After Effects: Rotations and Null
After Effects - Working in 3D
Working with 3D compositions, anchor point, and rotations on one axis, null
Photos in Space in After Effects
1. Open a composition of about 30 seconds in Full HD.
2. Create a folder called Photos.
3. Import a few photos and an empty frame.
4. Drop the frame into the composition. Adjust its scale. Layer/Pre-compose. Name the pre-composition Photo 1.
5. Inside the Photo 1 pre-composition, drop a photo and adjust its scale.
6. From the Project tab, duplicate the Photo 1 pre-composition with CTRL+D. This creates Photo 2. Repeat this process as many times as you want to display photos (Photo 3, 4, 5, 6, infinity). Place all the pre-compositions inside the Photos folder you created earlier.
7. Drop all the compositions from the Photos folder into the main composition.
8. Convert each composition into a 3D layer. 9. Move the anchor point of the first photo using the Pan Back Tool. Position the axes to one side. Press the R key (rotate). Add two frames that produce a rotation on the Y-axis. You can move the start of the layer so that the edge of the photo isn't visible at the beginning.
10. Bring down another photo, Photo 2. Convert it to 3D. Place it below Photo 1. Move its start to after Photo 1 appears. You can hide Photo 2 for easier work. Press the R key and add two frames that produce a 180° rotation on the Y-axis in one second.
11. Add a null object. Convert it to 3D. Parent the two photos to the null object. We open the position with P. We move (without adding frames) only on the X-axis to make room to bring down another photo, Photo 3.
12. We bring down Photo 3. We convert it to 3D. We place it below Photo 2. We remove the eye icon from Photo 2. We move the rotation axis with the Pan Back Tool. Press R and add a couple of frames that produce a 180° rotation. Once produced, link it to the null.
13. Select the null. Press P for position, and move it on the X-axis to make room.
14. Repeat steps 12 and 13 with each photo we add.
15. Open the position of the null and add frames that display the photos as they appear.