere. What the camera sees is the environment. Next, click on the type tool within the toolbar area. Click in the composition window and type some text. Then navigate back to the toolbar menu and click on the rotation tool. Now right click on the text within the composition window, and choose 3D layer from the contextual menu. Navigate to the timeline area, and twirl down the disclosure triangle for the text layer. Then twirl down the triangle for the geometry options. Adjust the extrusion Depth to a value of around 40. This will add some 3D depth to your text . Now, as an optional step at this point, the 3D text won't look very good until you add a light. To do that, navigate to the Layer menu and choose new light. Then press the okay button. Okay so now, to make it look like the water it inside the text object, we need to have our text layer reflect back the environment. To do this, twirl down the disclosure triangle for the material options. Adjust the reflection intensity to 100%. So, now the text is reflecting back the environment inside the characters. Go ahead and close up the disclosure triangle for the text layer. Now, if you choose, you can hide the environment from the background, by twirling down the disclosure triangle for the environment layer. Then twirl down the triangle for options. At the bottom, look for the parameter that says 'appears in reflections'. Change the value from 'on' to 'only'. This will remove the environment from the background, but it will still allow it to be reflected back inside the text characters. As an added effect you can now rotate and/or animate your text in 3D space. An easy way to do that is to turn on the enable auto-keyframe feature from the timeline panel menu. Adjust the text by using the rotation tool and holding down the left mouse button to make adjustments. Now move the time indicator forward a couple seconds within the timeline window. Then re-adjust the text to its final resting position. Okay, that it's back up and play through the timeline. For other great tips like this, or to enroll in an Adobe Effects course, visit GeniusDV.com